Looking for Bears Signs

Regardless you wish to avoid to find a bear while hunting or you are interested on finding one as a trophy, every hunter out in the bushes on bears territories must be aware of signs revealing their presence, otherwise the hunter might become the hunted.

If you are hunting during winter when bears are sleeping the risk to find one wandering around there is low, but for early winter season hunters things are dramatically different because by fall end and winter beginning bears are still active; in fact they are looking for as much food as they can to face the winter.

So you might find yourself facing a bear looking for food on the forest or, even worse! One who decided that your game is its dinner!

In order to avoid as much as possible undesired bear meetings, it's very important for all hunters to know signs of bears activity on the surroundings, but if what you wish is to find one, these signs are even more important to become successful.

Next you'll find bears signs to look for when hunting, some of them are obvious while some others need a little more attention to the environment, let's see them...

1. Footprints

Of course these are the most obvious, however it might difficult to see them on mud, very soft terrain or when soil is covered by plenty of leaves, so pay attention to what's ahead on the ground, perhaps there's a hidden footprint there you are not able to see easily.

The good new is that bears footprints are easy recognizable. Almost like a human foot, bears have five fingers and their size ranges between 3 to 8 inches long and 3 to 6 inches wide. 

Bears tracks are among the biggest on their territory, so just to see a big sized footprint is enough to guess their presence.

2. Tree Marks

Bears are territorial, especially males, so they mark their zone with visible tree scratches to alert other bears about their presence.

It's usual to find deeply scratched trees because of year after year marking; furthermore, the same tree may be scratched by several bears infringing permanent damage to the cortex.

So when you see that kind of damage on tree trunks, be careful, a bear might be near you. 

In addition, the higher the marks, bigger the bear, so marks above 5 feet tells you a big, male bear is wandering around there.

3. Stools

Bears feces are easy to distinguish because of their size (1-2,5 inches diameter and 5 to 12 inches long) and their piles distribution.

Ordure will alert you not only about bears presence but also about what they have been eating and how big the bear is. So once you find a bears feces pile, pay attention to it! That's a very complete guide of bears in the area.

Another signs may be leftovers, especially on salmon season as well overturned rocks, trampled vegetation and large soil diggings.

Whenever you see one or more of the above mentioned signs, be careful, because there's at least one bear around there.