Southwest Lower Peninsula habitat, woodcock, the bear essentials and coy wolves?

In this episode of the Wildtalk Podcast, we talk to James Miller about all things habitat in the Southwest Lower Peninsula region of the state, fly away with a discussion about the American woodcock, answer a question about the existence of coywolves and we wrap up the episode with a chat about Michigan black bears. Pete Kailing also stops in to talk about hunting and trapping opportunities available in the month of March. 

Episode Hosts: Rachel Lincoln and Eric Hilliard
Producer/editor: Eric Hilliard

• For Pete's sake
  • Hunting regulation summary booklets
• All things habitat
  • State Game and Wildlife Areas
• All things feathers
  • American woodcock
• All things fur
  • American black bear

Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD) or email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov.

Transcript

Announcer:

The Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app is your digital connection to all things hunting and fishing in Michigan. Buy, store, and display your hunting and fishing licenses. Check your points and chances for elk and bear. Apply for the draw and view drawing results. Access all the hunting and fishing regulations. View your hunter safety certificate and report your harvest all from within the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app. Just click the app banner at the top of the page for download instructions at michigan.gov/hunting.

You know what that sound means? It's time for the Michigan DNR's Wildtalk Podcast. Welcome to the Wildtalk Podcast, where representatives from the DNR's Wildlife Division chew the fat and shoot the scat about all things habitat, feathers, and fur. With insights, interviews and your questions answered on the air, you'll get a better picture of what's happening in the world of wildlife here in the great state of Michigan.

Rachel:

Welcome to the Wildtalk Podcast. This is your host Rachel Lincoln, and joining me today is the conversation connoisseur, Eric Hilliard.

Eric:

Ooh, connoisseur. I like that. Maybe we can get the audience to bear with us for this particular episode.

Rachel:

Yes, I hope they'll stay with us so that they can get the bare essentials. And I'm so excited that I can barely contain myself to talk about, you guessed it, the American black bear.

Eric:

Yes, the Ursus americanus.

Rachel:

You've got it. It is one of my favorite Michigan species and the largest carnivore that we have in the state, so it's always fun to talk about. Joining us on this podcast as well is James Miller, who will be shedding some light on the early spring happenings for wildlife in the southwestern lower peninsula. And then we'll talk about another favorite species of mine and hopefully a soon-to-be favorite species of yours because they are an extremely neat critter, the American woodcock.

Eric:

Peent!

Rachel:

You've got it. I can't wait to talk about what that means and why that's an important sound this time of year. Later on in the episode, we will of course provide you the chance to win the one and only Wildtalk Podcast camp mug and Pete Kiling will be stopping in to tell us about all of the hunting and trapping opportunities happening this month. And as always, we are excited to bring you a fresh episode filled with all of this good information. But before we dive into the podcast, let's hear a word from our forest.

Announcer:

Trees provide for the well-being of our state. That's why we work so hard to keep our forests healthy and abundant so wildlife has a home and so do people so that there's clean air and water for everyone. And so Michigan's economy can be as strong as the trees that support it because every branch of forestry ensures that future generations will always have a tree for life and forests for a lifetime. To learn how sustainable forestry benefits your life, visit Michigan.gov/ForestsForALifetime.

Pete:

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade. For Charles Dickens and great expectations, I am Pete Kiling, wildlife biologist with the Michigan DNR and your guide to Michigan's March Outdoor Hunting Fund. It's not all about college basketball with rabbit and snowshoe hair hunting seasons both open until March 31st statewide.

For you deer hunters with portable stands on public lands, you have until March 1 statewide to remove them for the year. Thank you for that. And please treat public land as your own, which it is. If you've ever purchased a hunting license, for example, how to help pick up your empty shotgun shells or other trash when you have lunch while hiking or hunting on public land. Thanks again. Crow season and raccoon hunting season is still upon us feather or fur, both open until March's curtain call.

Raccoon trapping is still open until March 31 if you need a coonskin cap. Squirrel season is still in the game until the end of March as well. Seek them out in the hardwoods when the sun plays peek-a-boo between 10 and 2:00 P.M. No need to be out at dawn when they are the most active midday. High winds and thawing ground in March means trees blowing over or snapping off. Keep your eye out for hazard trees or widow-makers as the old timers called them. Mink and muskrat season slides to a halt March 1 statewide. But don't forget, you may keep up to 10 incidental muskrats trapped, incidental meaning muskrats caught by accident in a beaver or otter set. The beaver and otter trapping season is open, swimming right into April for beaver and to the end of March for otter. Count on those March pelts of muskrats and beaver to be prime even this late in the season.

