Lisa is still recovering wounded bear at the age of 13.5!

I have not expected to receive any pictures of recoveries from Pete Martin this year as his Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek is 13.5 years old. Boy, was I wrong! This recovery is the 19th bear in Lisa's tracking career. Huge congratulations to Pete and Lisa!

Pete wrote in his email:

Sunday, October 21, 2018  was the day of this awesomely memorable bear track. I received the call the nite before. The shot was taken @ 5:30 p.m. Hunter waited a good hour before looking. In the dark he took up track with his buddy and proceeded to follow blood for about 75-100 yds. No arrow found but recovered the luminock glowing in the dark. When he came to a 1/2 acre recently cleared logged area, hunter backed out for the night. This is where Lisa and I started track next day 18 hours later. 

No blood to get started on, but Lisa picked up scent and went across this soft wet dirt/rock area to the woods on the other side. We crawled 30 or so yards in on our hands and knees, and Lisa took me right over top of blood. Our confidence soared. Now Lisa was very vocal. Another 25 yards, another spot of  blood. Little ways more hunter noticed blood. After a very thick mountain laurel we came to logged road.  

This was Lisa's first check. 15 minutes, round and round, and back again, where we came from only slightly to the left. A while later another check in the laurel. Small circles and zig-zags. After figuring this one out, she had positive body language and nose glued to the ground. Then another point of confusion before she picked it up again. All this time she was vocal when tracking and quiet when checking. So focused you could see what she was thinking. Just when we started to have some doubts, Lisa got quiet, pulled me to a beautiful black bear and started to claim her prize.

Yet another two hour lesson in trust taught to us by Lisa. She wiped all shadows of doubt anyone could have had about her ability to track so flawlessly because of her age and weight. This was black bear #19 at age 13 1/2 years old. I can't ask for anything more of a blessing. Thank you John and Jolanta.

Memorable tracks do not have to end with recovered deer or bear

Sometimes the most memorable tracks do not produce a dead deer or bear at the end. These are two examples of such tracks that were also very long. A big thank you to Chris and Pete for sharing them with us..

Chris Barr from Indiana tracks with Gerti (Gwen von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is a  5½ year old daughter of Billy and Gilda, and the track is a direct quote from his email:

I wanted to tell you about my most recent track with Gerti which occurred this past Tuesday evening. The hunter shot a small buck at 9:00 in the morning with a head on facing chest shot. He had blood and bone fragments at the hit sight. He tracked for approximately 150 yards before losing the blood. I arrived at the hit site at about 7:00 that evening and put Gerti down at the hit. She took off immediately with no re-starts necessary. She pulled me down to the point of loss very quickly. I had not seen any blood since the first 50 yards or so but she was pulling very confidently. We continued for several hundred yards with no blood. I called back to the hunter, who was doing a great job of keeping up, that the rope “felt” the same as it had since the hit site but that I was dying for some confirmation. (I have a bad habit of not trusting Gerti sometimes). Well I finally saw some blood and I felt very confident that I could pretty much blindly trust her from that point forward.

It ended up being a 3.5 mile track where we caught up to the deer twice and I even got a shot at him the second time. He only let me get about 30 yards away. The cliff-notes version is that we were in Yellowwood State Forrest. We had no cell signal and we had to rob the batteries from my portable radios for my GPS as it had gone dead. We kept pushing the deer because I just felt (and I checked with 2 experts) that it was the right thing to do. To this point, I had never had a track where I had seen the deer and not eventually recovered it. 

We finally had to make the hard decision to abandon the track. We recorded last blood with GPS coordinates and he was going to try to come back. I was honestly starting to get a little freaked out when everything battery powered we had was dying. I was concerned that if we lost our lights that we may have a long night in the woods in front of us. Temps dipped into the 20’s, and as you can imagine, we’d worked up quite a sweat.

This was without a doubt Gerti’s best track of the season. I give her credit for a “find” because she found him twice! I believe shot must have glanced down and along the brisket and hit the shoulder. I think we could have eventually walked him down. I hated to leave him.

