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Welcome to www.ManitobaHunters.com
Thanks for checking out www.ManitobaHunters.com , we are still making changes to the site but it is open for registration (which is free) please have some fun and share your experiences. 
Posted on Friday, September 07
Manitobans mark first Provincial Hunting Day
Posted by WpgJim on Sunday, September 27, 2009 (14:59:01) (11 reads)
WINNIPEG - Manitobans celebrated Provincial Hunting Day today in Whittier Park by learning about wildlife conservation and how to cook wild game.
Earlier this week, the province proclaimed the fourth Saturday in September as Provincial Hunting Day. They day is meant to celebrate the role hunting plays in wildlife management and conservation.
Hunting season is now underway across the province. This year, Manitobans will be able to hunt big game on Sundays, and the requirements for youth hunting mentors have been simplified.
For more information on hunting season dates and bag limits, visit www.gov.mb.ca/conservation.
Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/breakingnews/Manitobans-mark-first-Provincial-Hunting-Day-61937797.html
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Bear shot in Selkirk
Posted by WpgJim on Friday, September 25, 2009 (18:08:54) (12 reads)
Discovered animal destroyed after public safety deemed at risk
By Mark T. Buss
A 300-pound male black bear was shot and killed within Selkirk city limits early Wednesday morning as the public’s safety was deemed at risk.
Selkirk RCMP Const. David Obirek said the time of day, the proximity to area schools and the options available to officials forced the hand of Conservation officers to kill the animal and dispose of the carcass.
“It is unfortunate but in a heavily populated area like this the only option was to destroy the bear,” Obirek said.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, Mounties and Conservation officers converged on the 400-block of Sinclair Avenue following a report of a bear sighting.
Wilf Huebsch at 401 Sinclair said he received a call from a family member letting him know of the situation. He said he went to his back door to look in the yard only to see the bear sleeping approximately 50 feet away.
Huebsch noted the wild animal had no fear of him – not a good sign in a residential area, he said.
“I opened the door and there he was,” Huebsch said. “He wasn't acared of me at all. He looked at me and put his head back down.”
He said it wasn’t long after Conservation officials showed up and made the decision to kill the animal.
Huebsch – himself a retired RCMP officer and former St. Andrews emergency co-ordinator – said authorities made the right decision. He said if they tried to tranquilize the animal, the bear could have bolted and caused untold damage.
“We’re half a block from the elementary school, we’re a block from the high school, people are walking to work ... you don’t know what would have happened if he started to run,” Huebsch said. “The response was quick and I have no complaints.”
The incident involving the bear actually began 10 hours earlier. Officials attended reports of a bear milling about in the 400-block of Nelson Avenue around 11 p.m. Tuesday night. The animal was reported to have crossed back and forth across the roadway from yard to yard.
Obirek said once on the scene, officials chased the animal south. Watching it jump fences and plow through backyards, authorities lost sight of the animal behind the Sunova Credit Union on Main Street. They continued the search but to no avail.
Obirek said discussions with Huebsch’s neighbours after the animal was put down led them to believe the three or four-year old large bear was rooting through garbage and gardens in the area as well as feasting on fruit trees through the night.
The animal's carcass was taken to a landfill for dispossal.
Wednesday’s incident raises the fall bear report count to over 60 with one month to go. Last year, 41 reports were forwarded overall.
Some area residents believe bears have become more brazen as they continue to forage for food following a poor summer for berries and other items.
Conservation officials say homeowners have a role to play in limiting bear sightings by managing their properties so bears aren’t attracted to them. Garbage and food should be secured in a manner that doesn’t allow odours to escape and attractants like compost piles and beehives should be covered.
Bird feeders and garbage are reportedly responsible for 70 per cent of calls.
Source: http://www.selkirkjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1763794
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Bow hunter uses arrow to fight off grizzly
Posted by WpgJim on Thursday, September 17, 2009 (15:18:46) (99 reads)
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
Rory Chapple was hunting for elk near the Kechika River in northern B.C. when he says he came face-to-face with a grizzly.
Photograph by: Handout, Vancouver Sun
An arrow intended for an elk instead saved a veteran bow hunter’s life when a grizzly attacked him last week in northern B.C.
Rory Chapple, an autobody worker from Fort. St. John, was on an annual elk hunting trip with four buddies near the remote Kechika River when he left camp in search of elk at about 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 8.
