Dry Weather = Bears and snakes?

It has been extremely dry here and there are bears and snakes everywhere. Has anyone else noticed this? Everyone around here has been seeing bears at all hours (including a sow with FOUR cubs) and garter snakes everywhere. I have never seen so many snakes or as big of ones.

We got all kinds of snakes here in Virginia. Rain or no rain. Bears are a bit hit and miss in my experience.

No experience with bears but here when it gets dry the snakes head to water. Not necessarily to the creeks and swamps but the areas that retain moisture. I'll see them in irrigated landscaping, in and under mulches, etc. Basically if it's parched the snakes will move to moisture. Since we tend to keep our yards and gardens green that's where the snakes go.

Awesome picture!

I wish I could post the video with all 4 cubs.

Nice picture

160..... the Bears are crazy up here as well, but no more than normal it seems. Every year I notice a big uptick in activity around this time I believe mostly due to the breeding season ending and the boars are looking hard now for food and the sows and Cubs are braver without the horny boys pestering them as much.
It does seem the dry conditions are knocking back the natural foods a bit too this year, the Bears may be particularly hungry. Snakes I have no clue.

Osky

Osky, I have had 2 enclosed deer stands damaged by bears so far this spring. They have chewed on the lumber, busted windows out and climbed up in them to eat the chairs. They are acting weird. There are still red oak acorns on the ground from last fall to eat and tons of white clover.

Maybe they are protesting the untimely death of the soon to be saint Geo Floyd

We are not dry here and we do not have a breeding population of bears but the phone is busy with animal removal requests. Coon families are now running over the landscape and with the young growing rapidly the need for calories increases daily. Also see deer moving any time of the day and bug populations with our moisture are really coming on as well.

I have noticed the last couple weeks several deer in very good condition and does with single fawns or none. I don't know if there were breeding season issues or winter issues as typically in my area of eastern WI twins are by far the norm and I have not seen many sets as of yet. There are several fawns laying on the sides of the roads but just not seeing as many twin sets with does this summer yet.

Bryce

Awesome picture

Thanks. A group of pigs like that would sure clear out a landfill or dumpster in a hurry. Diapers wouldn't stand a chance!

Yea I know 160... There is swamp cabbage and other things as well. I always figure when that odd stuff happens it's because in a leaner year their body craves certain chemicals more. Maybe they are having salt cravings down there? Have any blocks out from last year that have been hit?
I have tried good acorns and had them all rot on baits untouched. Had the same happen with fresh hazelnuts, un imagineable to me had I not seen it. If you go online and find some of the writings/papers of Karen Noyce who was our states leading bear authority at the DNR in Grand Rapids you may find some answers. She is brilliant with black bear knowledge.
Flip side, they are bears. After over 40 years of chasing them they continually surprise me.

Osky

This just came to mind. Remember the current head of the states bear program " crap for brains" has become an anti hunting advocate. Yes I've dealt with him and so have others here. We have so darn many bears right now it shocks me. They are spreading to Dakotas and Iowa and everywhere in between. This clown in charge says they are threatened and keeps lowering the available tags.
Could be too many for the resources to support having an effect as well.

I had left over salt/mineral blocks out from last year and they all got fresh blocks this spring. The bears haven't touched them at all.

I don't know the reason, but I have seen lots more bull snakes and garter snakes than in previous years. Still haven't seen any copper bellies though.

Seen a couple Big Boys wandering around in good light lately
Snakes have been scarce around here for a couple years now Turtles for some reason are all over

Garbage pickup day in my community is Thursday morning. A stream of garbage soup drains out of the truck and right down the middle of both lanes of the street. Bears walk the line on Thursday afternoons.

Dry = frogs going to waterways = snake hunting grounds change.

Bear management must be a gong show in Minn. Add in a couple of encounters with unfavourible results, and the noose is only going to get tighter on the harvesters.

Way more garter snakes here this year so far than is the norm.
I have seen a couple times over the years when blackbears,when overpopulated get some kind of gut rot.Plenty of food to eat,but the ones affected are just skin and bones.
The years when this happens it becomes noticable in the fall when most bears have short fur and should be noticeably plump,but are not.The couple times I have seen that in bears was in fall with bumper crops of blueberries,and the bears were feeding heavy on them,but unable to fatten up.

I have not seen a bear in 3 weeks or so but see snakes on a day to day basis here in east TN

So with close to 1000 Minn bear hunters not being able to come up north to at least in Manitoba to hunt what is that going to do to your system down there.

Saw these two next to the road this past weekend.

Nothing at all. You needed to apply earlier this spring for a fall tag. MN has no spring season so the next possible impact would be the fall of 2021.

Seems like the flies push them and the deer out in the open more, to get a little relief from the wind. May also be the bears need to eat green this time of year to help regulate their digestive system, just like beaver do. I have seen lots of garter snakes around the ponds last couple weeks. As dry as it's been I'm guessing they are coming to the water also, where there is no shortage of bugs.
Beaver pups are out and about some now too. Got this monster this morning.

You could have some of our rain from down here in southern MN. We have had plenty.

Dang that bear hasn’t been missing any chow...

You think the snakes are eating the bears?

Nothing dry about June up here in northern Mn,over 10" in June and 1.5" for the start of July.I've seen a few snakes,but bears are everywhere this year,i've seen 25 so far since the 25th of April.Normally i get a bear tag every third year,this year i missed drawing a tag,i wish the DNR would managed the bear's and not the hunters.

Both properties I had bait sites last year have bears on them this year and they keep showing up on camera, i live in a county that borders the Mississippi River and did not draw a tag this year

Ric,
We are 3.87" low of average now for June. May wasn't much better. Hardly any skeeters and tons of tics, deer flies aplenty.

I'm just saying those hunters that went up north are going to apply for tags down the road, so depending on your scaling in the draw may get moved a couple of notches back now.

Rally I remember those tanned small beaver are just the right size for covers for the toilet seat, too bad you cant process them, real seller in the Whitehouse Taxidermist shop. Paid more per square inch than a wolverine pelt went for....go figure tourist dollars are sometimes easy to harvest.

Drought codes are at an all time high in the arrowhead and I have heard 7 inch rain deficits. The boats and planes are finding rocks that haven’t been seen before.

And it seems the Corp of Engineers is trying to drain the Mississippi!

Yeah! All the carp down south are suffering and need a drink.