I would like to introduce one of our new contributing wildlife editors Mr. Michel Schenck. Michel is the CEO for the Arizona Black Bear Association and his contributions are a welcome addition to AZOD. He also has a good sense of humor.

Robert Glenn Willis

AZOD Executive Editor

Bear Dog

People often ask me about my work with the Arizona Black Bear Association. Sometimes someone asks about my most interesting experience with a bear and I tell them this story.

Once a bear at the Phoenix Zoo escaped from his cage, made his way out of the zoo and followed the Salt River bed out of the city. In addition to Game and Fish, the zoo called on my group to help locate and recapture the bear. A staff member from the zoo and I immediately began a search because they were extremely concerned over liability and the potential loss of an endangered bear.

We eventually located a few tracks along the river and I figured the bear was headed for a dense stand of trees not far upstream. I went to the back of my truck and got out my pair of handcuffs, a baseball bat and my shotgun and then released my little bear dog.

Immediately the dog got excited, barked and took off for the trees. I knew I had guessed correctly and we hurried to catch up. By the time we got to the trees, the dog had chased the bear into a large cottonwood tree. I leaned the shotgun against a nearby tree, attached a long chain to the handcuffs and locked it around the trunk and told the zoo director to get ready.

I told him I was going to go up in the tree and knock the bear off the branch with the baseball bat. I told him as soon as the old bruin hit the ground, my dog would run over and chomp down with a vise-like grip on the bear's crotch. I said the bear, out of pain, would then reach down with both paws to grab the dog and the director should take that opportunity to snap the handcuffs on him.

The zoo guy didn't seem too convinced but I assured him the dog had never missed his target. "If the bear comes down, the dog will strike and absolutely will not let go." I told him.

Nervously, the director got ready and, just as I was about to climb the tree, he asked, "What's the shotgun for?"

I stopped and told him he had nothing to worry about, that I had done this a number of times and it had always worked as planned. I assured him I knew how to handle the baseball bat and that I had every confidence in the dog.

"OK", he said, "But what about the shotgun?"

"Well, in working with animals," I commented, "you can never be absolutely certain how things will go, so the gun is just in case. You see, if, by any chance, the bear should knock ME out of the tree, I want you to grab the shotgun and shoot that damn dog!!"