A Tough Sow Bear

[bigbendmarine]

Few members might recall that some of my past compilation videos have included clips of a sow bear suffering from both a lame front foot and a rather sizable abdominal hernia.

I don't get videos of her often, so each year I find myself wondering if she's still alive. Well, as of August 2022 she definitely is.

Definitely one tough sow bear.

 

[MRBB]

that's pretty cool
over the decades here I have had many injured critters I got to watch and see them survive for yrs(not all though)
some I got to watch for yrs, very humbling to see things age in the wild and what they got thru!

a while back, I had a orphaned female bear here awhile back, she was just 5 months old when her mom got hit by a car,
she struggled but made it thru her first yr
second yr she teamed up with a young male, but he got shot in hunting season,
so back to being alone
then she got hit by car and had a compound fracture on her rear t left leg, was pretty sad watching her move about with the bone sticking out,
but she managed to make it thru hunting season and I think what saved her was denning for winter, that wound healed back up pretty good, till, late summer when another female chased her and it re broke
she also had a cub this yr, but lost the cub in early summer!
she limped about till again winter then denned
come spring time, she again had cubs, this time 3 of them, wound was healed up again, still had a limp, but she was doing OK
then got trapped by the game dept and reloacted, but they only trapped her, not her cubs, they ended up dead along the road side a day after they moved her(60 miles away)
she showed back up a few months later and about a 100 lbs lighter, she looked terrible, but by Fall, she was beefed up to about 300 lbs, a BIG gal

the following spring she showed up again with cubs, first time I seen a bear have cubs 3 yrs in a row! but gather loosing them in early summer, she was able to mate again!

she was doing good a big gal, two cubs were healthy and looking good , then she got hit by vehicle crossing a road and died from i injuries this time, I helped load her to be taken away!
she made it to age 8, but she sure had a lot of bad luyck along them yrs!

her cubs ended up denning on my property, and as of now, 4 yrs later, there still kicking, I see them a few times a week almost it seem,!


some pic's, healed broken bone, when she died, and happier time when she had a cub in the pool with her!
I used these plastic pools to have water easy for critters, they also work great for getting cool pictures!

 

[bigbendmarine]

she made it to age 8, but she sure had a lot of bad luyck along them yrs!

Wow, MRBB. Would have hit one of the emoticon buttons but couldn't pick which one to hit. So much bad luck and sorrow that I couldn't hit the like button... but sure enough quite an incredible set of trials to overcome during those 8 years.

 

[MRBB]

yeah I been very lucky to be able to follow the lives of many critters here, i have also been working with bears for decades, so have that added advantage over the average person!

my oldest bear I have watched grow from a cub here now is 17 yrs old
last summer (2021) he got into a hell of a fight and is now missing half an ear!, he stands out now pretty easy, and he's a big boy right now pushing upper 600 lb range!
one thing I have found amazing with bears is how they loose and gain weight
most of the females here will go from 200-300 lbs coming out of winter and by early summer, have lost about half of there weight, then bounce back to things by fall
between mating season stress of being dogged day and night to raising cubs, they transition so much over the months there active
even the makes loose a lot of weight in mating season, yet bounce back before snow falls
you'd never believe it till you see it some times how THIN they get and redound in such short time periods!
bears are pretty incredible critters if we can be honest !

 

[willy]

Thank you Bigbend and Mrbb for sharing those stories and pics. Nature is tough and I am in awe of what it can survive.

 

[BuckSutherland]

The sow I shot last year during the MN season was 19.5 years old according to the tooth submission I sent in. Wonder how many baits she raided through the years in the Chippewa National Forrest.

We also used to have a doe that walked with a horribly gimp foot. She was shot by one of the neighbors and gimped around the neighborhood for about 3 years. Likely the wolves or snow caught up with her, but she usually had a good set of twins with her.