So there you have it, my hunting friends, a March filled with healthy outdoor adventure in the seminal mountain man movie Jeremiah Johnson, 1972 starring Robert Redford. There is a scene where Jeremiah is sharing some grilled rabbit with longtime mountain man Bearclaw wondering what month of the year it was. Bearclaw says, "March maybe. I don't believe April. Winter stays long this high. March is a green muddy moat down below. Some folks like it, farmers mostly." I hope you will fare well Jeremiah. So do your best to get outdoors this March. Invite a friend and for Pete's sake, watch your top knot.

Rachel:

We are joined today by James Miller, a wildlife biologist in the southwest region to chat about some awesome work going on in the early spring in the southwestern counties of the Lower Peninsula. Thank you so much for joining us today, James.

James:

Oh, no problem at all. Thank you for having me.

Rachel:

What projects have the staff in the Southwest region been working on this time of year?

James:

So this time of year is a lot of maintenance projects. We're just trying to keep our infrastructure up. We're trying to get things planned out going into the summer. For example, over at Maple River State game area, Todd Bayshore is the wildlife assistant there and out of the Rose Lake office you have Chad Fedewa, Chad Krumnauer and Joe Bellman and those guys all kind of cover that area. But inside of Maple River specifically, we end up having some maintenance on our dike systems and water control structures. Every year we have beaver problems, we have different sets of vegetation that ends up blocking those. So we have to clean those out. Our dikes end up getting muskrat holes and those types of things in them, and that actually is what keeps that infrastructure and that water held inside of the areas that we want it to.

So we have to go in and maintain those over time. Another thing that we do is dam or water control structure removals. Same thing over there in the grass Saginaw state game area. They are having an infrastructure removal where they're pulling out a small dam water control structure. It's built out of a culvert and they have small blocks where they're able to put in and hold the water at certain levels and there they're taking out some of those sections trying to let the water move more naturally through that area. We don't want to hold it like we used to. Down in Allegan State Game Area, and they do a lot of Karner blue butterfly work throughout the winter going into the spring. Karner blue butterfly is an endangered species here in Michigan and that species needs a very specific type of ecosystem to exist called oak savanna and oak barrens.

That ecosystem supports a very specific plant that the caterpillars are the only... It's the only food resource that those caterpillars will utilize. So the lupine plant that is supported in that system needs to be propagated and kept going over time. And again, that ecosystem is in general important to our larger scale management in those areas. What they'll do is they'll go in, they'll mow out different shrubland species, different hardwood species. Oak itself is supposed to be in a savanna, very sparse, so they'll mow those areas down. They do some firework in there. Our prescribed burn program, they have different times a year that they can get in there, put fire on the ground that also supports the growth of those plants. And then that species itself ends up rebounding. Last several years they've been doing a lot of different mowing in there. Typically, they get a couple hundred acres a year that they mow down in that site.

And that's done by Jake Crawford, he's the wildlife assistant there. Dean Borman also has a large... He's another wildlife system, but he has a large component of doing the work there. [inaudible 00:08:43] is the new wildlife technician. [inaudible 00:08:47] been there a little bit over a year and then the biologist there is Don Papi. So they all kind of work together to create those programs and get that fire schedule right. We also have a couple of different people working on what we call our compartment review system. And our compartment review system basically is a way for us to look and touch every single area that we manage within a ten-year period. We select a certain amount of acres to rotate and go through, talk about the timber that's in that area, talk about the different ecosystems, the different wildlife species, rare species, plants that are going to be affected.

And in that process we kind of just break everything down into the most readable and easy to see format and then start making management decisions broken out of that. It's essentially a small blip in time for us to be able to say this is the direction we should go. Most of our offices this time of year are going through that process. Peris office up in the Big Rapids area, Pete is the biologist there and Rachel is the technician there and they just completed theirs last week, which was very successful. They got some good feedback on the management plans that they're going to be going through. So they're starting to move forward with some of that work. And then our final thing that we really kind of work on for management purpose specifically is timber sales. In this time of year, we have timber sales running mainly so we have less soil disturbance as the ground is frozen.

