7-26 SS Randy Bears

 Bear hunting in Idaho.

 Frequent guest Randy King who is an unparalleled outdoorsman as well as being an executive chef tells us about a recent bear hunt and also fills us in on an interesting aspect of the bear population and its impact on elk. “This past spring my buddy’s in running a bear bait for me and I have the fortunate situation where I have a lot of leftover food at work and so I end up donating that to the bear cause, anything that I cannot give to the rescue mission ends up going up to the bear bait so fryer oil, deep-fried french fries, things that the Bears love. The trail cameras that we have set up their have been taking pictures and they get e-mailed to me. So the bear that I wanted to get did come in so he will be hanging on the wall this coming winter. Idaho has one of the most liberal spring bear hunting seasons out there just because of the amount of forest habitat that we have. I talked to Craig White, a biologist with fish and game and I actually have an article that came out yesterday in the Boise weekly about bear hunting and bearbaiting in Idaho and since we have so much forested habitat, we just have up pile of bears and the bears are actually affecting elk calf mortality. After the calves drop, bears can smell that and they will go get the calf or the cow depending on their size and strength. Idaho is instituting a two bear in some units and a spring bear hunting season to help positively affect elk populations at the same time.