He was alone because his buddies didn’t want to hunt in the rain. Armed with his bow and quiver, he was ambling up a hill when he heard something huffing behind him.
Turning around, he found himself face-to-face with a growling grizzly sow and three yearling cubs.
“I’d walked about 100 yards before she came out of the bush and charged me,” Chapple, 39, said. “I couldn’t outrun her and I had nowhere to hide. It was a losing battle so all I could do was holler and scream at her.”
As she charged toward him, the screaming Chapple began backing up but his heel hooked on a root and he tripped.
The bear lunged and Chapple grabbed the only tool he had — an arrow from his quiver — and stuck it in her throat. He didn’t have time to load the bow.
“My first reaction was to save my ass. It’s ‘what can I do to survive this.’” Chapple said. “She landed on top of me, pushed my head into the ground and stepped on my right leg, ripping my pants.”
As the bear turned away, the arrow pushed deeper into her throat but she eventually managed to dislodge it and fled with her cubs into the willows.
That’s when the shock hit, Chapple said, and he was “hunched over like a bowl of jelly” when his buddies found him.
“I was close enough to camp so they could hear me screaming,” he said. “You realize it’s a matter of life and death here and all I had to defend myself was a bow and arrow.
“It could have definitely been worse.”
The hunters searched for the bear but there was no sign of her or her cubs in the area.
Chapple, a father of two girls, said this is the first time in seven years that he has seen a bear near the Kechika River, which is in a remote part of B.C.
To get to the camp, he and his buddies drove for eight hours up the Alaska Highway and then took a boat for another 3.5 hours on the river. The group returned home two days later, with Chapple relatively unscathed.
Chapple, who is president of the Fort St. John archery club, said he plans to return to the Kechika River next year and has already bought a can of bear spray.
The arrow that saved him, he said, will be kept safe in a glass case.
Source: http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/hunter+uses+arrow+fight+grizzly/2001599/story.html
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Who you gonna call?
Posted by WpgJim on Friday, September 11, 2009 (17:33:29) (97 reads)
East Selkirk resident disgusted after bear report goes unchecked
By Mark T. Buss
An East Selkirk resident who watched a mother bear and four cubs roam his property for over four hours on the weekend is disgusted with the way his report was handled by Manitoba Conservation officials.
Kyle Wass said not only did Conservation officers fail to attend the scene, he still hasn’t received a follow-up call.
“I grew up in a hunting family and I’ve had a lot of dealings with (Conservation) over the years, but the fact nobody would come out and investigate ... I was stunned,” Wass said.
Wass said the incident started around 2 a.m. on Sept. 5 when his two dogs became agitated and began barking vigorously in the family’s backyard on Strathcona Road across from Happy Thought School.
Wass said he went outside to investigate, only to find the dogs had treed two bear cubs on the property.
Realizing something else was in the yard, he turned to find a 250-pound sow and two more cubs scampering up a tree.
“She was right behind me and I didn’t even know it,” Wass said. “Needless to say, I got back into the house pretty quick.”
Wass contacted the Selkirk RCMP, who gave him the Conservation 800-number tip line to call, which he said he did.
After going through the automated directory, Wass said a woman answered the phone who, he said, sounded like she wasn’t to impressed with having her sleep disturbed.
“She told me the Selkirk Conservation office was the hardest one to get hold of and advised me to leave the animals alone and they would eventually go away,” Wass said in a joking tone. “I tried to explain I lived in the village, across from the elementary school ... that I didn’t live off in the boonies somewhere bears normally wander through, but that didn’t seem to matter.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” he added.
Able to eventually gather his dogs in the house, Wass said he and his family spent the next four hours watching the bears climb down from their perch and move from the back yard to the front yard.
As the clock passed 6 a.m., and the bears were still on his property, Wass said he realized no Natural Resources officers were coming to investigate.
“By 7 a.m. the bears were gone from my yard but we didn’t know where they went,” Wass said. “This is a pretty active place. People take their dogs for walks, people jog ... it wasn’t a very good feeling.”
Wass’ mother-in-law Elaine Markwart said her family had two other bear sightings within the last week – one on Frank Street and one of Church Road – including allegations of gunshots Monday night.
Markwart believes bears have become more brazen as they continue to forage for food following a poor summer for berries and other items.