We don't end up damaging the local environment as much as we would if it was in the summer. And we're able to create larger divots, more water on the air landscape and rainy time comes, mud ends up attracting people to drive ORVs and things like that through there. Not a good thing for the regeneration of those sites. So in those timber sales we also are setting them up, not just administering them. So we have to go through and paint timber and it's very easy to see through the woods this time of year while all of the leaf is off and you can get through without typically too much snow cover. So we're able to get a lot of different management efforts done on the ground and that all just preps into going forward to our next year cycle where in the summer we actually get to do all of the on the ground work.

Rachel:

Well, you certainly just mentioned a lot of excellent projects, but the one that always catches my ear is mowing in the winter. Basically you're mowing snow for butterflies. Did that happen this year or did it not happen? It seems like we didn't get a lot of snow.

James:

Sure. So the mowing for butterflies is something that always seems to be intriguing for people. It isn't a game species, it's not something that is typically right up in the public eye, but it is still incredibly important work. And the reason we do that work in the winter is when we get four inches or more of snow, we are not going to kill the eggs of the butterfly. They overwinter once they have their second breeding cycle in August or as they've gone through and bred through by August I should say, they will lay their eggs and those eggs overwinter. If we were to go and mow those sites without any cushion, any barrier between the mowers that we utilize, which are varying from a drum head with teeth on it that just digs up anything down to the bare soil or a traditional rotary cutter mower or what we call a bat wing mower that has two large edges that come down.

Those end up putting through and crushing the eggs quite often along with our tractors, the tires will end up pushing them down. So we have to do that work in the winter to be able to preserve those eggs. If we don't, then we essentially keep our work down to a minimum or a maximum of a third of an occupied site. And that just means where we know that these butterflies exist. So we'll go in, mow out a certain section, basically break it down to bare soil if we can, and then that again helps that loop and come back. We did get to do some of that this year. I'll actually highlight a project from my own office, Richard Ring, who is one of the greatest wildlife assistants I've ever met. I might be a little biased, but he's a great employee and Mike McEachern ended up being a great asset for us as well. Those two were out mowing, and this is going to sound like a very small amount of acreage, but almost 12 acres of openings surrounding occupied KBB habitat and slightly into occupied KBB habitat.

Eric:

So James, when you say KBB habitat, you're not talking about the Kelley Blue Book value of the habitat? Correct. You are referring to the Karner blue butterfly, just for our listener's clarification there.

James:

Correct. I'm going to say I'm always talking about the Karner blue butterfly with KBB or CWD means coarse woody debris to a forester. To me it means chronic wasting disease. I apologize for the acronyms, but that is for Karner blues, that is typically how we refer to them.

Eric:

Yes, we love acronyms here in government, don't we?

James:

We do for sure. Our window was less than two weeks for the occupied area. We had a couple of large snowstorms that went through, put about two and a half foot on the ground of snow and that ends up also being a complication because once there's so much snow, we can't actually mow down and get rid of the woody vegetation that we want. So there's a limit to how much snow we can work inside of as well. But they ended up getting inside doing about 12 acres. These were areas that ended up being old timber sales where we had cut out some red pine, expected some oak regrowth and we had that, but we also had a bunch of autumn olive, honeysuckle, Oriental bittersweet, things like that that are negatively going to affect our regeneration for the site and then our desired effect for that site.

So these are very thick areas that take a lot of time to get into and it ended up being a little bit over a month for a timeframe for us to get in there, get everything mowed out, get the site prepped. We then put about $7,500 worth of seed into that landscape, specifically built four butterfly habitat. And I want to make a quick statement here that a lot of people don't realize our hunter funded projects, most of our money comes from what we call P-R dollars, Pittman-Robertson dollars, and that actually is where our hunters, because of their license buying and weapons and ammunition, there's a tax put to that stuff that comes back to us. That's what funds these habitat projects. And although we have that money coming just from hunters, we are still benefiting multiple species. This work that we do for butterflies is also going to benefit turkey, deer, squirrel, rabbit.

It's not going to harm those species in any way and vice versa. Any of the work that we do for our game species is going to also benefit our non-game species, our songbirds, our small mammals, those types of things that you typically wouldn't see. So when we get in and do this type of project, it's a benefit to everything actually. Right as soon as we were mowing, we ended up seeing 30 turkey there every day pretty much that we were on our tractors because we were tilling up the soil. We're adding new insects that are coming up out of the ground for them to access, especially once the snow level was gone for us and it just becomes a very active wildlife site that brings in a lot of biodiversity and becomes a very good ecosystem.

