Doughnuts help trap bears

Oklahoma wildlife officials say nothing traps a black bear quite like a doughnut.

Wildlife officers are studying the growing black bear population in the eastern part of the state, and they say they've had the best success in trapping the animals when they use pastries as bait. (I’ve got news for you. It works with humans as well, eh!)

Craig Endicott of the Wildlife Department told Tulsa television station KOTV the agency usually finds 300-pound male bears and 200-pound females in its traps. But on a recent day, a 50-pound cub got to the doughnut first.

The bears are tagged and researchers take fur and tissue samples for DNA analysis. Some adult bears get tracking collars.

Researchers also are setting up about 200 bait stations equipped with hair snares. DNA from the hair will help map bears' movement.

It’s okay for researchers to use doughnuts to attract bears but apparently hunters also use this ‘baiting’ technique and that’s illegal (in the US anyway).

Jumpin’doughnuts…that’s 200 doughnuts! Where is this place and what time’s the bus leave? Unless, of course, the doughnuts are especially flavoured to attract the bruins – like adding some fish flavour. Bears are big berry fans so Tim Horton’s Fruit Explosion Muffins ought to work, too. Less calories as well not that that was mentioned but, hey, when the bears figure out how to spring the traps and then eat the doughnuts, soo instead of 300-pound bears, they may start finding 400-pound bears in the traps. .

Pictured is a bear claw, which is a sweet breakfast food, popular chiefly in the United States. It is an almond-flavored, yeast-raised pastry shaped in a large, irregular semicircle with slices around the outside, evoking the shape of a bear's claw. Bear claws often contain almond paste or raisins. Other fillings include butter pecan, dates, cream cheese, grape, cherry, and apple.

Bear claws are also offered from doughnut shops as paw shaped doughnuts with apple pie style filling, but the common interpretation of the bear claw is as a pastry rather than a doughnut.

Gotta go…I suddenly find myself ravenous.

See ya!

Bob

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