‘Bears Love Peanut Butter’

October 27, 2007

MoA commentator Rick writes:

A few weeks ago, I mentioned here at MOA about our little dog Pearl getting in a fight with some unknown animal. I recently purchased an automatic motion sensor camera to place in the woods behind our house. The camera is water-resistant and will take still or moving pictures, night or day.

I often put some corn out for the deer to keep them away from all the hunters this time of year, but I wondered what else comes around.

(bigger)

The night pictures [below the fold] are not that clear, but if you look close, you can see some deer keeping their distance from a raccoon and also a red fox that comes by every night.

I have seen a big bear roaming around here, but haven’t got a picture yet. Maybe I will try some peanut butter next – bears love peanut butter!

(bigger)

Posted by b on October 27, 2007 at 18:06 UTC | Permalink

Comments

(Un)Fair Game
With the time and date feature of the camera, and using bait as I have, it would be quite easy to kill a lot of deer (or other wildlife). The animals all have a certain routine as to when they come by for the food. This type of hunting, typical around here and other rural areas, disgusts me.
But this disgusts me even more:
Targeting Iraqis as ‘Big Game’
By Nick Turse

[snip]
Marines have brought in “big-game hunters” to school their snipers in the better use of “optics.” According to a September 2007 article by Grace Jean in National Defense magazine, “[T]he lab conducted a war game with Marines, African game hunters and inner city police officers to search for ways to improve training.” The program included a 15-minute CD titled “Every Marine a Hunter.”
Earlier this year, according to an article by Kimberly Johnson of the Marine Corps Times, Col. Clarke Lethin, chief of staff of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) – a unit based in Camp Pendleton, California that took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and will be returning there soon – indicated that its commanders “believe that if we create a mentality in our Marines that they are hunters and they take on some of those skills, then we’ll be able to increase our combat effectiveness.” The article included this curious add-on: “The Corps hopes to tap into skills certain Marines may already have learned growing up in rural hunting areas and in urban areas, such as inner cities, said Col. Clarke Lethin, I MEF’s chief of staff.”
[snip]
That program of instruction is, however, just one recent example of an undercurrent within the military’s institutional culture that implicitly reduces people to animals. It’s not just in the language of everyday anger and dismissal by soldiers in a strange land where danger is everywhere and it’s difficult to tell friend from foe. It’s lodged right in the institutional language, if you care to notice. Last month, a piece in the Washington Post, for example, drew much media attention when it came to light that U.S. Army snipers from the “painted demons” platoon of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division allegedly took part in “a classified program of ‘baiting’ their targets” to lure insurgents within their sniper scopes.
“Basically, we would put an item [like a spool of wire or ammunition] out there and watch it,” said Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of the elite sniper platoon in a sworn statement. “If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces.” While there has been much subsequent discussion about the ethics and legality of such a program, nobody seemed to take note of the hunting language involved. After all, when you “bait” a trap (or a hook), it’s to lure an animal (or fish) in for the kill. But “bait” for a human?

Posted by: Rick | Oct 27 2007 18:38 utc | 1

Rick, everybody knows bears love hunny. I have set up a similar camera with sound recording and captured these images

Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 27 2007 18:42 utc | 2

All I get in my yard are skunks. Nothing’s more fun than giving my dog a tomato juice bath at midnight.

Posted by: biklett | Oct 27 2007 20:07 utc | 3

Heh winnie the pooh. Nice. When we lived in the country we were plagued with boars. They are rather large and alarming, terrifying for children, scrape and snuffle and hoink around, will eat anything, but don’t attack unless menaced. So you just stay quiet, and try not to show fear. At early night though they can make a lot of disturbing noise. They can’t manage door handles but know how to push in doors if there is even a tiny give. In a garden or any cultivated ground they are masters of efficiency, everything goes, pronto. I always liked them but most ppl don’t. They are so numerous here because hunting is forbidden and they figured out where the border is, hee hee, they just cross over into non Euro land, bring all their friends, and then sneer at everyone. The border guards who sit in offices eating MacDos or Italian tri-color salad have to examine hundreds of pictures (the cameras activate with movement) of boars trotting by. Occasionally, the novelty of a chicken or a newspaper blowing in the wind leads to discussion and talk of terrorism…

Posted by: Tangerine | Oct 27 2007 20:46 utc | 4

DoS#2,
Hey, hunny works too! Thanks for cheering the thread back up. I should have posted the Turse article on an Open Thread – the deer pictures just kept reminding me of it though. My apologies. It’s the weekend and we all need a break.
biklett#3,
Sometimes I smell skunk along the roads at night but not a whole lot around here… More of them up around our state capitol in Raleigh.