Rachel:

Thanks, James. Now you just mentioned turkeys we're getting some calls from the public who are experiencing flax of turkeys maybe hanging around in subdivisions or urban areas where they haven't typically seen them in previous years. Do you have any advice for people who might have turkeys that are living comfortably near their homes right now?

James:

Sure. So wildlife is incredibly adaptive. Some species don't do so well, but others deer, turkey, have no issue what so ever moving into urban environments and in some cases can become an annoyance, a nuisance. What people have to realize is there are certain things that they're going to have in their environment that's aesthetically pleasing to them but is going to actually work to bring these animals in closer to their homes. Different flowers that you plant, different types of dune grass and trees that you would plant on your properties. They're going to bring in a different set of animals. So before you plant anything on your property for aesthetics, I would definitely look at what wildlife is attracted to that. So if you are planting things like apple trees and you'd like to have that in your yard, that's great and wonderful, but you are going to attract things like turkey and they can be in large blocks sometimes, especially during the breeding season, coming up here in the spring April through June-ish, they'll attack their own reflection.

So they'll go up to cars and peck at your tires, peck at your doors, things along those lines. They aren't as dangerous as people may see them to be. Most people aren't super comfortable being right up on top of a very large looking bird, right? But they're still only going to be on average 15 to 20 pounds so that you can shoo them away. Typically if you want to take a broom or something like that, if you are having issues getting into your garage, getting up to your cars, you can just shoo them away. They'll act tough, but they'll back down. For the most part, it's not something you typically have to worry about. I also would highly suggest look at... If you are feeding wildlife in your backyard... We all like to bird watch and watch our squirrels and things like that in the winter and even in the early spring.

But having those feeders out and having those things for specific times of year is going to bring in certain types of wildlife that are going to affect you. So if you have five neighbors that are all putting out suet for a bunch of their songbirds, that's also going to attract turkey if they're in the area and they'll happily come and eat that seed, no [inaudible 00:19:11]. So maybe during the spring, if you are seeing an abundance of turkey or other undesired species, pull those food resources for them as well. Short time periods. It doesn't have to be forever, but if you pull it for two or three weeks, they have no reason really to hang around your area at that time.

Rachel:

Well thank you James for chatting with us. We really appreciate you taking the time to tell us about the meaningful work happening in your region in Southwest, Michigan.

James:

Thank you so much for having me.

Announcer:

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Rachel:

The day we're diving deep into the fascinating world of the American woodcock, also known as the timberdoodle. Now in my personal opinion, they are the most peculiar little ground nesting birds that are super charismatic and have a lot of really unique adaptations. These plump little birds are about 11 inches from their long slender bill to their tail feathers. So as a visual you can compare them with a really small loaf of bread. They have these really short necks and oval shaped body, short little legs and a two to three inch long skinny bill that sticks out the front of their head and is extra sensitive to help them probe soils to find earthworms and soil insects.

Eric:

They're a very weird looking bird. They're one of my favorites just in terms of how odd they look.

Rachel:

Mind you, they definitely seem like Dr. Seuss inspired. American woodcocks are creatures of the understory. So they prefer dense forests or brushy fields or young forests that have aspen or young maples where they can forage for food, where they spend the bulk of their time on the ground. So these are ground-nesting birds. So they build their nests in fallen leaves in these really small circular fashions and they'll add pieces of forest materials and twigs onto their nests, but they don't nest in trees and they really don't spend any times in trees, just primarily bottom of the forests or in these open fields. Now these birds, because they are ground-nesting, they are masters of camouflage, so they blend pretty seamlessly into their surroundings with this mottled brown plumage that looks like dead leaves. But despite their unassuming appearance, these birds have some rather quirky adaptations.

So they have these huge eyes that are positioned far back on their heads, which gives them a 360 degree field of vision mostly for detection of predators. So they use their long bill to stab it into the soil, and while that bill is underground, they need to still be able to look out for predators that are roaming pretty much everywhere on the forest floor with them. And if you're a longtime listener, then you've heard us talk about this before, but because of their far set eyes, over time, evolution does what it does and it turned their brain upside down. So a woodcock's ear openings are now set under their eyes and it's cerebellum. So the part of the brain that handles muscular control is no longer where it is in most birds and is actually at the rear of the skull. So as their eyes shifted locations, their skulls also shifted locations and it ends up under the rest of the brain.

