Hunting Hunters

Bear hunts are a popular sport in Alaska. It’s one of the many types of big game hunting that’s popular in this very northern state. People who don’t live in the area and aren’t familiar with bears may wonder why anyone would want to hunt a bear. But it’s actually a sanctioned activity to help keep the population down. There are several states in the United States where hunting certain types of animals is not only legal but encouraged to help thin the population on a regular basis.

Aside from the official reason for bear hunts, people enjoy doing it because of the excitement. Unlike hunting an animal like a deer that’s very meek and non-threatening, hunting bears has a certain amount of risk inherent in it. If you encounter a deer in the wild it will run from you. Many people don’t realize that bears will often go in the opposite direction too, but at times when they feel threatened by you they will attack.

That slight risk of being charged by the anima you’re hunting is enough to keep many people going on bear hunts. The potential excitement if something like that should happen and knowing that you’re hunting an animal that’s a predator itself gives many people a bit of a rush. Even someone simply baiting bears could be in the wrong place at the wrong time and encounter a hungry bear, putting himself at risk. It’s largely unlikely that you’ll face a bear in this particular way but it’s something that you can’t completely brush aside if you plan to bear hunt. Having one see you and come at you will be a frightening and exciting thing.

It’s also one of the reasons that someone inexperienced with bear hunts should never go alone and never go with anyone who’s not much more experience than they are. The inherent dangers might seem slight to someone hunting because they have a weapon, after all. Having a gun that can bring down a bear certainly can protect you. But there are other factors at play when you’re faced with an animal that large behaving in an aggressive manner. Will you have time to raise the weapon? Is the weapon loaded and ready to fire? And when faced with a charging bear, will you have your wits about you enough to raise the weapon and fire properly, hitting the animal in a way to stop it?

People do get injured on bear hunts. It’s not a terribly common thing but it does happen from time to time. To avoid that being you, try a guided hunt or find a very experienced bear hunter to teach you the basics and take you your first few times.

Also, be sure of the laws in your local area and how they regard bear-baiting. It’s illegal in some states where there is bear hunting and in others there are regulations about what kind of food you can use and how you can put it out.

Photo Credits: aflcio

Originally posted 2010-04-02 03:59:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Alaskan bison hunting is just one of the big game hunting sports in the state. Bison are huge animals that stand about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh over a ton each. Bison are easily recognizable because of their larger and heavier front quarters and their smaller hindquarters. Most people are only familiar with seeing a dark brown bison. The dark brown coat is their winter coat. It lightens up toward spring. Bison also have huge curving horns that point upward.

Bison have an excellent sense of smell that allows them to survive the winter as long as they are healthy and they do get in a good area with food beneath the frozen snow. They are able to smell food even under inches of snow. Then they use their large head and upper body to shove the snow away from the food to get to it. Since they can smell so clearly through the snow, catching the scent of a hunter isn’t much of a challenge.

When you’re bison hunting you need to be sure that you’re not carrying a strong set. Wash in unscented soap, don’t wear cologne or aftershave or even heavily scented deodorant, and make sure your clothes don’t carry a scent from detergent or fabric softener. Try to avoid getting very sweaty in your clothes and stay away from things like campfires so you don’t absorb the smell of the smoke and cooking food. Bison are very difficult to stalk as you need to do a successful hunt so give yourself a better chance of success by eliminating your scent. Bison are also one of the more difficult animals to actually bring down. They are the hardest one in Alaska, at least. Their sheer size makes it difficult to kill one of these animals.

Hunting is allowed to control the population. Bison aren’t native to Alaska but were brought there instead in 1928 and quickly multiplied. Without hunting, experts believe that they would take over the areas where they live and start to do damage to the ecosystem. Bison hunting keeps that from happening.

Those who have problems with Alaskan bison hunting say that nature can take care of itself. But since bison are an introduced species and they have no natural predators to thin the herds, hunting bison is considered a necessity. Bison may look large and lumbering out on the plain but they’re actually very aggressive when they feel threatened. The only predators that have any hope of taking down the bison are wolves and bears and then they can only generally take down the young. Neither of these predatory animals will attack an adult bison because of the large horns and the size.

Some bison live in protected areas because the fear is that hunting will thin them too much as it has done in the United States. The settlers’ bison hunting actually thinned them down so much that their survival in the United States has been questioned. But Alaskan bison hunting is how the population is kept under control and something hunters are welcome to do in the frozen north.

Photo Credits: Alan Vernon.

Originally posted 2010-03-24 03:12:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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