Posted by: Rick | Oct 27 2007 21:24 utc | 5

rick
unfortunately, living in the jungle of the cities – the only animals i see are wild bores

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 27 2007 21:39 utc | 6

biklett, forget the TJ, my brother had a husky that got skunked on a regular basis. One day he had no TJ so he used some Prell. Worked just as well. The dog had clean, healthy hair and smelled good, too. Until the next skunk came along.

Posted by: montag | Oct 27 2007 22:05 utc | 7

But Prell doesn’t turn your dog pink to remind him that skunks are off limits.

Posted by: biklett | Oct 27 2007 22:32 utc | 8

Plenty of guns going off around here – goose hunting season. At dawn on the weekends there’s literally a barrage of shotgun fire that can be quite alarming. And the coyotes howl all night. But I saw a goshawk yesterday, which I take as a good sign (for no real reason except for the sheer beauty of the thing).

Posted by: Tantalus | Oct 28 2007 0:38 utc | 9

Rick #1
Yeah Rick. Tantalus just about got it. I live within two linear miles of Dead Creek, a stopover flyway for many water fowl. My bedroom window faces that direction and every morning I can hear the pop-pop-pow of shotguns going off at daybreak. And I try to acknowledge and accept what I cannot change but cringe nevertheless. I know this is but a preparatory training ground for the young killers that eventually will evolve into the Iraq quagmire, or likewise, that have been imbued with this killer prerogative in our culture since birth. It amounts to a desecration of the living while glorifying killing
Your point is well taken..

Posted by: Juannie | Oct 28 2007 1:51 utc | 10

here’s an embarrassing true story. embarrassing because of my stupidity.
i had just moved into my rustic home in bisbee arizona, sleeping in the living room. earlier i had used a sawzall to cut out an opening for french door, but not having the mean$ to purchase the french doors, or the labor cost$, the opening was just there, hanging out for a few months. i needed the light, the opening, being a claustrophobic. i heard serious rumblings in the kitchen i assumed were mice. after massive efforts (while sleeping, dreaming) to ignore them i decided to root them out. naked, i put on my motorcycle boots (thick leather, w/buckle) just in case they scrambled out and attacked my ankles. as i entered the kitchen area it was obvious they were inside the lazysusan.(i don’t know if you have those elsewhere… the enclosed roundabout in the corner of the kitchen cabinets)..
moving along..
being too gutless to confront them head on i grabbed a broom and climbed on top of my cabinets. using the broom i pushed open the lazysusan and tried intimidating them to make their exit.(it did occur to me at this juncture i looked fairly ridiculous naked w/boots and broom in hand) nada. very quiet. i looked over and saw the cat (not exactly mine, a little wild, he came w/the house) watching the entire affair comfortably from one of my dinning chairs and it occurred to me what a gutless wonder he was. what’s the use of a cat if they can’t go after a common mouse!
so in my infinite wisdom i decided to procure his assistance. this is where the fun begins.
i eversosweetly approached beauty the cat and coaxed him ..sort of.. into my grasp. once he saw my direction he direction he resisted but i as determined. i shoved him into the lazysusan and jumped back up on top of the lazysusan and only hem did i experience the undeniable , putrid, unadulterated SMELL.
needless to say it was quite awhile before i could continue residing in my abode. we got to be friends, those skunks and i. they were very loverly white skunks, i would put food out for them and they would mingle at night outside my french doors for years to come. they lived under my house and never gave me any more trouble. considering the havok i tested them w/prior to the kitty incidence(jamming the broom into the lazysusan etc) i realized how patient they were.
i my idiocy, being half asleep (my excuse) before abandoning my home in the middle of the night i made the stupid error of ‘protecting’ the rest of the food in my lazysusan by placing it in the only area of my home that was not permeated w/skunk.. my fridge, thereby spreading the most infected region into the only area sealed off.
7 fans, and 7 days later.. i returned.
la di da. life, chuckle.

Posted by: annie | Oct 28 2007 3:39 utc | 11

Found a book from the 70’s at Goodwill, and sorry I didn’t buy it. Think it was by Grainger, talking about the ethos of the “immaculate warrior” which rose up after Viet Nam as a coping mechanism among men-men, to deal with the hippies and women’s lib, of which John Rambo, and then Terminator became ultimately derivative mythos, and from that, a blossoming of cerebral mensch-animism with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, has now become a global pandemic consummating in Halo 3 and their ilk.
All part of Neo-Zi creeping, “rounding the square until it appears to be a circle.”
Googling to find that seminal text, found a Granger who postulates that aggressive behavior is positively correlated with immune response! Who knew? Give self-styled immaculate warriors in US Casa Blanca some immuno-suppressants, and make them watch Casa Blanca (the movie), over and over again instead! Here’s looking at you, kid!!
If you believe that history repeats itself for those who fail to learn it, then the imminent market implosion and recession in the US bodes evil for WW3, “The Big One”. Wonder if the game-version will come out on X-Box before Wii, or if the Neo-Zi’s will dragoon our kids to fly their squadron of Hellfire UAV’s and MAV’s over Iran?
After all, it’s not a war crime, if you thought you just were playing a war game!
http://www.aviation.com/ap_070716_reapergoestoiraq.html
—
Back to the post seed, spent many years in the north-lands hunting, fishing and trapping. If you want to see critters, try raspberry jam. Totally irresistible.
For the real “big show”, put out a salt lick, a few tilapia, and raspberry jam.