So just above the spinal column is where their cerebellum now is. These birds primarily stick to the ground and will walk or run to get places or to avoid predators. However, if they're spooked or need to make a quick getaway, they will flush, meaning they will shoot up into the air really quickly. Now while nesting on the ground, females are the ones who are sitting on the nests, but they're quick to abandon a nest if it is disturbed in the early stages of incubation, which is usually around the end of March through April, however, later on in the season, she may respond to an intruder or a predator, something that feels threatening by hunkering down and lying low in motionless in hopes that she won't be seen, but she still could flush from the nest or feign an injury to distract the predator and move it away from her nest with eggs.

Now I have seen this, it is a little outrageous to watch how well these little birds can act. So what I saw, I was walking through an open field during the woodcock nesting season and this female woodcock was really close to my foot because they don't make sounds. So unless you're really watching where your feet are going, you could step on one of these birds. But she started to kind of twitter and make some noise and then she dropped her wing and just kind of started dragging her wing on the ground as she slowly led us away into this different location and was just locked eye contact the whole time. Like, "Look at me, look at me. I'm so injured." And she walked us away from her nest. It was amazing.

Eric:

And the Academy Award goes to...

Rachel:

No kidding, there are some other bird species who will do something similar. It was well, well done. She did a good job protecting her eggs. And coming soon to a field near you is the romantic spring dance of the timberdoodle. In the upcoming months of April and May, male woodcocks will set out to swoon potential mates while demonstrating one of the most charismatic and intricate spring breeding behaviors that you can see here in Michigan. We call it a strut or a dance, but this whole scene will begin during the dusk hours on a spring evening in an open field or in a young forest. The dance begins on the ground when the male woodcocks emit a loud peat sound that is then accompanied by these really notable dance moths where the body of the woodcock rhythmically bobs up and down in a really proud straw, and it is truly a sight to behold. Now, after a few peats, which do in fact sound like a peat, it's a noticeable sound. When you hear it, you will know it.

Eric:

Spot on.

Rachel:

It is spot on. That is a really good impression. I do it very well. I have heard it a lot. You should just take my word for it.

Eric:

You should just walk around if you're out shopping and just standing in the aisles going, "Peent!"

Rachel:

I'm going to get a couple looks.

Eric:

Yep. Someone will walk around the corner doing their version of the woodcock strut.

Rachel:

That should be the next TikTok dance.

Eric:

Peenting and dancing like woodcock.

Rachel:

Make it happen, internet. Do your thing. After a few peats, they shoot up into the sky flying this spiraling pattern upward into the sky before descending back down to earth in a series of zigzagging flights. Now while they're in the air, the flight feathers will make this really distinct twittering sound before they land back on the ground so you can hear them peat while they're on the ground. But then you also hear this whirling twittering sound as they're flying circles above your head. And when they do land, they will come down on almost exactly the same spot that they took off from. So you can oftentimes, if you hear them, you can kind of walk in a little closer and hear where they're taking off from and where they're landing so that you can see them do this entire courtship displays, but you don't want to get in the way.

So make sure that you give them lots of space and that you aren't disrupting their breeding season at all. These males will do this several times in the evening and will continue to do it over a couple of weeks until their breeding season is complete. Now fortunately, Woodcocks can be found throughout most of the states, so there is a really good chance there of reading woodcocks near you, and you can go find them in both here and watch this courtship display. So if you can look for an open field, it can really be any kind of open field or on the edge of a forest around dusk hours. If you keep an ear out for that infamous peat, you often will hear them before you see them and you can participate and watch this really amazing spring dance happen. American woodcock are an important part of our ecosystems and watching them in the spring makes for great entertainment. So I hope that you're able to get outdoors in the next couple of months and see American woodcocks in their natural habitats. Well, folks stick around because all things fur is coming up next.

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Rachel:

Well, it's March. So you know we're talking about...

Eric:

March madness.

Rachel:

Mammal madness.

Eric:

Mammal madness.

Rachel:

This segment we'll be talking about the American black bear. Why do we talk about bears in March? You might ask. Well, because they're leaving their dens where they've overwintered and they're becoming much more active this time of year. And for the northern two thirds of our state, this could mean that your garbage can or bird feeders could soon receive a visit from a very large, very hungry critter.