We’ve had a frustrating season. This was only our 10^th track total. We are usually in the 20’s by now. I haven’t had the local calls I’m used to and many of the UBT calls have just been too far with me working and hunting myself. This was our 3^rd find and possibly Gerti’s best track ever. The total distance from the truck back to the truck was 5.5 miles….and suffice it to say there were no fields and the hills of Brown County can get steep.

When we made it home around midnight Gerti ate supper and then disappeared under a blanket with my daughter’s fiancé. Not a bad life…for me either.

---------------

Pete Martin from Kiamesha Lake, NY, wrote recently about one of his tracking adventures with Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek, a  9½ year old daughter of Billy and Gela.

What an unbelievable bear call on Saturday night of November 15.  Took up track Sunday morning @ 7:30 am, 11 hours later. Bear was shot with .270 @ 50 yards by a 17 year old hunter. It was in Ulster County, on state land in Voor Nuy Kill area outside Ellenville.

The hit site showed moderate blood and hair. As we proceeded to track it was obvious that the bear was bleeding profusely. The hunter, his dad and uncle did excellent  job tracking bear 400-500 yards, zig-zagging up and down side of steep mountainside. We passed last marker and blood. Lisa was on this track like nobody’s business. Straight down mountainside to small wet swampy area with good blood all the way.

Here comes the LONG TRACK made short. Next 4 miles up mountainsides, down steep hills, flat open hardwoods, blowdowns, streams, mountain laurel. You had to crawl on hands and knees. Lisa showed us every little blood spot you could possibly imagine, It wasn't too long, maybe one mile, I realized and explained to tracking crew we were pushing a wise old bear. We saw fresh wet blood. At start of track blood was plentiful and dark. This bear couldn’t have been that far ahead of us but just far enough we couldn't catch up. Lisa was totally vocal which indicated to me she was on very fresh scent and blood.

There were two very tough checking spots for Lisa to figure out but after 12 minutes or so she took us off in the right direction to more blood. Amazing. Some blood drops were 75 to 100 yards apart. I could not believe the strength and persistence of this bear. This bear did everything you could imagine Circled, went up and down same but different hills more than once, back tracked, bedded. Near the end blood was getting watery and weak but Lisa was right on it. The tracking crew and hunter could not believe it. At one point close to end of track someone behind me said "you have a million dollar dog -never saw anything like this before. These were experienced hunters.

Lisa never quit pulling, nose to the ground so focused and vocal. She wanted this bear so bad and knew it wasn't that far ahead of us. Still had small drops of blood going up yet another hill. Hunter’s father and uncle decided we were not going to catch up to bear, and they called off track after 4½  hrs. Everybody was completely exhausted, myself including. My only regret is that we didn't take a long break and continue to track as I thought the bear must be at his end. We were almost to the Roundout Reservoir.

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

Terrific tracking season for Susanne Hamilton and her German dachshund Buster

We have written about Susanne Hamilton and her German dachshund Buster many times before. It is hard to believe but in June Buster turned 11 years old.  His age does not seem to be slowing him down, quite the opposite. So far he has had an outstanding tracking season. Susanne is a dedicated and driven tracker who travels long distances, often at night as after all she carries a full working schedule during the day. We wish this amazing tracking team from Maine many successful recoveries in the future.

Not too many handlers are willing to track a wounded bear at night. Susanne seems to be an exception.

 

Susanne wrote: We tracked it a quarter mile till point of loss, then we tracked it another quarter mile with only two spots of blood. It was still alive when we found it.... and put it out of its suffering quickly. The moose was 828 lbs with a 42 inch spread.

A 16-hour paunch shot. Smart hunter left it alone and Susanne and Buster found it in 200 yards!

A 17-pointer!

Hunters wrote about this track: Josh Callahan shot a doe last night which headed through brush that was murder to track in. We struggled to follow the blood trail for 4 hours. At 11 PM, Buster and handler Susanne Hamilton joined the search. Buster is an amazing blood trailing Dachshund...yes that's right, Dachshunds are great tracking dogs! Buster jumped on the blood trail and found the deer within 10 minutes.
 

Buster does not mind sharing his find with kids.

