Black Bear in Lee Football Stadium

Trapped Bear Runs Defensive Drills

I asked biologist Al Bourgeois what's going on last time I saw him. He said he'd caught a bear that morning. It's June, when a young boar's fancy... so I was expecting another story involving bird feeders or grills. I wasn't prepared for what he shared next... he'd spent part of his morning darting a yearling who'd wandered into Staunton and had been trapped inside the Lee High School Football Stadium. The bear ran himself ragged evading Staunton law enforcement officers. Al said he darted the bear and it dropped off pretty fast. Usually the right dose takes up to ten minutes to put the bear in dreamland. Black bears have amazing endurance and can run up to 30 mph so the whole thing must have been quite a [forgive me] zoo!

The young bear was then released in the national forest, it was reported. Had this bear been taken to Virginia Tech for further studies, as is sometimes done, Frank Beamer might have had a scholarship waiting!

Lynn Has More [click to read] on the Lee High Bear.


A black bear I photographed in Richmond's Maymont Park.

Rattlesnake Report

I read this morning that a man was bitten multiple times by a rattler near Dripping Rock overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He was in pretty serious condition when someone found him. One should always remember that good wilderness has some hard edges and keep a sharp eye [and ear] for potential danger.

More on Snakes and Bears

Its the Wet Spring...


Crotalus Horridus.

SWAC Girl Has Some Thoughts [click to read] on the 'Snakey Spring' we've been having. You always see more of them when it starts to turn warm. They sit out on rocks to 'warm up.' Well, this Spring has been an extended cool rainy season so you are really seeing more 'warm ups' by these cold-blooded reptiles.

Black Rat Snakes have been showing up around the house a lot. My lovely wife does not like snakes so I am frequently seen carrying one away to 'relocate' it. I really don't know how effective 'relocating' snakes is as they seem quite capable of 'unrelocating' themselves. I suspect I've moved some of the same snakes multiple times.

Not that I mind. Black Rat Snakes eat rodents. Thus I consider them allies. Relocation simply saves them from becoming victims of 'friendly fire' i.e. my spouse with a garden tool.


Ursus Americanus.

Black Bear are Active Too [click to read]. Usually they don't bother pets but I suspect domestic goats taste just like the newborn fawns they occasionally eat in the wild.

Black Bears are the wilderness equivilent of a high school cross-country team showing up at the local buffet. They eat everything in sight. Bears are omnivores, meaning they eat everything that isn't nailed down. If you live on the edge of the woods and decide to feed birds, bears love to pull down the feeders and eat the seed in them. Your grill, if you don't burn it off well, becomes another object of interest. We won't even discuss houshold garbage beyond the obvious.

Bears are blessed with one of the finest noses in the animal kingdom. They're way more sensitive than even beagles! If you leave it out, they will find it. Or, consider the poor fellow who left a donut in his construction truck only to find the window broken the next morning. A bear smelled the donut and the rest is history. Game and Inland Fisheries uses Dunk'in Donuts in their pipe trap as bait. It works!