Turning Feral by Zachary Craig Hanson

Author:Zachary Craig Hanson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Published: 2022-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

Angry mama bear circling camp.

Pretty quickly, the guides’ attention turned to the cub. In the state of Idaho, it is illegal to kill a mother sow that is with cubs, so the only means to getting mama bear to leave us alone was to strongly encourage the little tyke to take a hike.

While one guide stood watch for the circling sow, the rest of us went to work on the cub. We started by tossing rocks in its direction, which went completely unanswered. That escalated to more yelling, stick waving, and eventually Western-cartoon-pistol firing to try and convince the little one to go sync up with its waiting mama.

Unnerved, the little cub started to approach one of the guides. With no options left, the guide decided to meet the cub in the middle with a swift kick. With NFL kicker precision, he lined his boot up with the approaching cub, and within a yard or two, wound up his right leg and gave the cub a kick in the left side that lifted him off the ground by a few inches.

Stunned, the little guy realized that we weren’t up for sharing our food, and not in the mood to cuddle. The punt reset his brain, and he decided that maybe he should go see his mom. He trotted off toward the woodline.

The charges and woofing subsided. We all breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the sounds of our new friends were swallowed up by the surrounding pines.

That terrifying encounter piqued my curiosity about bears and predators in general. When I was home from that hunt, I did some research. I wanted to understand the process of bear hunting, the approach, and more importantly, how I could use the different parts of the animal. What I uncovered surprised me. There is a whole movement of people, most notably Clay Newcomb of MeatEater, who are pushing to educate the public on the benefits of harvesting the abundant black bear species. With over three hundred thousand black bears across the United States, and relatively strict harvest allowances, the bear population is on a steady growth trajectory. Aside from being an abundant and truly renewable resource, almost the entire animal is usable, and barely anything goes to waste.

The copious amounts of fat can be rendered down to a long-lasting and delicious oil to be used for cooking; the hide can be used for clothes, rugs, or blankets; and the meat is delicious and lean. Hunters can even use the bear penis (baculum), which is an actual bone, as a cocktail stirrer or general novelty.

That information was eye-opening to me, as I had previously assumed that the only reason for hunting bears was sport. Armed with this new knowledge, I purchased a bear tag and made the promise that if I had the opportunity to harvest a bear, I would honor it by utilizing everything it had to offer and process the animal by myself.

While I waited for the spring bear hunting season, I turned back to the internet to understand the best tactics for hunting bears with a bow and arrow.

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