Seven tracks in two days result in five deer recovered by Lightning Mountain Outfitters and Tucker

On Sunday I was in Batavia, NY to attend one day of field trials, and when I got back on Monday morning I found out out that Ray and Pam Maurier from New Hampshire have been very busy tracking. They did seven tracks in two days and recovered five deer (on Monday they tracked four deer and recovered all of them).

We are so proud of Tucker (Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek), who is our Sky's littermate. We could not imagine a better home for Tucker, who is loved and cherished, but also given so many opportunities to track.

The first picture shows a bear that Trucker recovered a week ago so this is not part of the last two days' tally. Ray posted the summary of the last two days on Facebook and I might be able to repost it here. Anyway, huge congratulations to Pam and Ray and their tracking teckel Tucker!

Team work at its best: Deer Search's Jagdterrier and Dachshund recover a bear

We received a note and a bunch of really nice pictures from Pete Martin, a Deer Search member who tracks with a seven-month-old Lisa von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Billy's daughter.
 

Pete writes: "On October 5, 2012 Marc Niad with Jagdterrier Dakota and Pete Martin with Dachshund Lisa recovered a black bear for a hunter in Orange County in the town of Monroe. The bear was shot from a tree stand about 20 yards away. The bear circled in a loop about 50 yards and took off through a swamp. Both dogs were side by side scenting the bear. We worked well together as a team. This was the hunter's first bear with a bow after hunting 30 plus years. Congratulations Jerry."

 

Pete Martin with Lisa and Marc Niad with Dakota next to Jerry the hunter and his bear.

 

Deer Search and United Blood Trackers member with his experienced and highly successful Jagdterrier Dakota.

Great picture of Pete Martin with Lisa. You guys look good!

 

Lisa's coat has been groomed in advance of tracking season.

 

Blood trailing bears with dachshunds

Blood trailing bears??? Well that’s what they call it, but bears often  leave very little or no blood on the forest floor. Their dense, heavy coat soaks up the blood, and all the hunter or handler sees is occasional “wipes” of blood on trees and saplings. These wipes are found at long intervals. What the dog works on is the bear’s footprint scent which is very strong and holds up for more than a day if there is not a heavy rain.

It is great to see good dogs going to gifted and dedicated handlers who work in bear country. What Ray Maurier, Mike Lafleur and Steve Herriges have been doing  with their dachshunds is going to impress a lot of hunters and add a new chapter to the lore of bear hunting.

Steve Herriges from Wisconsin recovered his own bear next morning with help from Remi (Lasko von Moosbach-Zuzelek).

On the left: Mike Lafleur of www.trailsendguideservice.com and his wirehaired dachshund Ted (Billy's son) have already recovered another bear (we don't have a picture). The bear in the picture goes to Ray and Pam Maurier and their 13-month-old Tucker.

This is bear number #3 for Tucker. It is hard to believe that it is only September 17. Ray and Pam Maurier are a hard working team from Manchester, New Hampshire. For more info go to http://www.lightningmountainoutfitters.com

 

 

Tracking dachshund Tucker finds a dead bear in a tree

As told by Ray and Pam Maurier and written up by John Jeanneney

Ray and Pam Maurier of New Hampshire (Lightning Mountain Outfitters) started this tracking season with an unforgettable bear call. Their 13-month-old tracking dog Tucker  (Storm von Moosbach-Zuzelek) took a track from the previous day for 400 yards and treed the bear!

 

Here are the details: The bear had been been shot by a hunter in northern New Hampshire near evening with a .300 Savage rifle. It proved to be a fatal liver hit, but the only blood was at the hit site. The bear took off at the shot and headed for a very dense swamp. The hunter followed the bear down to the swamp, but there was no visual sign to lead him farther.

 

The next day, before dawn,  Ray, his wife Pam and their tracking dachshund Tucker were on their way from southern New Hampshire. As a puppy Tucker had tracked wounded deer the previous season, but Ray was not sure of how he would react to bear scent. In addition it was raining. Rain is no problem when there is a blood trail; the scent hangs on after visual blood washes away, but foot print scent is different. It does not hold up as well to rain.

