Black Bear Tracking Tips and Techniques: Tracking Black Bear Trails


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Investigating bear scat can be very helpful if you are tracking bear. Their scat will not only tell you if they have been in the area, but can also give you an indication of how long ago and where they might like to hang out. So, to effectively use bear scat to track bears, follow these easy steps:

Step1
Obviously, you will want to wear rubber gloves whenever you are working with scat. To avoid chances of getting diseases you never want to touch scat with your bare hands.

Step2
Look for the bear's food in his scat. Although bears eat a variety of things, most commonly they eat vegetation in spring, berries in summer and nuts and acorns in fall. You will be able to see pieces of undigested food in the scat.

Step3
Measure the diameter of the scat with a caliper. Black bears scat will have a diameter between 1 1/4 to 2 3/4 inches. The smaller diameter scat typically belongs to a female and the larger to a male.

Step4
Examine the scat for freshness to determine how long ago the bear passed through the area. If the scat is dried out, has colonized with insects or the plants underneath the scat have yellowed and died the scat is probably at least a couple of days old.

Step5
Scour the area for more bear scat once you have located the first droppings. If you find a lot of scat in one area you might have located a bedding area. Look for other signs of bear activity in the area such as hair and scrapings on trees and the ground.