A memorable tracking season for Pete and Lisa: three bears recovered so far

I again apologize to those who submitted their pictures and have not seen them posted here. All the pictures get posted promptly on Facebook. It takes a while for us to post stories and pics here on this blog as due to the high volume we need to group them.

This post is dedicated to Pete Martin, a Deer Search handler from Kiamesha Lake, NY, and his tracking dachshund Lisa. Lisa was born on April 9, 2005, so now she 8.5 years old. Her parents are FC Billy von Moosbach-Zuzelek and FC Gela von Rauhenstein. Over the years Lisa proved to be an excellent tracker of wounded bear, and this year she has recovered three of them.

The first bear was recovered on October 13, and Pete described the circumstances:

What a day full of coincidences. I was invited to attend a bow hunting educational course in Yulan N.Y. Sullivan Co. When I pulled into the deli next to the fire house I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in 7 years. While I was participating in the bow education class representing Deer Search, a fellow inquired about a bear his friend had shot the night before. They were still looking for it. I advised him to call hunter out of the woods so he could come and talk to me. I interviewed the young hunter and his father at the fire house around noon. The call didn't sound good for several reasons. My biggest concern was that he arrowed a sow with two cubs by mistake. No arrow. No blood. I decided to make the best of the situation. It was only a couple miles up the road. Second weird coincidence. As I was making out paper work a truck pulls up and it turned out to be one of my best friends from High School. I haven't seen him in 30 years.

Off we went to track the hunter's bear. From the hit site nothing, at 75 yds. we had minimal blood. 100 or so more yards and  Lisa showed me  a wound bed; 50 yds. further another wound bed. Then 30 yards more and there was a dead bear. I think Lisa knew where this bear was before we started to track. Total time was about 20 minutes.

Took the bear back to Yulan Firehouse to show students and instructors what Deer Search can do for hunters. What an incredible day. I have you John & Jolanta to thank for this pleasure.



First bear of the season

On November 4 Pete wrote:

Again Yulan Firehouse - Sullivan Co. on Saturday afternoon, 18-hour-old bear track. Hunter trailed bear 80 yds Hunter shot the bear at 5 pm and he looked until 11pm. He trailed the bear for 80 yards. Next day the hunter and friends looked for bear all morning. We arrived at firehouse around 11. Trail was not marked. Very little blood then nothing. Lisa was very confident.  Showed me more blood 100 yards later. We found wound bed 50 yards further. Lisa made an extremely  intelligent and focused trail, She checked herself twice before going another 175 yards or so straight to a very large dead black bear.  As usual I stick around for the field dressing to see the true evidence of the shot placement and blood collection. It was a perfect liver shot. What a day! Lisa is the best I have ever seen tracking. Awesome!

Third bear of the season

 November 16 brought another e-mail from Pete who wrote:
Received a call from a hunter that Lisa and I tracked for three years ago for yet another bear. It was in Orange Co. on Tuesday Nov. 12. Arrow recovered, minus three inches. Very little blood on the ground, no blood on arrow. Shot at 4:30 pm. Took up track at 1:45 pm. next day so it was a 21-hour-old trail. Hunter tracked bear about 80 yards. Lisa was very focused on her job at hand. She made no checks on her way to the bear at least 500 yards away. No blood whatsoever. She was very vocal. Took us to live bear 10 yards away from him. Bear was dragging his hind legs in front of me trying to get away. Right away I knew obviously it was a spine shot. I had to catch up to bear to dispatch. Large male bear. Lisa is the best bear tracker ever! I don't even think she likes deer anymore (just joking) Third bear this year! Thank you again for an awesome tracker!

Well, Lisa proved Pete that she likes to track wounded deer too as few days ago he wrote back:
I received a call from a young hunter who shot his deer on Saturday morning at 7:15. (I tracked for the hunter's friend last week and that deer was found alive in its wound bed.) week. We took up track at 9 am Sunday morning.

Weather conditions were foggy, mild, calm. Pete says: "Walking to the hit site I could tell Lisa was already on to the deer. From the hit site the hunter marked the trail 70 yards or so. Off we went along the logging trail. One hundred yards or so Lisa took an immediate sharp right turn. There lay the deer, 10 yards off the trail. The hunter and his friends walked past the deer looking for it 5 or 6 times. They never saw it. Nice spike buck.

Hunter and family are very grateful for meat on the table this holiday season. I am so proud of Lisa and the work we do in the name of Deer Search."

Pete Martin with Lisa and a deer they recovered recently