 

Nothing was a problem for Tucker once he got to the hit site. The unfamiliar bear  scent was kind of weird, but there was enough to go on. Ray could tell by Tucker’s body language that he was definitely on the line. The scent led into some very dense swamp vegetation, and Ray could only follow Tucker on his leash by crawling on his hands and knees. In this fashion they went in about a hundred yards. There were bear trails everywhere.

 

Then Tucker turned and tracked out of the swamp. What was going on? Tucker tracked positively along a beech ridge and up ahead Ray could see a campsite. It seemed very unlikely that a wounded bear would go where humans had been spending a lot of time very recently. Then Tucker stalled. His tail said that there was still plenty of scent, but Tucker could not carry the line any farther. Strange!

 

Ray took Tucker back to the hit site, and they started over. This time Tucker forked off the original scent line to the swamp and tracked up the beech ridge again to the point of “loss”. This time  Ray looked up. Forty feet up in a big tree, there lay the bear, dead.

 

Tucker had never been trained as a tree dog, but when Ray looked up, Tucker’s gaze followed.  Now Tucker understood and he began to bark “tree”. He had never been trained on tree game.

Nothing was simple. The bear had died on some big branches and there was no way to get it down. The hunter called a friend, who finally got there with a climbing tree stand. This took a long time and Tucker barked steadily. It wasn’t easy to get the dead bear loose from the branches, but finally it came down with a mighty thump. Tucker circled and bayed; he was cautious but not fearful.

It wasn’t easy to get the dead bear loose from the branches.

 

It is very unusual for a tracking dog to find a wounded bear in a tree. This was sow bear younger and more agile than a 300 pounder. Apparently when the hunter had gone down to the swamp in the beginning he had spooked the fatally-hit bear before she had time to die. The hunter  did not see her take off, go another 200 yards in a different direction and then tree.

Hunter, Pam and Ray Maurier, who is holding Tucker.



Tucker on the top of his bear!

Kevin Armstrong's Karma recovers a wounded bear

Exciting news from Kevin Armstrong from Naples, NY:
This Steuben bear was paunch shot late in the day on Thursday. It snowed several inches overnight completely covering the sparse blood trail. The bear went into a dense pine thicket where it took several beds. Apparently it died as we approached on Friday morning. It was still warm with no rigor mortis. This was Karma's first bear recovery.

"A Summer Treat". Nuisance Bear Track in New Jersey

By Andy Bensing

On a recent hot, humid morning I received a phone call that really made my day.  It was the first week of August and deer season was still 1 ½ months away.  The last thing I expected that morning was a chance to go blood tracking.  But much to my surprise on the other end of the phone was the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife asking me to come and track a wounded bear.  Wow!  A pre-season track and for a bear no less.  Tracking a bear is a real treat for most blood trackers.  I had tracked a few in years past up in New York State but never with my current dog Eibe.  I had trained my dog on bear blood a few times and encountered them as cross trails in some training exercises but never actually tracked one.  I could not wait to get in the field that afternoon.  

Earlier that morning around 5:00 AM the 1 ½ year old young black bear had wondered into a primitive campsite in the Stokes State Forest  near Branchville NJ.  Early reports from the incident were that the bear had dragged 2 young campers from their tents.  As it turned out later the bear certainly had entered a few tents and scared the living daylights out of the young campers, but all the camper's minor injuries were a result of the campers scurrying for safety to get away from the bear, not any actual bite or claw marks.  Regardless, the bear needed to be destroyed.  The bear would not leave the campsite no matter how much noise the campers made.  The bear  actually hung around for over an hour until the Campers were able to contact the Park Police who arrived and shot the bear.  The bear was actually shot within 3 feet of the adirondack  shelter where the campers had taken refuge over an hour earlier.  That's how brazen this bear was.  Unfortunately the bear was only wounded in the neck and ran off.

The Park Police eye tracked the blood trail for about 385 meters and the blood petered out at the edge of a swampy thicket.  The NJDFW also brought out their bear harassment dog, a black mouth cur, in an attempt to locate the wounded bear but were unable to locate him.  The bear harassment dogs are not really trained to track but it was certainly worth a try.  The harassment dogs are normally used by being visually put on bears just like goose dogs keep geese off golf courses.

