# Can you smell bears?



## mpwarrak

Ok, thought I'd start a new thread for this one...  I just got back from cohutta, (see my post in "newbie needs advice in cohutta" for what I found)  But I've read somewhere that you can actually smell when a bear is around.  Is this an old wives tale?  
My dad had a bear on his trail cam about 2 months ago and my mom said she smelled something outside about the same time, kinda like a skunk smell but a little different.  
Next: when we were at Cohutta yesterday we smelled something at one point that was comparable to a skunk, but still different, maybe almost like urine.  
So are these just a real skunk coinciding with a bear, or do bears really have some kind of musk gland or something you can smell?

Lastly, if this smell IS possibly a bear, and I smell it in the woods, how long do you reckon that scent sticks around?  In other words, when was the bear here?  Could it be a few days ago, or had I better take a long look around?

Thanks!


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## PappyHoel

Heck yes.... If the wind is right or if they have been in the area recently you can smell them.  It's very distinct.


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## FMBear

Yep, you'll know when the wind carries the scent of one to you.  I took a friend out bear hunting 2 weeks ago and told him to smell for a "old, wet hound dog that rolled around in a pig pen".  He caught a good wiff of it as I watched it from 75 yards out working back his way as the wind blew from the bear to him.  Afterwards he said it was the perfect way to describe the smell.


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## Jranger

FMBear said:


> Yep, you'll know when the wind carries the scent of one to you.  I took a friend out bear hunting 2 weeks ago and told him to smell for a "old, wet hound dog that rolled around in a pig pen".  He caught a good wiff of it as I watched it from 75 yards out working back his way as the wind blew from the bear to him.  Afterwards he said it was the perfect way to describe the smell.



X2 very distinct smell...


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## 1022

Depends on last time they showered


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## Snood Collector

Sure you can smell them just like ole stinky bucks and does. Scent in the woods is like tracking live game, a lost art that's being forgotten slowly or at least practiced by fewer.


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## Unicoidawg

Smell like a wet dog on steroids.....


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## tim scott

yeah you sure can smell them.... not much to worry about unless your doing something that might up-set the bear... like stealing their food. have smelled them often when picking blackberries. it's kinda a cross between rancid oil smell and a trash dumpster on a hot day..... nasty smell.
tim


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## PappyHoel

I always thought it smelled like pee and vinegar.


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## Killer Kyle

Mmmmm.........pee and vinegar!...... Wait.................what?!


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## bfriendly

but can you tell the difference between the smell of a Bear and a Pig? There are a lot of Pigs on Cohutta and you can sure smell them................but how different are they? You know, the smell of a Pig versus a Deer, Bear, or maybe even the big fella

I cannot tell the difference(Maybe a little), but I can sure tell when I smell Something!  Thats  when you know its Game On!


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## glad to be alive

Haven't hunted bear in Georgia but Oh yea you can smell them.  Many time while Trout fishing in  the mountains I've smelled bears.  To me they have a "horse" smell.  Kinda like a stallion that has worked up a slimy sweat.... a musty urine smell.   

Its not the kinda of smell you want to smell  when your in the Mountains of Colorado bow hunting elk miles from no where.


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## greg_n_clayton

We hunt (train) with dogs. Tree 'em, take a picture and move on !! Once you learn the smell, you can smell 'em easeing down the dirt roads here. Smelled one yesterday, matter of fact. Plenty of bear now days !!


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## Oconostota

I know that skunk-like smell that was mentioned, quite well.  I used to wonder what it was, and a long time ago learned that that smell is from some particular vegetation (I forgot which).  Maybe rhododendron?  One can smell it almost everywhere in Cohutta.  I've smelled it in many other places up in the mountains too.

I bet bears really do stink, but they would be a different odor.


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## Joe L

I was watching a show on animal planet other day, with Casey Anderson who is a bear biologist. Now mind you he seems to deal more in grizzly bears but basically saying bears rub themselves on carcasses of animals they eat and anything else they come across in order to hide their natural scent from their possible prey. Again those are grizzlies but in previous post it was mentioned Cohutta was loaded with rhodadendrum so if they are rubbing selves on that to hide scent that would make sense, elsewhere they may rub on different things i guess. Not that I have any personal knowledge but i'm going on first bear hunt in two weeks so I'll keep my eyes and nostrils open, lol.


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## olhippie

I got a couple whiffs of a bear while hunting last weekend in Chattahoochee National Forest. It smelled to me very near to the deer musk urine smell of a buck in rut, maybe a bit 'deeper' musk smell, but very similar.


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## Taporsnap77

Urine mixed w puke almost


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## Y.T.

glad to be alive said:


> Haven't hunted bear in Georgia but Oh yea you can smell them.  Many time while Trout fishing in  the mountains I've smelled bears.  To me they have a "horse" smell.  Kinda like a stallion that has worked up a slimy sweat.... a musty urine smell.
> 
> Its not the kinda of smell you want to smell  when your in the Mountains of Colorado bow hunting elk miles from no where.



Wet horse. I agree.


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## The mtn man

smell is rotting vegitation or sasquatch


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## goshenmountainman

Ok, the pig smell is a kinda sweet smell sorta like a horse, the bear smell is like a wet hound dog I have scent hunted pigs many times and have been very successful sneaking up on them by smelling and listening to them.


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## Smokepoler

To me bears smell closer to human b.o. than they do dogs. Hogs just plain out stank!


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