BWCA Lake Polly Bears Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
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adam
Moderator
  
05/31/2019 10:48AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Most people seem to blame the persistent bear problems on Polly to be carried on generationally through nurture. But is there more to it then that?
 
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05/31/2019 11:10AM  
I think it is a popular area and people leave food out everywhere. Bears come back for that and it continues.
 
05/31/2019 12:10PM  
Hard to say for sure what the cause is. Could be a lot of things.

1. Could be habituate bears that learn from mama bear.
2. Could be that its a busier area. More people = More garbage = More bears.
3. Could also be that for some reason this area has a little higher bear population than other areas. Wildlife are generally not spread evenly across the landscape, they tend to congregate in certain area for one reason or another.

I'm guessing its a little bit of all 3. Its a busy area, there was probably a higher density of bears in the areas for some reason, and now some of them have learned that campsites = food.
 
andym
distinguished member(5340)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberpower member
  
05/31/2019 12:53PM  
Also, I'm pretty confident that the Lake Polly Bears also connect through to Kawishiwi Lake because we've seen one on coming into Kawishiwi Lake from a good short cut (for bears) toward Polly. So that gives them even more food and some even messier base campers. Not judging all base campers but we met one group on Kawishiwi Lake that was looking forward to the daily visit of the bear to go through their garbage. And it was on its way right then because we had gotten ahead of it while it was checking campsites.
 
BobDobbs
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05/31/2019 01:43PM  
andym: "met one group on Kawishiwi Lake that was looking forward to the daily visit of the bear to go through their garbage."


There isn't much that would make me report someone, but this would make me report someone. Hell, I'd go out of my way to report someone for doing this.

People like this are why we can't have nice things, or freedom.
 
05/31/2019 02:02PM  
That is like the worst thing to do. Just makes a nightmare for the next people.
 
05/31/2019 05:22PM  
BobDobbs: "
andym: "met one group on Kawishiwi Lake that was looking forward to the daily visit of the bear to go through their garbage."



There isn't much that would make me report someone, but this would make me report someone. Hell, I'd go out of my way to report someone for doing this.


People like this are why we can't have nice things, or freedom."




There is always those people... then they make more laws... etc. You could inform them of that and they just wouldn’t get it.
 
tumblehome
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05/31/2019 07:06PM  
My observations of nature and animals tell me that it is a learned behavior passed from mother to cub. AND the fact that humans perpetuate the ability of bears to find food around humans.
Tom
 
06/01/2019 10:30AM  
I have always felt the generational learning was a major part of this, but also geography. For years, the places I think of when I hear "problem bear" are Lakes Polly, Ensign, and Knife. Problem bears do pop up in other places - last year Shell, Anges, and Three come to mind, but I have not heard of problems at these lakes with the same consistency. All the problem lakes tend to be destination fishing lakes (especially walleye) within one reasonably easy days paddle and lots of campsites fairly close together - though Knife seems like a bit of an outlier here. Still, I'm guessing like other have said these lakes get more groups hanging out for days focusing on fishing, thus more gut piles, more oil for frying, more other fresh foods, and maybe even more coolers.

I've always read bears have exceptionally good memory regarding food locations. It makes me wonder if some cubs learn to associate humans and/or campsites with food when young, but maybe not rely on that for food source until years later in life when berries fail or they are sick, or some bigger bear has pushed them out of their familiar hunting grounds? Not sure about all this, just fun conjecture.
 
06/01/2019 09:01PM  
I heard the Polly bears are all descendants of the famous bear named Yogi from the 1960's, who passed on the genes for being, "Smarter than the average bear". I think his descendants still get residuals from the cartoon show, but they have to split it between Yogi's and Boo Boos families. I saw this on-line, so it has to be true. Here is a link. Look at the header "Catchphrases":

Smarter Than the Average Bear

Tomster
 
nmillette
member (32)member
  
06/15/2019 08:11PM  
I've camped on Polly many many times, and have never had an issue.
 
06/17/2019 12:25PM  
andym: "...Not judging all base campers but we met one group on Kawishiwi Lake that was looking forward to the daily visit of the bear to go through their garbage. "

Can't fix stupid...
 
RTurner
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06/17/2019 01:49PM  
jcavenagh: "
andym: "...Not judging all base campers but we met one group on Kawishiwi Lake that was looking forward to the daily visit of the bear to go through their garbage. "

Can't fix stupid..."

And in this case, you can't even be entertained by it
 
Wintersguy80
senior member (59)senior membersenior member
  
06/17/2019 02:28PM  
jcavenagh: "
andym: "...Not judging all base campers but we met one group on Kawishiwi Lake that was looking forward to the daily visit of the bear to go through their garbage. "

Can't fix stupid..."




My thoughts exactly
 
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