Until I finished my work for the day in Pennsylvania and drove the 105 miles to NJ it was 4:30 PM when I arrived.  The plan was to track the bear on leash with my wirehaired dachshund and have the handler of the bear harassment dog follow behind about 30 meters back.  From the description of the wound, it was not very likely the bear would be found dead.  Our goal was to hopefully get close enough to see the bear get up out of his bed and then release the cur dog who would be able to easily tree it.  Once treed, the bear's identity could be confirmed and then he could be dispatched.

I started Eibe at the spot the bear was initially shot and she easily took up the trail and led us  to the swampy thicket where the visual blood trail ended.  From her actions in the small thicket, I would say the bear likely spent some time there and  likely left the thicket when the eye trackers approached.   It took about 15 minutes for Eibe to figure out the bear's exit from the thicket but eventually she got it figured out.  The bear looped back  and worked his way up onto a ridge that the bear followed for about  1000 meters before dropping off the side into the next swampy thicket much like the one he had been tracked to in the first place.

 After the point of loss, myself nor any of the wildlife officials accompanying me saw any blood.  Eibe was working strictly by the individual scent of the wounded bear itself.  Because of the thick fur and fat cover a bear has, the blood trail left by a bear is usually minimal.  That's the bad news but the good news is that they are pretty smelly from a dog's point of view and are generally easy to trail even if they are no longer dropping blood.  As we tracked along at about 850 meters after the point of loss Eibe found and clearly indicated to me a small bear track.  I had seen her check out a few  larger tracks along the way but this was the first one she actually indicated.  About 200 meters later after dropping off the top of the ridge she indicated another identically sized track as well.   150 meters after that  while I was on my belly crawling through the second thicket she locked up solid in front of me and when I finally crawled up to her she was standing directly in the middle of the bear's wound bed.  I could tell she was extremely proud of herself for finding it.  I was very happy with her as well.  In training I teach her to stop and stand at significant points of sign along the track and she clearly knew this was important.  The only problem was that in my haste to run out the door to take this surprise out of season track I did not bring any treats along to reward her for finding sign.  When I gave her the okay to continue tracking she just stood there and kept looking for me to give her a treat.  All I could do was praise her like crazy  and after a few seconds she finally continued on.  I will stick a few biscuits in my tracking pack as emergency  spares so that does not happen again.

 It took a little time to work our way out of the thicket.  Just like the first thicket the bear had entered, it appeared the bear had moved around in the thicket before bedding down.  Shortly after finding our way out of the thicket and Eibe indicating another foot print, the Park Police accompanying me received a call that a bear matching the description of the bear we were tracking had been seen by some other officials straight out ahead of us over a mile away.  At that point the track was called off.  We had tracked the bear over a mile from where it was shot and pushed it from its bed but the bear was in too good of shape to get close enough to it to use the cur dog to tree it.  The NJDFW official did not want to push the bear any further away.  They suspected the bear would stick around if not pushed and might be caught in one of the snares they had set.  And it turned out they were exactly right.  Two days later the bear was caught within 100 meters of the camping area where the whole thing started.

Click on the map to enlarge.

It would have great if we had actually been able to get the bear that day but just like 50% of the time when a leashed tracking dog is brought in to find a wounded deer, the end result was that we were able to confirm that the quarry was not mortally wounded.  That in itself is a success from a dog handler's point of view.  And after all, I could not have thought of a better way to spend that Wednesday afternoon.

Not the NJ Bear but here's a small bear we found in NY State a few years ago.  Six hunters had previously spent a whole day grid searching for him in a swap.  My old dog Arno and I found him dead 600 meters from the point of loss 48 hours after he had been shot.  That was a pretty fun day too.

The bear found by Andy and Arno few years ago.

Media coverage of the bear that Andy tracked few days ago:

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-08-03/local/29866045_1_young-boys-campsite-boys-and-seven

http://www.njherald.com/story/news/08-06-11-jm-BEARCAUGHT-web