Lesser known wild foods

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swampyak
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Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby swampyak » Fri Aug 11, 2017 11:46 am

I noticed today that the bears had been feeding heavily on red osier dogwood berries. That got me wondering what other lesser known natural foods sources everyone watches


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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby Jonny » Fri Aug 11, 2017 11:53 am

Maple leaves is a new one I never knew of until singing bridge and dan mentioned it.
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby Mike Foss » Sat Aug 12, 2017 12:48 am

Bears love Mushrooms
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby Bear Magnum » Sat Aug 12, 2017 2:36 am

Interesting topic.

I believe wild cranberries are something to think about. I found some in some bear scat I ran across in October last fall. It's something I have to investigate further myself.
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby Bearman13 » Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:55 am

Mike Foss wrote:Bears love Mushrooms



I've told people this for years and they didn't believe me
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby swampyak » Sun Aug 13, 2017 12:03 am

Choke cherries in August and early September
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Sun Aug 13, 2017 2:24 am

X3 on mushrooms. Don't overlook insect, grub, egg-laden rotten logs.
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby swampyak » Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:51 am

Thorn apple for the first two weeks of season
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby swampyak » Mon Aug 14, 2017 2:05 am

Mike Foss wrote:Bears love Mushrooms


So do deer. When morel mushroom hunting. When I start jumping deer and seeing disturbed leaves I know I'm close
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby swampyak » Wed Aug 16, 2017 1:35 am

On years that frogs or forest tent caterpillars are plentiful they appear to make up a lot of there fall diet
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Thu Aug 17, 2017 3:02 am

swampyak wrote:On years that frogs or forest tent caterpillars are plentiful they appear to make up a lot of there fall diet


Those are good ones right there!
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby swampyak » Thu Aug 17, 2017 4:44 am

I was recently into a spot that a bear was feeding heavily on sand cherries and wild grapes
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby brancher147 » Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:59 am

Bears eat beech buds and leaves when they need to. I have seen them in sassafras trees eating the fruit. Serviceberry, elderberry, hawthorne fruit. If you have ever watched many bears moving along in the wild, they are constantly moving and searching for food. They can eat so many things.
Some do. Some don't. I just might...
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby Freelance Bowhunter » Tue Aug 29, 2017 1:54 pm

The big white mushrooms! They devour 'em! They strip some kinds of pine trees and eat the cambium layer under the bark.

They say hazelnuts are a big food where they are found. I suppose that's true but I have lots of hazelnuts on my property and I've never seen where bears actually have been eating them. I have been told that the bears climb up into the bushes and eat the nuts. They have a lot of nuts on them this year so I will be checking on them often.
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Re: Lesser known wild foods

Unread postby brancher147 » Tue Aug 29, 2017 11:06 pm

Freelance Bowhunter wrote:The big white mushrooms! They devour 'em! They strip some kinds of pine trees and eat the cambium layer under the bark.

They say hazelnuts are a big food where they are found. I suppose that's true but I have lots of hazelnuts on my property and I've never seen where bears actually have been eating them. I have been told that the bears climb up into the bushes and eat the nuts. They have a lot of nuts on them this year so I will be checking on them often.


I was just in the Adirondacks and must agree, definitely a lot of hazelnuts this year. I am sure bears go after them. How much they go after them just depends on bear population and what else is available in the area.

Another lesser known food source (around here anyway) is skunk cabbage in the spring. As soon as bears start moving around in the spring around here, they are looking for leftover acorns (if there are any, usually not), if no acorns they are looking for skunk cabbage, or people's bird feeders...
Some do. Some don't. I just might...


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