Black bears are a paradox of the Eastern forest. One the one hand, seeing one passing your tree stand is exhilarating, often making the hair on your arm stand up. The down side of the curious beast is its destruction of property, especially trail cameras. Perhaps the hint of salt in the human touch attracts them, or maybe they just don’t like the curious object on the trunk of a tree. Bears often bite, paw, and otherwise molest trail cameras, deer feeders, tree stands, and other hunting objects they find in the woods.
As seen in the picture above, this sow walked toward my Spartan trail camera, which had just captured the second of a two-image burst. The animal broke the cell antenna, opened the device, and popped out the media card and cell card. (Not sure if it downloaded images before moving on.) The photo was taken in Washington County, Maryland, where the bear season is now closed. But Pennsylvania is just a mile to the north, and that state’s archery bear season opens in mid-November with the rifle season beginning on the Monday before Thanksgiving. Curious bears, beware.
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