GC1XF4H Bear Tracking (Traditional Cache) in Arizona, United States created by Mindfulness

This cache has been archived.

Mindfulness: This and some other caches are a series, to find the final you have to go to each of 6 caches and get a number to find the coords for the final.

An approver archived one because I broke a rule which means you can’t find the finale.

I am too tired to continue to maintain the caches after cachers wreck a cache and approvers archive a cache without working it out.

GC1XF4H ▼

A cache by Mindfulness Message this owner

Hidden : 8/19/2009

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Picture by Mindfulness

Don’t forget to get the number under the top cover to find the
Wildlife Linkages Tracking Challenge.

You must sign the log or your find will be deleted.

This is one of 6 animal tracking caches (plus one more) that is placed on tracking, which are:
- - - Bear Tracking, Mountain Lion Tracking, Bobcat Tracking, Wolf Tracking, Jaguar Tracking, & Coati Tracking.

Park at Amphitheater parking lot (N31 43.782 W110 52.782) where you can pay the parking fee.
The cache is about an 800 foot walk on a trail from the parking lot.
Stay on the trail and go right at N31 43.419 W110 52.759.
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Wildlife Linkages Program, run by Sky Island Alliance, looks for routes Mountain Lions, Bobcats, Bears, Wolves, Jaguars, and Coatis take when they go from one mountain range to another. The mountain ranges are linked by the routes these animals take. The routes (linkages) are found by looking for the animals' tracks in washes between the mountain ranges. Read more at: Sky Island Alliancehttp://www.skyislandalliance.org/wildlife.htm. -
At Sky Island Alliance, we go out and identify animal tracks, we don’t track the animal.
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The Bear Facts:
Size – Grown-up (adult) males weigh 150 to 300 pounds (lbs).
Range (where they live) – Black bears live in Canada, United States, and Mexico. They like to live in the mountains with trees and bushes to get food and keep away from people. They live alone most of the time and go to other mountains to mate.

Food (diet) – Black bears are omnivorous—they eat plants and meat. They eat different kinds of plants, fruits, nuts, insects, honey, fish like salmon, and small animals.

Population (how many are there?) – Black bears are the most common bear in the world. There are about 300,000 in the United States and about 600,000 in Canada, United States, and Mexico.

Life span (how long do they live?) – Black bears can live 20 to 25 years, but most live about 10 years.

Other information – Mindfulness has seen a few bears near the top of the Santa Rita Mountains while hiking. During the winter in the north, bears hibernate by sleeping in caves, in holes, under brush piles, or in a hole in a tree. We should view bears from a distance.

“Bears keep in touch by snorting, whining, and making a sound like a roar. Bears can communicate silently in several ways too. When its ears are straight up, a bear is at ease. If they are laid back, the bear is probably angry, especially at a misbehaving cub.”
“Bears also claw tree trunks. These scratches tell other bears to keep out of their territory.”
“Sniffing the air is a way for a black bear to know if other bears are in the area. Each bear has its own unique scent (SENT) or odor.”
“During the breeding season, adult male bears rub their scent on trees to attract a mate. That scent is also in a bear’s scat and in its tracks.”
“Early pioneers used black bear hair for fishing lures, and to stuff mattresses and pillows.”
From: Black Bears by Kathy Feeney

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Bear Prints:

>	<---Black Bear's Front Track. (Track is not the right size) Real size is about 4 inches long and about 4 inches wide. The front track is smaller than the rear track. Bears have 5 toes and you can usually see the claws in the tracks.
	<---Black Bear's Right Rear Track (Track is not the right size) Real size is 5 3/8 to 9 inches long and 3 1/2 to 6 inches wide. Bear tracks are opposite of humans. The bear track here is the bear's rear, right foot which would be a human's left foot.

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Bear Signs

Another way to identify an animal is by its signs that they leave like scent marking (scat),
trails through grass, scrapes on the ground, scratches on trees, shelters (caves, holes in trees or the ground) or a dead animal.
Black bears leave shelters, scat, and scraches on trees.