Posted by: Babbelfish | Oct 28 2007 3:57 utc | 12

thanks for the pix, rick. i live in the city w/ a wooden-fenced backyard so the largest wild visitors i get here are rabbits & possum. but i get out into the bush quite often & take lotsa wildlife fotos. there are times when i’ve been camping that it’d be fun to have one of those motion sensitive cameras set up outside the tent to record those critters curious enough to check out the campsite during the wee hours. the big ones always seem to be stealth &, other than the fresh tracks in the morning, you’d never know you had company while snoozing. be interesting to see what they’re up to.
would also be interesting to use a motion sensitive camera to catch tante aime in action posting under so many aliases 🙂

Posted by: b real | Oct 28 2007 4:19 utc | 13

would also be interesting to use a motion sensitive camera to catch tante aime in action posting under so many aliases
hee hee

Posted by: annie | Oct 28 2007 4:42 utc | 14

Ha! Thanks for the visuals annie.
In the cabin where I get away to in Highland Co. there is a shelf of old books from the 50s. Nature and such: wildflowers, birds, fly-fishing… My favorite has an account of how to tell a black bear from a grizzly:
“Irritate the bear and climb a tree. If it climbs up after you, it’s a black bear and if it settles down to wait, it’s a grizzly.”
Nothing about what to do if you’re sitting in the outhouse with the door open and an ostritch walks by. [not my personal experience but a friend’s]

Posted by: beq | Oct 28 2007 23:26 utc | 15

Thanks for the story annie.
I sometimes go out for runs in the forest (this being Sweden, if you don’t live in central Stockholm, the forest is always around the corner and (this being Sweden) you are allowed to hike, eat berries and so no matter who owns in, but no littering (’tis the law of the commons)). Anyway, I sometimes go to the forest to run. In the summertime the best time to run is nighttime as it never really gets dark in the summer (again, Sweden) and it is less warm. So then I meet animals that looks at the strange monkey running for the fun of running. Then they continue going about their business.
Speaking of bears there are brown bears in Sweden, smaller then a grizzly but large enough. But they only attack hunters with rifles (it was coming right at us!) so there is no reason to worry. Liked the advice in beq’s book though.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Oct 29 2007 0:37 utc | 16

Sweet Jesus, wouldn’t ya know it – in Sweden even the Bears are Intelligent & Civilized enough to differentiate friends from enemies. Something even American cops, govt. agents & military cannot do 🙂 But don’t you have moose/reindeer like in Norway?
Interesting how bear behavior varies w/locale. Guess it depends on the curricula at the local Bear U. In Sierra Mtns. in No. Cal. they teach bears which cars are the easiest to break into (that’s when I decided there simply had to be a bear school to pass on this knowledge) & the proper way to enter people’s home – opening doors, what iceboxes are & how to open them…that people often too stupid to eat honey, but if you open the cold part of the icebox, you might find some ice cream there. Great picture one yr. of bear sitting at kitchen table eating ice cream – sans bowl & spoon!!

Posted by: jj | Oct 29 2007 1:10 utc | 17

Rick, make sure you post here first when one of these wanders by.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 29 2007 3:32 utc | 18

Sure, we have moose (for confusion they are called elk in europe), reindeers, other deers as well as lynx and a few wolfs. There are some deer-related accidents every year involving country road, night time, tired driver, car at high speed and a moose frozen in the headlights. But it pale in comparision to the numbers of accidents involving elderly hunter with bad eye sight and some random person out for a stroll in the woods or to pick berries or mushrooms (often foreigner who is not aware of this particular seasonal risk).
Speaking of the risks of the great outdoors, I find it interesting that apparently what goes for normal human activity is worse on wildlife then a nuclear meltdown.

The effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe are still being felt today—whole towns lie abandoned, and cancer rates in people living close to the affected areas are abnormally high.
But it turns out that the radioactive cloud may have a silver lining. Recent studies suggest that the 19-mile (30-kilometer) “exclusion zone” set up around the reactor has turned into a wildlife haven.

Random source picked from googling it

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Oct 29 2007 14:45 utc | 19

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