Black bear encounters are always dangerous, but especially in the spring when cubs are small and can easily wander away from their mother. That’s the case in the above photo, where you can see a large female bear and her two cubs more than 50 yards away. A trail to one of my tree stands runs directly between these bears, and it would be a bad time to pull a camera card or happen to walk by.
Here’s another bear, a bore, I think, walking through the same area. Notice that the time is well past sunrise, and this bear moves quickly. Deer hunters may be in the woods to replenish a mineral site, set up a remote food plot, pull a camera card, and other reasons. I try to limit such trips because I don’t want to jump a bedded fawn, flush a turkey hen with young poults, or encounter bears.
You don’t want to see this.
This young cub is away from its mother and sibling and just a few yards from a logging road used by our hunt club members. Bumping into a bear cub is always dangerous because the mother will act instinctively. The Facebook post linked below provides short and sweet advice about bear encounters. Carrying bear spray and/or a firearm is a wise precaution, and the “playing dead” strategy is only for brown bears—black bears attack to kill. Should you suddenly engage a black bear, fight for your life, because it is a matter of your life and death.