Dog Bells and Bears

Many of you have commented in the past about the bells on our dogs' collars. We first started having our dogs wear bells after Puppy K met a bear. And, she chased the bear out of the forest directly toward us. Fortunately, the bear veered away from us, and K didn't. So, the incident ended there. However, we decided that it would be kind to the wildlife to have our dogs wear bells that would warn all the animals, not just the bears, that we were moving in their direction.

The bear action around here gets pretty intense in the summer. It's just starting to heat up now. Here's a series of photos that made me smile.

First, a youngish bear sniffed a bear tree. This bear might be "Socks", the young bear who we followed 3 years ago after "seeing" her be driven off by her mother at the start of mating season (via trail camera). She literally walked in circles for days on end, passing my trails cameras repeatedly. Then, she disappeared for most of her first summer on her own. We saw her again last summer, and her dark legs ("socks") were fading. I suspect that this is the same bear, whose legs are getting more cinnamon every year (I would bet that Cinnamom is her mother!).

After sniffing the tree that other bears have marked in past years, she decided to do a dance, a tree-marking!!! I love seeing this. Look at how she pulled down a higher branch to rub on her head, so her scent would be on more of the tree!

After marking the tree, she sniffed the rock. You can see her face looks a little mottled - as if she's lost some fur from it. It's quite common for bears to get a mild case of mange while hibernating because their immune systems are not as active as usual. Apparently, their bodies win the battle with the mange soon after they become active in the spring.

Then, she departed.

Just 15 minutes later, another young bear arrived at the same tree. S/he stood up to sniff the scent left by Socks. This bear's coat looks gorgeous!

After sniffing, he put his nose to the ground and started following Socks, as you can see in the next photo.

About ten minutes later, he came running back at top speed. He's in a full gallop in this photo. I suspect that Socks wasn't happy to see him and drove him away.

As you'll see in the future, these two bears are small compared to the ones who will be marking these trees when mating season begins in earnest. Soon, the mature bears will be on this trail, trying to find each other for mating season.

I'm glad our dogs wear bells now. We've never had another encounter like Puppy K's bear chase since we started having our dogs wear bells! I think it's good for our dogs, preventing them from getting hurt. But, it's also good for the bears - because our dogs could cause harm to a cub (like causing him to fall while trying to climb a tree to escape them), especially in the early part of the summer.