Eric:

Black bear will absolutely wreck a nice bird feeder. If you have a nice bird feeder, you should probably put it away.

Rachel:

You absolutely should. Black bears are the only species of bear we have in Michigan. We estimate that there are about 12,000 bears in Michigan with 10,000 of them in the upper Peninsula and about 2000 bears in the northern lower Peninsula. And while their fur might appear black from a distance, it actually can vary in colors from black to brown to even blonde in a whitish shade. Bears also vary in weight anywhere from 200 pounds to 500 pounds on average, but they can pack on even more pounds in the fall when they're foraging for up to 20 hours a day to build up weight to survive the winter without eating. Now to find food, bears typically rely on their sensational nose and keen sense of smell, which truly is incredible. Bears can smell food up to one mile away, and that's because of the enlarged area inside their nose called the nasal mucosa, which is 100 times larger than a human's. So even if you can't smell the food in your backyard, there's a really good chance that a bear can.

Eric:

"Hey, boo boo. I think I smell a picnic basket." "Hey, Yogi." He wasn't a black bear though.

Rachel:

He was not, but the principle still stands. Bears can smell things really well. Now when it comes to what they're eating, American black bears are opportunistic omnivores, meaning they'll eat just about anything they can get their paws on from fresh succulent berries and tender plant shoots to meaty insects or the occasional fish. These bears have a varied palate that allows them to take advantage of whatever food sources are available. However, this can cause huge problems for homeowners. Now in late March to early May, as bears are leaving their dens and they begin looking to replenish their bodies, they're in search of nourishment. And it's a really important reminder that human behavior can affect bear behavior during this time. Now, similar to humans waking up from a nap, bears are first going to look for water, often drinking from rivers and ponds or eating snow if there's still any available.

Eric:

That's usually what I do when I wake up from a nap, especially if it's wintertime, is I just go right for the snow and just start shoveling it into my mouth.

Rachel:

Some cool crisp snow to quench your palate.

Eric:

Yep. And only after I've eaten a healthy fill of snow do I go for regular snacks.

Rachel:

Understood. Well, while you're eating snow and meat sticks, bears are usually feasting on last year's vegetation or a salvaged carcass or fresh grain shoots as they emerge in the spring. Now, even though those food sources will be readily available, it is very difficult to resist the calorie rich offerings of birdseed and garbage and beehives and pet foods, all which led off a lot of fragrance and aromatic odors to draw bears in.

Eric:

What about dog poop left unpicked up because as you know, Coco, the Chiweenie, my favorite dog in the world, had a run out back. And so Coco would go to the bathroom out there and the security camera would pick up raccoons like a raccoon family would come in the middle of the night every few nights and basically go from Coco pile to Coco pile and devour those tasty nutrients left by Coco. Would a black bear do the same?

Rachel:

First of all, the look on my face is one of absolute disgust. All right, I'm Googling. Does dog poop attract bears? The first website that I'm looking at says, "One of the biggest mistakes that people make when letting their dog out to go to the bathroom at a campsite is that they let it poop anywhere it wants. That's a bad idea because letting your dog poop anywhere in the woods without concern is definitely going to attract bears. Dog poop is smelly."

Eric:

If they're eating trash, rancid trash, you don't want to leave pet food outside. Well, what is dog droppings other than pet food that has had a little bit of processing?

Rachel:

You bring up a strong point. And also dog poop, post snow melt, it is even more smelly in my opinion. So it certainly could attract critters and if not bears, as you've mentioned, raccoons, which can also cause you some distress. Picking up poop is just a... That's a good idea.

Eric:

It's a good idea, yeah.

Rachel:

Just across the board it's a good idea. So yeah, do that while you're out taking your bird feeders down and making sure your trash is picked up. Now, while you may consider watching bears forage near your homes to be exciting and a cool chance to see wildlife up close, what's really happening could be very troublesome for both you and the bear. So bears that find reliable food sources near our homes can become repeat visitors and they could lose their fear of humans. Additionally, if a female bear has cubs and she's teaching her young to forage from those food sources near your home, it can lead to really problematic behavior later in life when these cubs grow up and it can have negative outcomes for you, including property damage, loss of livestock and dangerous situations for both humans and bears. And unfortunately, most bears that become reliant on food sources provided by people have a much shorter lifespan or have to be relocated to different parts of the state. So if you care about bears, it's best not to feed them.

