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Grass is greener with Steve Horne on RailRiders’ side

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Outdoors with Tom Venesky: Stay the course with PGC board seat

<p>DAVIDSON TWP., SULLIVAN COUNTY &#8212; A small group waited along a dirt road on State Game Lands 13 while Pennsylvania Game Commission biologist Kevin Wenner and Wildlife Conservation Officer Rock Finnegan ventured into the woods to check a bear trap.</p><p>A few minutes later, Wenner and Finnegan returned and announced the trap, actually a cable restraint designed to hold a bruin by the foot, had connected. Immediately, Wenner and Finnegan were joined by Bradford County WCOs Blake Barth and Mike Goodenow as they methodically readied equipment and prepared a dose of tranquilizer to sedate the bear.</p><p>The work, which took place on SGL 13 over a two-week period beginning at the end of July, is part of the PGC&#8217;s bear tagging program. The agency wants to tag as many bears as possible to glean not only valuable age and reproductive data, but aid in estimating the population as well.</p><p>While WCOs tag the nuisance bears they trap in urban areas, those bruins in remote places such as SGL 13 are rarely, if ever handled. That&#8217;s why Wenner spends several weeks each summer running a trapline consisting of cable restraints and barrel traps in remote game lands throughout the region. Lately, Wenner has been alternating his trapping efforts between SGLs 13 and 57 and 12 and 36 in Bradford County.</p><p>&#8220;I focus on the larger game lands where WCOs don&#8217;t have the time to trap these remote areas,&#8221; Wenner said. &#8220;These game lands are so expansive that it&#8217;s important to keep tabs on these bears as well.&#8221;</p><p>Wenner has been involved in trapping bears in the northeast since 2006. While restraining a bruin with a single cable on its foot may seem risky, Wenner has perfected the technique so the process is executed quickly and flawlessly.</p><p>After the tranquilizer is administered through a dart shot into the bear&#8217;s hindquarter at a range of several yards, Wenner and his crew watch quietly as the drug takes affect. After several minutes, the bear gently lies down like it is falling asleep, and Wenner moves in and gingerly pokes the bruin with a stick to make sure the sedative did its job.</p><p>On this day, after the first trapped bear was safely sedated, Wenner did a quick check to see if it had ear tags while Finnegan removed the cable from its front foot. The bear - a female, did have one ear tag and a quick check of the number revealed it was previously trapped in the area in 2012 when it was a 30-pound cub.</p><p>Within minutes, oitment was applied to the bear&#8217;s eyes because it can&#8217;t blink while sedated and a mask was placed over its face to keep it calm. Another ear tag was added, a corresponding number was tattooed on the inside of the bear&#8217;s lip and it&#8217;s temperature was taken. Wenner said if the temperature approaches 105 degrees they will pour water over the pads of the bear&#8217;s feet to cool it down. The bear was also hoisted up on a hanging scale to be weighed - it weighed in at 98 pounds, before Wenner gave it a quick inspection for overall health.</p><p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Nq_c1gTBvY" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p><p>A reversal drug was then administered and the group stood back and patiently watched the bear regain its senses.</p><p>&#8220;When the reversal drug kicks in, it works from the head back. The bear will lift it&#8217;s head first and then regain control of its front and back legs,&#8221; Finnegan said. &#8220;It&#8217;s also important to wait and make sure the bear has fully recovered before we leave because if there&#8217;s another bear in the area it might give it a hard time while its recovering.&#8221;</p><p>The bear stumbled a few times before regaining its strength and bounding off.</p><p>Over the eight days that Wenner trapped on SGL 13, he caught 13 bears, not including two that were captured twice. Set locations are baited with a trail of donuts that lead bears to step in the buried cable restraint. The largest bear Wenner trapped in Sullivan County was a 270-pound male. He also captured a sow that was previously caught in 2010 when it was 4 years old and weighed 101 pounds. The same bear was caught again in 2012 and weighed 127 pounds, and this year, at the age of nine, it weighed 170 pounds.</p><p>Wenner said most of the female bears on SGL 13 weigh between 100-125 pounds.</p><p>&#8220;The bears up here depend solely on natural foods such as blueberries, cherries, wetland plants and the beech crop in the fall,&#8221; Wenner said. &#8220;They&#8217;re not exposed to the agricultural crops, dumpsters or bird feeders that really put the weight on urban bears.&#8221;</p><p>Statewide, Wenner said, the PGC hopes to trap and tag 800 bears. Catch rates increase in areas with high bear densities, such as the Poconos, and the trapping also doubles as a training session for new WCOs.</p><p>&#8220;There aren&#8217;t many opportunities to handle this many bears in a short amount of time,&#8221; Wenner said. &#8220;The officers gain valuable experience not only with handling and processing bears, but how to administer the drugs used to immobilize the bears as well.&#8221;</p><p>In addition to the cable restraints, Wenner also uses two barrel traps and a culvert trap, both of which he said take less work to set.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Game Commission biologist Kevin Wenner, right, inspects a sedated bear while WCO Rick Finnegan places a mask over its face to keep the bruin calm while it is tagged, weighed and then released. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_bear-trapping-22.jpg</photo0><caption0>Game Commission biologist Kevin Wenner, right, inspects a sedated bear while WCO Rick Finnegan places a mask over its face to keep the bruin calm while it is tagged, weighed and then released. </caption0><photoCredit0>Tom Venesky/Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_bear-trapping2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A 214-pound female bear awakens after being administered a reversal drug to shake off the affects of a tranquilizer. The bear was one of three trapped by Pennsylvania Game Commission personnel last Friday. Each of the bears were tagged and weighed before being released. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_bear-trapping2.jpg</photo1><caption1>A 214-pound female bear awakens after being administered a reversal drug to shake off the affects of a tranquilizer. The bear was one of three trapped by Pennsylvania Game Commission personnel last Friday. Each of the bears were tagged and weighed before being released. </caption1><photoCredit1>Tom Venesky/Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>PGC spends summer tagging animal in the area</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>How many tagged bears are out there?</p><p>Game Commission bear biologist Mark Ternent said out of last year&#8217;s bear harvest of 3,368, 250 were tagged. According to Ternet, the harvest is evident of the population, so if 7.5 percent of harvested bears were tagged, and the population is estimated at 18,000, than that means roughly 1,200 tagged bears are wandering throughout the state.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">x1-wycLw0uI </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YOUTUBE</p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Pennsylvania Game Commission’s bear tagging program uncovers valuable information