Close Encounter with a Mother Black Bear and Her Cubs

Description

In this video, I explain how to get close to wild animals, why I hunt bear and show some encounters with bear.

Tags: bear,self reliance,black bear,wildlife encounter,bear attacks,my self reliance,shawn james,bear hunting,hunting

Video Transcription

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I'm trying to get across the message that black bears aren't dangerous I don't want people to think they don't need to respect them and and have a little bit of a common sense fear but just really want to stress the point that black bears especially here in southern Ontario

I think it's important that people just understand that bears black bears are generally not dangerous might be a little bit different when you're way up north they've never seen a human before and they don't know that they should fear you but bears have been cohabitating with humans for thousands of years and coevolving so you know the first nations are in competition with bears for thousands of years and bears have learned to avoid humans for that reason we've always we've had tools for that long we've had tools capable of killing them and protecting ourselves from them so they know they do respect humans so very very rare situation where bears actually can attack you you know there's the common fear or common myth that female black bears are very protective mothers when it comes to their cubs I have an experience that I've seen hundreds and hundreds of bears maybe a thousand bears over the last 25 years I've bowhunting them for 25 years now I guess it is just over 25 years I've had many many close encounters decided I was going to bear hunt one year from the ground I didn't typically bait but what I did is I put my head my bait set up above 15 yards from a tree stand decide I was gonna sit on the ground this particular year so it sat at the base of a huge pine tree built a nice little shelter around me out of the branches with a nice you know big opening for shooting I was shooting traditional Bowl so I needed a little bit of room to maneuver sat on a little chair or I guess it was probably just a stump at the time and made sure I could you know get up and shoot or or kneel and shoot if anyway I was sitting there and I heard a bear come up right behind me as they often do they always circle trying to get downwind of you and I could hear them come up to the tree right behind me maybe 3 4 feet away and then you know it caught out of the corner of my eye him was a bit of a dip behind me and be the tree caught him coming up the hill beside me and this is a dense pine forest and then an open rock outcrop in front of me where the bait was and he came up and he kind of circled around he was kept peering into the little little cave little hideaway I had under there by the tree and he finally came up was crouched down sitting with the bowl on my lap arrow always on on the arrest extending out in front of me and he literally came around and stuck his head in through the opening and the branches and and touched my arrow sniffed my arrow when he sniffed that arrow I'll caught my scent is you know the eyes got big and he jumped back and ran about five yards and they looked back at me again jiving shocked that he that he allowed me to get so close to him and didn't know what to think so he took off and didn't see him too didn't see him again for a couple of days but that's so close I've been to bears and the really the key is just to stay calm other situations I've had been on a bear bait been up in a tree stand typically don't go up that high maybe twelve feet and I've had Cubs go up trees right beside me and the mothers you know they'd look and watch the Cubs see what they're doing look over and they'll see me and they don't react and I've seen four big males especially in the spring chasing those Cubs trying to kill them if they kill them this house will come back in the heat and again the mothers just don't protect their cubs so they're not like Grizzlies girls Lee's different story completely you know all the stories are true do not get between a mother grizzly and her Cubs but black bears are different don't do it I don't suggest you do that I'm just saying if you get into that situation don't fear for your life and don't assume you're you're a goner because it's not true and you know in this situation you're gonna watch in this next video you're gonna see me get very close to two mother and two cubs earlier that week earlier this week I was walking down the edge of the cornfield I had seen him cross over the railway tracks actually away from the cornfield earlier then I was so it's deer hunting but my ball walking down the edge of the corn in the evening probably 45 minutes before and the legal shooting lights of 15 minutes before

sundown and as walk in the walking along the edge of the corn that's pretty tight there close to the edge of the air close to the forest I saw the bear one of the Bears take off in front of me I think it was the cub then they could hear the mother off in the cornfield and cub just kind of give it give a wolf and then ran up a huge pine tree I don't think I caught it on video let's see if I'll check that video footage again but cub ran up and then as I got closer I could hear it come back down again and pine forest so I can hear it run off but assume it ran and what probably went across the railway tracks but again I was between the mother and the cub so watch this next part clip of the video and see how close I got to to one of the Cubs yet second cub that came through first first was probably about twenty yards away

second cub came as close as 10 feet away and I kind of stood up a little bit off my stump there and kicked the ground just to alert it it was about to literally walk right into me it was coming between two trees and if it did I had logs on either side of me I had to actually come right through me in order to get into the field behind me so if it had had done that I was afraid that if it got that close it's big cub they're eating really well so it's probably a fifty or sixty pound cub and it turned and ran but if Ed had come right to my feet and then sniffed me or saw me move it could have run up one of the big trees right beside me if it had done that the mother was going to follow the cub anyway and if I've seen the cub react like that it might have come over a little bit more aggressively and quicker and you get that close to an animal and you you know scare it that way there's a defensive reaction even even we will have a defensive reaction it might be the last show even though they don't want to do any damage no intent to harm if they lash out at that close range you know it could have bitten me could have run over me could have swatted me whatever there was the potential for that to happen so that's what I'm saying don't assume that black bears are harmless because they're not they have the tools they have the teeth and the claws to do some damage in fact you see sort of my amulet but that was the first barrier that I when I was in my I think I was probably 21 when I shot that bear so that's a claw from it that's a fairly small bear but you can see that's a big claw that's the front claw have probably middle claw and it can definitely rip rip open flesh easily with that so even just a simple SWAT would have ripped me open so do have to respect him just don't be totally living in fear of bears they're not going to come into your campsite at night and attack you in your tent or around the campfire or on your way to the washroom so chest it again have some respect for them but don't live in fear and just said you know you see them just admire I'm gonna appreciate that you're that close to an animal I hunt them hunted them I hunted them more in the past when I when it was one of my main sources of meat antara has a high population of bears it's a viable sustainable food source so and I don't think bear hunters are just about trophy hunting and and machoism bear hunting is a legitimate way of obtaining food for your family and in fact it was the first food that my first solid food that my daughter's ate when they moved on from from baby food from soft foods so and it's excellent meat and so I recommend you know do a little bit of research into the bear population in different areas what the hunting regulations are and we're uh you know we're good areas article photo photograph bears if that's what your thing is and it is for me most of the time I just love being around nature I love being around animals once in a while I harvest one for food other than that or respect I'd love to see them and and I want to encourage populations I want to help populations be as high as possible so that I can see them more often and most hunters do most haunts most hunters are actually dedicated conservationists and I am as well so enjoy the video and if you have any questions just let me know send me an email or text or comment below and I'll get back to you as soon as possible and you know hopefully you like this video hopefully you gain a little bit more understanding of black bears and and some appreciation for them one tip people ask me what I have for defense I'm going to show this thing you know and I'm going to post another video on this specifically how do I get so close to animals and I've got other stories of how close have been to moose and deer and some other animals that that people are always shocked at a couple of things one is I boys call almost every animal so if deer which I just spooked a deer right here as I was driving up I just grunt and calm them down but number one too low I use for getting close to animals is this doesn't look like much and it's not it's practically free I'll post another video on it but I get close to animals because I use this religiously and there's an example of what it does so I'm sure you can guess what it is if you can't stay tuned for the video and I'll tell you exactly why uses how I use this and and how to put something together like this for yourself thank you for watching and please subscribe a hope here and join the channel I hope you'll subscribe to the channel and get notified first when the next videos are out you

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