Bears Eating Elk Poop ?

[kevin_t]

I know odd question, but it's bugged me for awhile.

Here are the details last year a buddy and I saw a bull bed down about a mile away. We took our time waiting for the wind and got within a 100 yards of where we saw him bed. It was a flat bench with a mix of scrub oak and aspens. While we were on the bench, we kept saying we would not think there were any elk there except that we saw one. We tried some cow calling and eventually lost our patience and decided to go in closer where we scared him up at 30 yards and did not have a shot. We only had bull tags. We walked around the bench for awhile, a bumped some cows nearby. There still was no recent sign of Elk, but there was bear scat every 10 feet or so. The next day we watched him bed in the same area, and we tried to bugle to see if he would get up. If he did our plan was to do that rather than cow call. Well, he got up and grabbed about 15 cows and a spike and came towards us and into another drainage. These were not the same cows as the day before, and we had thought there might have been another bull on the same bench the day before, based on our disagreement of what direction the bull went. So we now figured there were two small herds on the bench, and we had snuck past the first group of cows the first day. There was still no sign of Elk on the bench , just a ton of bear scat. The next season, another buddy said he saw 7 bulls on the same bench (and all he had was a cow tag). This spring I went up there, before the bears were really up, and there was elk scat everywhere. The only explanation we could come up with was possibly, the bears were eating it in their desire to get as much late season calories as possible. Plausible ? Has anyone seen this ?

Thanks
Kevin

[Freebird134]

My dogs love eating deer poop, so why not? lol

[RockChucker30]

Kevin,

Good to see you here, and awesome subject for a first post!

I know coyotes and dogs love to eat baby calf poop, especially when the calves are still drinking colostrum. It makes me wonder though, because at that time of year there shouldn't be a whole lot of calories left in the elk scat after they get done ruminating it. Unless they liked the taste.....I would think there would be an easier way to get calories.

[kevin_t]

Yes there are some familiar names here. Yes, as a first post, perhaps I should have done just a basic introduction.

I know it sounds odd, but over 2 days we saw at least 25 different elk on that bench. The only anywhere near fresh scat we saw other than a ton of bear scat was from the bull as we scared him out of bed. Had we seen more sign (other than seeing the bull from a distance) we likely would have been much more patient. Part of our impatience, was that we thought perhaps it was a freak accident that the bull was there and he moved on while we were waiting for the right wind and everything to get in range. When we found the small group (7 or 8 ) cows after jumping the bull there was no scat anywhere near them either.

The only other theory we could come up with was extreme constipation of the herd I saw no deer scat either, yet I saw 3 or 4 mule deer as we were waiting on the bull. There are a lot of bears in the area, and I saw a sow and two cubs in the same area earlier this spring.

Any other ideas why this would happen ?

[lovestobowhunt]

My dogs love eating deer poop, so why not? lol

Ha ha, I think you are right, "why not". I have to keep one of my dogs from trying to get in the cat box. My husband calls it almond rocha...gross!

[POk3s]

My dogs love eating deer poop, so why not? lol

That was going to be my exact response

I don't think a bear could eat that much elk poop if there's that many elk in the area. Did you ever see a bear? Maybe you're confusing bear poop with elk poop.

[kevin_t]

I know bear poop, and did not see a bear that day but have seen several in the area before. There are a lot of bears in that area. it's a mixture of scrub oak and aspens.