The Bear Hunters in North Carolina use a range of tools and technology that would seem to minimize the bear's chances. The social component is the most interesting. I will leave the social aspects of the hunt for another article. Here I want to review the tools of the bear hunt.
The main components of the bear hunt are:
The dogs. Bear hunters have dogs. The dogs are kept in circular dirt pits with a box in the middle. The circumference of the circular dirt pit is pi * twice the length of the chain attached to the dog tethered within it. Most hunters have multiple circular dirt pits with a dog in each. The bear dog wealth of any hunter is equivalent to the total number of circular dirt pits on his property.
The truck. Every bear hunter has a pickup truck. Not all of these trucks are Fords: Only 99.7% of them are Fords. All of them have four wheel drive. The quality of these trucks ranges from the 2012 model F350 diesel quadcab with monster tires and an elevator to the cab at the high end, to the 1962 Ranger rust bucket with manual spindles to engage the 4WD at the other. The pickup truck is not so much a source of pride as a source of identity. No one in Star Trek brags on their version of the transporter. It is just something that exists to transport.
The dog cage. Every pickup truck has a dog cage in the bed. Every dog cage has a platform on top, and a holding area below. The platform on top has a ring, hook or other aperture for tethering a dog on a very short lead. The dog balances on the platform connected to a lead during the slow ride down the road searching for bear. The dog on top is, coincidentally, the lead dog.
The electronic tracking collar. Each dog wears an electronic tracking collar. Each dog collar has an attachment that broadcasts a specific signature. Running dogs are tracked from various strategic locations in the mountains. An experienced hunter, using a device that resembles an old fashion television antennae fastened with alligator clips to an even older set of head phones, will know the exact location of dogs miles and miles away based on the strength and direction of the signal received at one of the strategic locations. [Ed: I am honored to own a knob that is a central and strategic point for signal reception.]
Hunters exchange very complex series of numbers with other hunters on the radio to uniquely identify dogs. Nothing is written. The hunter with the antennae listens to the signals transmitted from the dog collars. He mentally translates a series of longs and shorts to match the collar identification numbers previously provided to him over the radio. The ciphering and communication processes are pure magic to observe. The antennae man will alert other hunters as to the owner and location of the dogs. The hunt will converge in the newly discovered location.
The marine band radio. Bear hunters in the southwest corner of North Carolina, and the southeast corner of Tennessee use marine band radios to communicate. They have abandoned Citizen Band (CB) radios because, they say, the mountainous terrain dramatically reduces the CB's effectiveness. Different social groups stick to specific channels, but the scan feature is widely used to monitor the high traffic channels. Ever the voyeur, I can scan and monitor a wide range of territory and broadcasts from my camper on Bird Knob.
The training season. The states of North Carolina and Tennessee allow "hunting" but not killing during the two phases of the training season. The first part of training season must occur (or at least originate) on private property. The second part of training season eliminates this restriction. Training season primarily allows bear hunters to test and train the bear dogs. Some dogs "just won't hunt." Other dogs run away never to be seen again. A few dogs demonstrate themselves to be capable lead dogs.
The baiting process. A primary feature of the training season, but not the regular season, is baiting. Some bear hunters put out various sweet or fat based concoctions to attract bears. Bears, according to some hunters, prefer acorns to all other naturally occurring foods, and "follow the acorns". Even so, no bear's keen sense of smell can resist a pail of sugar water or M&Ms, a platform of stale doughnuts, or a five gallon bucket of lard. You cannot safely feed hummingbirds in bear country. The lard leaves a convenient and easy trail for the dogs to follow.
The rehearsal. The baiting process during training season is a type of rehearsal with two actors. Usually the food is put in a place that does not make it easy to attain. Sometimes one of the electric collars is used to trigger a timer so the bear hunters will know what time the bear is feeding. A bear will check back once he finds a meal, often at the same time each day. Thus is trained the bear. During training season, the hunters encourage the dogs to chase and tree the bear. They must not shoot the bear. Often, once the bear has been treed, the hunters leash the dogs, walk 100 yards away, and wait for the bear to descend from the tree. They then let the dogs free to chase and tree the bear again. Thus is trained the dog. One must wonder if the bear is not thereby also trained to understand the cost of a bucket of lard is simply the annoyance of being chased up a tree by dogs. The bear cannot know that the price increases dramatically after the last day of the training season.
The hunt. The very essence and origin of the hunt features a hunter driving his pickup very slowly down untraveled roads, looking for signs of bear crossings into and out of the woods and ditch lines, with the support of the dogs, who provide their own olfactory barometer of the existence of bear and other wild life. The best hunter sees the bear's trail through the ditch even before his dogs smell it. The radio chatter is constant. The scanner locks on to channels where there is action. Hunters converge on an active scene with speed and intent.
Bear hunting
is
primarily
a
social
activity.
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