Eric:

Yeah, and it's a good idea to just be a good neighbor as well, because even if you really want to see these bears come in, your neighbors might not, and you might be creating an unsafe condition for the houses around you and again, an unsafe condition for that bear, which may end up getting itself in trouble needlessly by being tempted and lured in purposely. Never a good idea.

Rachel:

Exactly. Well said. But fortunately, avoiding these kinds of problems is easy if you can take a proactive approach and take action right now. So the steps are easy. Remove bird feeders. We like to put them up during the winter time to do some winter birding, that's fine, but taking them down right now is the best thing you can do to avoid attracting bears on accident to your property. Also this time of year and throughout the summer, birds have an abundance of natural food sources available to them, so they don't need to rely on your feeders. It's not their sole food provider as native plants and shrubs and insect hatches begin to take place. You also want to bring in outdoor pet foods and keep your grills and patio furniture clean this summer. As we mentioned, a bear has an incredible ability to smell, and while you might not be able to smell the spilled barbecue on your patio furniture, a bear walking by certainly can.

So while you're pulling your grills inside to keep them secure, do the same with your dumpsters or your garbage cans. Keep them inside overnight and take your garbage cans to the curb the morning of pickup rather than leaving them out and exposed to bears, but also to skunks, to possums, to raccoons. All of these critters can cause you a lot of mess to have to clean up if you leave them out and available overnight. Despite this little bit of fearsome reputation that American black bears have, they're generally shy and elusive creatures and they do prefer to avoid humans whenever possible. However, they're incredibly intelligent and curious, and again, are so motivated by finding food sources that they can come in closer if you've got something to pique their curiosity. Now, while encounters between bears and humans are relatively rare, it is always important to respect these animal space and give them the distance they need to feel safe.

If you encounter a black bear, there's a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, stand your ground. Do not run or play dead. Most bears are going to be afraid of you, and if you stand your ground, you make loud noises, make sure to provide a clear and unobstructed escape route for the bear. It is likely just going to run away. Rarely do bears ever attack, but if they do, fight back and just make sure to treat bears with respect and observe them from a distance. I had an encounter with a black bear. I spent a lot of time outside in the woods in these bear areas, and I talk about bears as part of my job. I finally had an encounter with one and it was like the textbook, this is what you do and this is how the animal will respond.

It was a black bear, but I was not in Michigan and I was walking along the Pacific coastline when I was in Washington and there was a black bear and it was rooting around in some washed up kelp because kelp is a putrid scent. So of course it would attract bears. And I only had one direction I could walk and I had to walk by this bear and there was high, I couldn't walk in inland anymore because there was coast wind on one side and there was a high ledge on the other, so I had to get by this bear. And so I just started, I found two sticks and I started banging them against each other and I started yelling at the bear and it so clearly was annoyed that I was there. It would just look at me and go back to eating its kelp.

And eventually it just kind of sauntered up the beach a little bit. It sat at the base of this tree and started yawning and scratching its butt and it was looking at me like, "Lady, I'm just trying to eat my lunch. Just get out of here." So it moved. I kind of just slowly walked on my way. As soon as I got past where it was, bear came right back down and started digging in the kelp patch again. So it was annoyed that I was in its space, but it let me pass and then went back to its bear business. So it was riveting experience. So as we've talked about, American black bears are really fascinating creatures and they've been able to thrive in a wide range of environments from forests to cedar swamps and now urban areas. But they do prefer habitats with plenty of cover and access with food and water where they can find a diverse array of foods that they need to fuel their massive appetites.

Bears are extremely mobile, so they do travel great distances in search of food and to establish new territories. That's often how and why we see young male black bears moving into urban areas in southern Michigan. A lot of times we will have bears in Grand Rapids or in Lansing in recent years, and that's just because it's usually a young male bear that's looking to establish a new territory, and so it moves a little farther south, but we just basically, we have too many people and too much urbanization in these areas for bears to really feel comfortable establishing a territory down here. So they almost always return back up north, but they do cover a lot of ground. The home range of a female bear can be between 10 and 20 square miles where a male bear can cover 100 square miles or more. So.

Eric:

You saying the word male bear like that immediately brings to mind like Richard Scarry books and the bear dressed up as a postal worker.

