Food Containers Disappearing And Need Help With Getting Tracks To Find Out What Is Taking It!

[Xion Comrade]

Could it be a homeless person? I am being serious about this.

 

A homeless person could do it of course. But how many people do you think even exist that could survive in the wilderness the way a animal does, much less going undetected by me after near a year of researching this area? This area is remote and there are few people who travel through it even during hunting season. Temperatures have been 0 to -5 for 2 weeks up there, and that is another thing to consider. So I would say no.

 

Large scavenger birds such as but not limited to turkey vultures and eagles will eat about anything if they’re hungry enough and big enough to carry away many times their weight.

 

Yes I am aware of this, but why? Why carry this stuff off such great distances when you could just eat it where it is at and leave the bowl alone? Especially strange when you take the lid with it...Doesn't make any sense for a animal to do so here imho, any more than it would make sense for a animal to eat the container itself.

[norseman]

Bait stations are nervous places......just like a kill. Something bigger may come along and take it from you. Bears are on high alert at a bait station. And when I feed my dog out of my hand? She grabs the food and runs and hides to eat it.

This is why we have to chain the barrel to the tree and cut a paw sized hole in the barrel. Otherwise the first bear on scene would just attempt to pack it all off.

I think it's instinctive in all predators.

[Woodslore]

A homeless person could do it of course. But how many people do you think even exist that could survive in the wilderness the way a animal does, much less going undetected by me after near a year of researching this area? This area is remote and there are few people who travel through it even during hunting season. Temperatures have been 0 to -5 for 2 weeks up there, and that is another thing to consider. So I would say no.

Here in Nova Scotia we have had more than a few hermits, one even went 50 years or so without being notice by anyone but a very rare few. Some go and live right in or near Provincial Parks. You said you have only been researching for a year. It is not as hard as people think to go unnoticed in the woods. Story out of Maine of a man living in the woods and raiding homes and camps with no one seeing him. I am also guessing 0 to -5 is in F. Nova Scotia winters can hit minus 40 (same in both). Just saying don't rule it out. 

[Catmandoo]

Zion, do you have mineral prospecting in this area? Prospectors roaming and finding your gifting items is a remote possibility. Do not rake or manicure the ground. Using 'prospector speak'; you would change the 'ground balance'. At times, with metal detectors, one has to re-adjust for ground balance frequently. Every 30 seconds in some areas would not be unheard of. Ground balance factors are why I have never considered a buried pressure strip to trip a camera.

Also, manicured ground would look out of place. I have carried water a long distance ( only one time ) to make for soft ground in the hopes of seeing tracks. No results.

I have used wood flour to detect human trespassing. It does not reflect much light, biodegradeable and will show worm trails ---- that is detail.

[Xion Comrade]

Zion, do you have mineral prospecting in this area? Prospectors roaming and finding your gifting items is a remote possibility. Do not rake or manicure the ground. Using 'prospector speak'; you would change the 'ground balance'. At times, with metal detectors, one has to re-adjust for ground balance frequently. Every 30 seconds in some areas would not be unheard of. Ground balance factors are why I have never considered a buried pressure strip to trip a camera.

Also, manicured ground would look out of place. I have carried water a long distance ( only one time ) to make for soft ground in the hopes of seeing tracks. No results.

I have used wood flour to detect human trespassing. It does not reflect much light, biodegradeable and will show worm trails ---- that is detail.

 

Yeah I am not that worried about getting tracks tbph, I would like to know for sure what is taking everything but there are some methods I think are questionable and will hurt the end goal right now. I still have a face to face encounter on my mind, that is what my goal is. This area of woods goes pretty much unnoticed by humans year round(And the area I am checking tomorrow probably never has people in it, if it is even possible to get into it), even during hunting season, and the entire spot of mountains will only have hiking activity about 4 miles the way the crow flies from where I do my research and some hunters going in and out, closest they get is about 1.5 to 2 miles away. Never go far from the road, don't have to.

[Guest]

Hey XC - if you're not that sussed about prints another method that we've had success with here 'down under' is stringing dark cotton along identified game trails at a specified height. Ie: run thread at 7 foot height across a game trail (trap for young players, don't tie it off, drape it) then if the thread is missing/moved on your return then something has come through at that level to shift it - maybe a bit more problematic if you've got bears, but not so bad if your bears are koala's like ours...

[norseman]

(Insert a Croc Dundee voice here)

That's not a Bear.........

This is a Bear!

[Xion Comrade]

(Insert a Croc Dundee voice here)

That's not a Bear.........

This is a Bear!

 

And THAT is one of the BIG reasons I am glad I live in the Appalachians and not where they do with my bigfoot obsession XD

 

Oh and on a somewhat related note, went back to my area again today for a few hours. Food bowls were all where I left them but tossed around, apples were uneaten(Just chewed on), but the peanut butter, chocolate, and cookies I left with them was all gone. This is the stuff the animals here do, containers intact and find-able, food obliterated. Did venture into a area where i got some knocks a few weeks back and found a possible halfway decent track slightly bigger than my boot with toe impressions, just one of those "Hmmm" things.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Xion Comrade

[Catmandoo]

Xion, do you have any logging/clear-cut ( 'view making as NorCal Logger would have said' )/ thinning activity in your area? I am not sure how you are gifting as in on the ground, on a stump, etc..

