The day began when neighboring WCO Doty McDowell called requesting that I bring my bear drugs and processing equipment to Bendigo State Park where he had a cub in a trap, two more cubs in a tree and the sow trying to set the trapped cub free.

It wasn’t long after I got there that Doty managed to get a dart into the sow. The only concern was that she immediately went up the tree with her cubs. Fortunately she got herself positioned over a cluster of hemlock limbs and didn’t fall from the tree when she went out.



A few calls were made and soon we had a bucket truck on its way to help out. Though they had a quick response the sow was starting to come out of the drug when they got there so as soon as they got Doty up to the bear he gave it another shot of drug to keep it out until we get it and its cubs all safely on the ground. But, getting a sleeping 211 pound bear untangled from tree limbs and lowered to the ground really isn’t as easy as it sounds.

First Doty had to get the rope up over a limb above the bear then work a rope around the bear and get it tied off so that it wouldn’t restrict the bear’s breathing as we first pulled it up out of its resting place then lowered it to the ground.



To accomplish that task we pulled the rope up tight then put sever wraps around a pipe on the back of the bucket truck. Then several of us pulled the rope until we had it lifted up out of its entanglement with large hemlock limbs. To do that Doty had to kind of steer it up as we pulled it up toward the limb the rope was over. Once we got it up then Doty had to pull it over away from the limbs so we could lower it down through the limbs. But, we soon had it on it way out of the tree and lowered to the ground.



Once we had mom on the ground we still had to get the two cubs out of the tree. That required a snare pole around the cub and just manhandling it out of the tree. Now some people probably think that is an easy thing to do but trust me when I tell you that a 35 pound bear cub can be one powerful animal when it gets a hold on something. But, we did manage to get them both out of the tree and lowered to the ground. But, then a 35 pound bear cub on the ground is no picnic to handle either.



Once we had the two treed cubs both on the ground and in cages we finished processing their mother. We tagged her, removed a tooth and taped her weight at 211 pounds. She was in good condition and it was soon time to get her in the trap. But, we already had one cub in the trap so we had to deal with it before we could get mom in the trap. I got a snare pole on the cub in the trap, we fought it out onto the ground and we soon had a small amount of drug in it, tags in its ears and back in the trap. The cub was never totally sedated but it was controlled enough that we could get mom back in the trap with it. That cub was about a 35 pound male.

Next we got another of the cubs and I got some drug in it and it was soon completely out. Two ear tags, open the trap door again and I laid it in the trap on top of mom. It too was a male. Just one more cub and what a handful it was. It took two shots of drug and still wouldn’t go out so we finally tagged it while it was trying to bite and claw me, fortunately the drug had it slowed down a bit. Wouldn’t you know it was a female cub. Soon all three cubs were back in the trap with mom.



All that left to do was relocate them to a new home where hopefully they will stay out of trouble. But, we was concerned about transporting them with mom being out. We were afraid she would move around as she was coming out of the drug and end up laying on and smothering a cub so we decided to use the reversal drug on mom and have her up and alert before transporting. Up with the door again and put a dose of the reversal drug into her femoral vein. In just minutes mom is alert and back on her feet and ready for a trip to Quehanna.

Another successful bear story and interesting day in the life of a Game Warden.

Dick Bodenhorn  

--Last edited by RSB on 2009-07-17 20:41:15 --

great story and great photos.. thanks for sharing Dick.

Very interesting! Thanks Dick.

Great story.

RSB ...

Great story and pictures.

I have a couple questions and my own little run in over the weekend.

I know the bendigo area quite well. Why would you relocate the bears so far away? Bendigo area is pretty secluded as is ... were they becoming a nusieance(sp)?

Also, I am hearing of a lot of bear sitings ... how are things shaping up for this year's season ... in your opinion?

lastly ... my weekend adventure.

I camped at twin lakes this past weekend. Set tents up friday afternoon. Brother and I had ajacent camp sites. Was having a great weekend with my wife, 2 kids, my brother, his wife and his two kids.

Then the storms came rolling in saturday afternoon. forced us to head to Kane for dinner. Did get a few marshmellows toasted before the rain came heavy at 10:30 Pm. From there it was one storm after another till 7 am.

In between one of the storms, at who knows what time in the night, my neice says to her father, "Dad there is a bear outside, I can hear it walking behind the tent". My brother, in a half sleep state says to his wife. "hand me the , the , the (he could not think of the word he wanted) thing" ... his wife, being in a dream state also, had no clue what he was talking about, handed him the first thing she could grab. Which happened to be the pump for the air matress. It took him a second to realise it was not the flashlight he had in mind. Just as they both figure this out, his wife then hands him the flashlight.

Now, being the big macho man he is, he proceeds to unzip the tent (about 3 inches ... you know, just enough to get the light out and a half squinted eye). He yells "Get Out Of Here Bear", hits the light on and see the bear run towards my tent.


meanwhile, in our tent, we are enjoying the little time we have between storms with some heavy sleeping, when the silence is broken by my brother yelling "Get Out Of Here Bear". Then my daughter says ... "Dad, the bear is outside our tent". Being half asleep and half awake myslef, I calmly say to both kids and my wife, who were now very awake and afraid ... "shh, don't move or make a noise and the bear will go away". The truth being that i was trying to get them to calm down so I could go back to sleep.

RSB ... you have a few over in twin lakes to get ... move the culvert trap to the upper camp ground  ...

The Bendigo bear family were being a problem in the park so when we had an opportunity to capture and move the entire family we decided to so; more as an appeasement to the Park Personnel then anything else. Of course we also know that when we move bears less then fifty miles they are always coming back. The Bendigo bear family were back at Bendigo in eleven days but now they don’t seem to be a problem in the dumpsters or the park. There is still a sow with two cubs there that is being a problem, though. We had her in the trap a week ago Saturday but couldn’t get both cubs in the trap so we didn’t move any of them.

Here area couple of pictures of those bears and maybe a video clip if I can figure that out.







I have trapped three bears at Twin Lakes so far. Two of them I moved and one I just tagged and left there. Actually the bears are where they belong for the most part because they are living in the woods. It is the people that are encroaching on the bears instead of the other way around but, I will still be continuing to work with the Campground Hosts to keep the bear/people issues within reason.

I was just there and checked on the bear status on Friday and they told me there was only one or two bear coming in and that wasn’t even regularly.

I suspect I will be catching another bear or two there though unless I get some farmer complaints of bear in the corn coming in pretty soon. Once the bears in the corn complaints come in that trumps the garbage of bears in the campground complaints and I will move my traps to the corn fields. If I don’t the farmers will shot the bears.

There are a lot of bears around this year and the outlook for the hunting season is great. Find the red oaks that were productive. The red oak on the ridge tops seem to have a pretty good supply of acorns while the ones in the valleys are either barren of very spotty at best.

Dick Bodenhorn