Rachel:

I haven't seen that, but I heard myself say male bear and immediately thought mailbag. We've got questions about male bears in our mailbag. I was so excited to hear we got a submitted question. We will address that right after this.

Announcer:

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Rachel:

And now let's take a look at a question we received in the mailbag.

Announcer:

1, 2, 3.

Sue:

My name is Sue and I have a question for the DNR Wildtalk. My question is, I hear people talk about coywolves in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula. Do we indeed have these crosses between the coyote and a wolf? Thank you.

Rachel:

And this question is best answered by Brian Roll, large carnivore specialist out of the Upper Peninsula.

Brian:

Sue, thank you for your question. The coyote has not evolved into a new species over the last century, nor are they breeding with wolves. The term coywolf is an inaccurate name which came into popular use after a Canadian friend and fellow biologist used the term to describe eastern wolves found in Ontario during an interview. He once jokingly told me he wished he had never used the term because it has caused nothing but misinformation about the two species.

Your question unfortunately has a long answer, so hopefully folks can follow along. Roughly one or 2 million years ago, gray wolves, Canis lupus, and coyotes, Canis latrans diverged from a common ancestral canid. There are two primary hypotheses when it comes to the existence of eastern wolves. Either they are a species, Canis lacans, or a subspecies Canis lupus lacans. These eastern wolves were thought to have diverged from the same evolutionary lineage as coyotes some 150 to 300,000 years ago.

In fact, in 1992, the US Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan for the Eastern Timber Wolf Canis lupus lacans was written under the assumption that wolves that currently and historically inhabiting the northeastern United States were a subspecies of gray wolves. However, currently, the best available scientific information supports that the recognition of eastern wolves as a species rather than previously believed to be a subspecies of gray wolves.

The wolves that make up the western Great Lakes wolf population being found in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are a unique wolf population with hybrid ancestry derived from eastern wolves and gray wolves. Phenotypically or what they look like, they look more gray wolf-like, but some traits vary and some being more eastern wolf-like. Despite reading hundreds of genetic samples on both wolves and coyotes, we have found no evidence of coyote mitochondrial DNA coming from the mother or Y-chromosomal DNA coming from the father integration in Michigan's wolf population.

If it does occur, it's so small or so rare we cannot detect it. The eastern wolf, which now persists almost exclusively in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, likely served as the conduit of ancestral gene flow between gray wolves and coyotes. The wolves of Michigan are a genetically identifiable form of wolf that occupies the western Great Lakes region, which hybridized with Canis lupus or gray wolves thousands of years ago whose origins were from somewhere else in North America. I know this is a long technical answer, but to put it simply and surely, wolves and coyotes are not breeding with each other.

Eric:

Thank you for sending in that question. And remember, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, simply record a voice memo on your phone and email it to DNR-wildlife@michigan.gov. Your question could be featured on the mailbag.

Rachel:

Now is your opportunity to win a Wildtalk Podcast camp mug. As a thank you to our listeners, we'll be giving away a mug or two every episode. Our February mug winners are Gene Fetig and Nancy Kilianowski. Check your emails. We'll be getting in touch with you soon. They answered the question, "How many chambers does an elk's stomach have?" The answer is a four-chambered stomach. They're actually ruminants the same as cows. And to be entered into the drawing for this month, test your wildlife knowledge and answer our wildlife quiz question. This month's question is, what Michigan Wildlife species vomits on itself as a defense strategy? Email your name and answer to us at DNR-wildlife@michigan.gov to be entered for a chance to win a mug. Be sure to include the subject line is Mug Me and submit your answer by March 15th. Good luck everyone.

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Michigan conservation officers are working hard to protect and keep the outdoors safe for current and future generations. If you witness a natural resources violation, you can call or text the report, all poaching hotline, 24 hours a day at 1-800-292-7800, or fill out the complaint form available at michigan.gov/wrap. If you would like more information on becoming a conservation officer, click on Become a CO at michigan.gov/conservationofficers.

Rachel:

Well folks, thank you for joining us on this March Edition of the Wildtalk Podcast. Remember, if you have questions about wildlife or hunting, you can call 517-284 Wild or email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov. We will see you back here in April.

Announcer:

This has been the Wildtalk Podcast, your monthly podcast airing the first of each month in offering insights into the world of wildlife across the state of Michigan. You can reach the Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 or dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov. (singing)