First Bear Capture! Thursday, 28 June
Josh had a captured bear in one of the traps he checked in Horse Canyon. When everyone completed trap checking, we went to the capture site together to work it. Here Megan and Ian are getting their first look at a trapped wild black bear. It wasn't very happy about the situation and snarled and chomped its jaws at us.
After looking at the bear and estimating its size, we got the tranquilizing medication prepared in the jabstick. Here Grandpa Hal is explaining the process to Ian and Erin.
Josh had the honor of jabbing the bear. There is a hole in the screen large enough for the jabstick to fit through. It is an intramuscular drug, so you want to aim for the rear end or thigh area.
Once the bear had been jabbed, we recorded the time on the data sheet and then relaxed for 15-20 minutes to give the tranquilizers time to do their job.
We yelled and poked the bear to make sure it was asleep before removing the door. This bear didn't move at all when Josh yelled at it, but when he pulled up the door, it raised its groggy head, looked right at us, then flopped down again. We quickly replaced the door, gave the bear some more drugs, and waited a bit longer for it to go to sleep.
After pulling the bear from the trap, we realized that we had underestimated its weight by about 50 lbs. He was still twitching his lips and flinched when we punched in the ear tags.
Since he was male, we did not put a radio collar on (only females are collared in order to follow reproduction). He got ear tags and we took a few measurements, then left him to wake up. He was very stinky and messy. Oh, we also cover the eyes to keep the dust and dirt out of them. They tend to remain open with the drugs. Each bear has a capture number, but we also name them just for fun. Hal decided to name this bear "Brother Young" after our family.
Check back in a month or so to see if we ever got the video clip of the process posted!
We yelled and poked the bear to make sure it was asleep before removing the door. This bear didn't move at all when Josh yelled at it, but when he pulled up the door, it raised its groggy head, looked right at us, then flopped down again. We quickly replaced the door, gave the bear some more drugs, and waited a bit longer for it to go to sleep.
After pulling the bear from the trap, we realized that we had underestimated its weight by about 50 lbs. He was still twitching his lips and flinched when we punched in the ear tags.
Since he was male, we did not put a radio collar on (only females are collared in order to follow reproduction). He got ear tags and we took a few measurements, then left him to wake up. He was very stinky and messy. Oh, we also cover the eyes to keep the dust and dirt out of them. They tend to remain open with the drugs. Each bear has a capture number, but we also name them just for fun. Hal decided to name this bear "Brother Young" after our family.
Check back in a month or so to see if we ever got the video clip of the process posted!
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