530-885-3510 home office 916-718-2427 cellular 916-848-3662 fax
> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:51:53 -0600 > From: margetts@xxxxxxxxxxxx > To: raneller@xxxxxxx; steph@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Bears on the Tevis trail > > Ranelle, One more thought to add on the bear thing. You DO have a reason > to be concerned as the bears have been coming out of their winter > hibernation and even though they are omnivores and 80% of their diet is > vegetation, They are still grumpy and ravenous this time of year and > therefore might become bolder. I still believe that the more appropriate > method of dealing with them than to relocate them is to alert the > rangers and have them do extra warning postings at all trail heads, with > local newspapers, nearby stables, feed stores etc. Occasionally a ranger > will try to pluck the offending bear in the butt with low-powered > non-lethal rubber pellets to scare them off of the trails if it is > unlucky enough to stick around the area long enough to be reported and > found. Now this may also sound like a bizarre idea to some folks, but if > you have a really skittish horse and you are very worried about their, > "buck, bolt and burn" behavior if they were to encounter predator scent > on the trail, There are trapper suppliers that have paste scents for all > different kinds of critters. You can spread "Bear" or "Mountain Lion" > scent on a rag and leave it tied in your horses stall so they get a > little "desensitized" to the odor. I would rather have an alert and > wary, yet MANAGEABLE horse in that situation, rather than trying to > control a horse that thinks he's going to get eaten by some fire > breathing dragon if he were to encounter a predator on the trail. I have > owned a mountain Lion for 23 years and many friends have come to get > buckets of lion poo to either put around their gardens to discourage the > deer from eating their crops or flowers, or to defuse their horses so > they will be able to ride past my property without an explosion. Melissa > Margetts > > P.S. If you think this is "post-worthy" maybe YOU can pass it onto ride > camp. As I said before, I have had no luck with posting in the past and > am a bit of a computer illiterate.