Years ago, I had a gifting location in a clear-cut. Lots of new growth (hiding places ) and lots of stumps. I used an old, silver-wood stump with rotted out heartwood. I would load up the cavity with apples. I would load 6 apples. Braeburn worked really well. The upper surface of the lowest apple was about 8-3/4" down. Retrieving the apples required 'grasping', especially the lowest apple. I peeled a sliver of wood from the stump and poked it into an apple. I would camp 1,000' away, no one got past me, and the apples would be gone in less than 12 hours. The 'stick' would be on top of the stump. Removing the stick required some force. I used a Chatillon scale, 15 lb capacity, #IN-015M. I pushed the stick 2" into the apples. 4-7/8" of the stick was for grasping. Testing different apples on location, the horizontal withdrawal force ranged from 7 lbs to 13 lbs. No teeth marks or beak marks on the stick. A raven is smart enough to do this but the Raven beak would have left marks. This was going too good and I put a camera 14' away from the stump. Nothing. All activity stopped.

I am wondering if you have any way to 'test' for reaching and grabbing using available woodland features ( costs less than plastic containers ).

Edited January 14, 2015 by Catmandoo

[Guest]

(Insert a Croc Dundee voice here)

That's not a Bear.........

This is a Bear!

Fair dinkum cobber... :-)

[Xion Comrade]

Xion, do you have any logging/clear-cut ( 'view making as NorCal Logger would have said' )/ thinning activity in your area? I am not sure how you are gifting as in on the ground, on a stump, etc..

Years ago, I had a gifting location in a clear-cut. Lots of new growth (hiding places ) and lots of stumps. I used an old, silver-wood stump with rotted out heartwood. I would load up the cavity with apples. I would load 6 apples. Braeburn worked really well. The upper surface of the lowest apple was about 8-3/4" down. Retrieving the apples required 'grasping', especially the lowest apple. I peeled a sliver of wood from the stump and poked it into an apple. I would camp 1,000' away, no one got past me, and the apples would be gone in less than 12 hours. The 'stick' would be on top of the stump. Removing the stick required some force. I used a Chatillon scale, 15 lb capacity, #IN-015M. I pushed the stick 2" into the apples. 4-7/8" of the stick was for grasping. Testing different apples on location, the horizontal withdrawal force ranged from 7 lbs to 13 lbs. No teeth marks or beak marks on the stick. A raven is smart enough to do this but the Raven beak would have left marks. This was going too good and I put a camera 14' away from the stump. Nothing. All activity stopped.

I am wondering if you have any way to 'test' for reaching and grabbing using available woodland features ( costs less than plastic containers ).

 

The area has had alot of logging activity but not the specific part of it that I frequent, that part is untouched and old. Entire area is about 20(long)x10(Wide) miles of wooded mountains with adjacent mountains as well that would be easy to skip over to unnoticed....will finish post when i get off work!

[Guest]

corn starch, flour, baking soda.... iow, some light powdery medium that could be spread out  and tracked around if walked through or touched. there is also some glowing tracking powder that's been discussed elsewhere but iirc its not cheap.

 

maybe try the basic stuff when the forecast isn't calling for rain for a few days and see what powdery tracks pop up.

 

 

Sometimes sleuthing calls for sleuthing sort of things. Back in the day on the job we used purple glow pigment dust with transmitters using piano thin wire for delicate work … when the target is moved you will be the first to hear it. Couple that with let's say a GPS device and the rest is limited only by your own imagination. Back to the dust, the dust is invisible to the naked eye and luminescent with a portable black light sometimes no longer than stinger flashlight.  Who or whatever touches that material is easily spotted and or tracked in the dark when the light is activated. Sprinkle some of that dust around the target area, and unless the mystery comes from above, you will see handprints and direction footprint or tracks leaving the area when you flip on the light in glowing white color. Puzzle solved ... I wouldn't advise using it during rain or snowing periods though. - FWIW

 

 

 

 

LOL!  This reminds me of years ago when a product came out called "Deer Suckers".  They were like a big Sugar Daddy on steroids.  You would poke the stick into the ground and deer would come and lick it like a lollipop.  One of the guys in our hunting club said he was on stand and a deer came by carrying one in his mouth.  We died laughing and gave him fits over that BS story for a whole year - until the next year, another guy (one of the main ones teasing the previous guy) saw the same thing. So, we just gave both of them fits after that.  :tease:

 

We used to put out salt blocks for the deer, but the boogers would tote them off as fast as we put them out.  There sure wasn't anything else in the woods that could carry off 50 pounds.  And NO, it wasn't people doing it.

 

FWIW, we've also always had a hard time ever getting any tracks where we've left food for them.

 

 â€¦. Just a thought

 

Edited February 14, 2015 by Gumshoeye