“They’re starving,” Markwart said. “They’re looking for food and I think that makes them dangerous.”
A former Lord Selkirk School Division trustee, Markwart said the bear sighting’s proximity to the Happy Thought School – where children spend their summers congregating on the playground – is unsettling.
“This is potentially dangerous situation in a residential area and we can’t get a proper response?” Markwart questioned. “If (Conservation) doesn’t handle this, who does?”
Environmental sources say protocol regarding bear sightings involves reports being forwarded to the appropriate Conservation office which will then result in a call from a Conservation officer. At press time, it was undetermined if the Saturday morning report was ever forwarded to the Selkirk office.
Barry Verbiwski, head of Conservation’s problem wildlife unit, confirmed 59 bear reports have been called in the Selkirk area this year with approximately one month to go, as opposed to 41 all of last year.
Verbiwski advised homeowners have a role to play by managing their properties so bears aren’t attracted to them. Garbage and food should be secured in a manner that doesn’t allow odours to escape and attractants like compost piles and beehives should be covered.
“Bird feeders and garbage are responsible for 70 per cent of calls,” Verbiwski said.
He added not all reports are investigated but did confirm ones where animals won’t leave a property are normally followed through.
Although he couldn’t officially comment on Saturday’s incident, Verbiwski said having four cubs and a mother in a rural residential setting should have sent up a red flag in his view.
Selkirk Journal calls to Conservation Minister Stan Struthers’ communication staff were not returned as of press time.
Bear attack
While bear sightings are not that uncommon in and around East Selkirk, the community’s worst fears were realized in August 2005 when Harvey Robinson, 68, was attacked and killed by a 250-pound black bear while out picking plums behind his Two Mile Road property in the RM of St. Clements.
The incident could have been even more disastrous had family members not waited for RCMP officers to arrive on the scene. As they stood near Robinson’s body, the bear came charging out of the bush forcing a Selkirk Mountie to shoot the bear twice with his 9-mm pistol.
The bear was found dead five hours later in a massive search that included Selkirk RCMP, Manitoba Conservation and seasoned St. Clements hunters while a helicopter soared overhead.
Source: http://www.selkirkjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1749579
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Wildlife boot camp
Posted by WpgJim on Saturday, August 29, 2009 (14:43:41) (13 reads)
Petersfield teen digs in at Oak Hammock Marsh camp
By Hayley Brigg
A local teen had the chance to fuel his inner conservationist last week.
Zachary Clemons, a 13-year-old Grade 8 student from Petersfield, spent a week-long excursion at Oak Hammock Marsh Aug. 11-14 after being selected to participate in Ducks Unlimited Canada’s (DUC) 14th annual Great Greenwing Adventure.
Clemons, along with 10 other youth from across Canada and two from the U.S., were handpicked by DUC to participate in an all-expenses-paid trip to Oak Hammock from for what DUC calls the ‘eco-adventure of a lifetime’.
“It’s an opportunity for kids who may already been involved and interested in the environment to build on and foster that interest,” said Rick Witsherd, education manager for Oak Hammock Marsh. “The hope is that eventually they might go on to pursue studies or careers in the environmental or conservation field.”
The group spent the week visiting not only Oak Hammock Marsh, but Delta Marsh north of Portage la Prairie to work alongside University of Manitoba biologists, learning how to study wetlands and waterfowl.
“They’ve been able to do some really great things like participating in a small bird and waterfowl banding program,” said Witsherd. “They’ve even had the opportunity to learn how to use wildlife radio telemetry.”
In addition to the educational side of the camp, the students had the opportunity to have fun, learning how to make decoys, use a GPS system, canoe, skeet shoot and do water and invertebrate sampling.
Clemons said he was encouraged by his parents to apply for the camp, submitting a personal essay detailing his experience with environmental-related activities and explaining why he felt he deserved to be selected.
“Conservation is important to me because I want it to be around for my children and grandchildren,” he said. “I respect the wetlands in my area and I enjoy going duck hunting, especially at Netley Marsh. I always make sure that when we hunt, we only leave our footprints behind.”
For Clemons, he says the experience he had at the camp was not only an enjoyable one, but it ignited a more profound interest into pursuing a environmentally-related career.
“I want to become a conservation officer,” said Clemons. “I have always thought about being one but this has made me want to do it a lot more.”
Source: http://www.selkirkjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1713417
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