Soybeans attractive to bears?
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Pat Lefemine
26-Aug-19
Bear pic in my soybeans
Bear pic in my soybeans
Just saw this pic from MoultrieMobile. It was sent last night. I’ve been growing soybeans in bear county for years and never saw a bear eating them. Is this a fluke or do they eat soybeans?
From: M.Pauls
26-Aug-19
Yes, I’ve seen it quite often. Not like corn fields but I’ve seen them hit beans at least as hard as oat fields
From: Letmgrow
26-Aug-19
I have seen them in my bean fields but I have never seen them eat any.
From: APauls
26-Aug-19
Shot one going into a bean field one year, seen it a number of times. Think they hit them occasionally for a varied diet when they’re sick of corn for a day
From: JohnV
28-Aug-19
They eat a lot of peanuts in eastern NC. A peanut plant is pretty similar to a soybean plant.
From: GF
28-Aug-19
I can’t imagine that they wouldn't be. They’re omnivores. I’d expect that if the beans are the best food source in the area, they’ll hit them.
That’s not to say that bears don’t prefer whatever people put in the bait pile, since a lot of those items are loaded with sugars and probably smell wonderful to a hyperphagic ursid, but preferences may vary by the individual.
From: obx
29-Aug-19
I live in eastern NC. Soybeans are a main food source. Corn,peanuts and wheat also heavily utilized. The only farm product that they don't eat is cotton. Alligator NWR near the Outer Banks has become a tourist attraction for the number of bears that can be seen in the corn and bean fields on a ride through almost any time of day.
From: DL
29-Aug-19
Anything that a bear can swallow is an attractant. Be at got into a friends camp and ate a whole tube of Preparation H, toothpaste, beer and anything else left outside.
From: GF
29-Aug-19
Are you sure the bear didn’t just use the Preparation H to reduce the bags under its eyes after all that beer? It’s hard work being a charismatic megavertebrate, you know!
There’s a Problem Bear in the drainage above my mom’s place. Sucker flattened my brother’s tent last time I was out there, along with about 4 other camps. I think my brother had left a toothbrush in a ziplock bag in the tent.
From: JohnMC
07-Sep-22
Weird someone with the same name just started similar thread 3 years later. ;)
From: Grey Ghost
07-Sep-22
The memory is usually the first to go. ;-)
From: Teeton
07-Sep-22
I've never seen one in soybeans, but can't see why they wouldn't. Corn yes and mature oats yes.
From: smarba
07-Sep-22
Must have been some other dude that started this thread under an assumed name LOL
From: DanaC
07-Sep-22
Related question - do bears go for acorns?
From: Grey Ghost
07-Sep-22
Dana, I've never seen a bear eat acorns, but if you ever saw what they'll do to a garbage dumpster, you'd know they aren't picky about what they eat.
Matt
From: cnelk
07-Sep-22
Bears love acorns. We used to float a river with a canoe and hunt bears that were up in the oak trees
From: DanaC
08-Sep-22
Good to know, looking like a good year for white oaks here. Still got a stand of beeches to check out.
From: Mad Trapper
08-Sep-22
Never had a bear eat my beans, but corn is a different story.
From: Pat Lefemine
08-Sep-22
In my defense, I didn't have any pics of the bear eating those soybeans, just cruising through them. This year, I have pics of a bear actually eating the beans!
From: No Mercy
08-Sep-22
Living very close to the edge of farm/forest country we see this all the time. Bears will prefer corn, but will definitely eat beans.
From: fuzzy
09-Sep-22
They had no interest in soybeans until they started calling them "edamame". They're trendy now. ??
From: fdp
18-Sep-22
From: Mark Watkins
28-Dec-22
For the past 14 years I’ve had at least 12 acres of beans every year.....have never known of the bears eating beans.....fawns, a different story!
Mark
From: drycreek
28-Dec-22
I’ve always figured they were like hogs, they’d eat anything that didn’t eat them first.
From: drycreek
28-Dec-22
From: drycreek
28-Dec-22
Triple post ? Sheesh !
