JR's Wildlife Photos

This den was hidden above miller canyon trail about 200 yards. Jake found it April 8th 2008.

Mother bear looking out of her den with cub in claws.

Jake found this den on April 8th 2008.

Cabin A was built in 1911, its been remodled extensivly and is very comfertable.

This was the last bear we saw of 2006. 2006 was a bad year for the bears in the Huachucas. The winter of 2005 only had one snow storm so there was not much to fatten up on for hibernation. We treed this bear 3 times before she left to find a den. Very healthy bear so she found food someplace but alot of the ones killed in the depreditation hunt had little to no fat on them. 5 bears were taken in or near our orchard. 20-25 bears were either taken in hunting season, relocated or died on roads/powerpoles during fall 2006.

Dogs have been on this tree for over an hour now and are sorta bored guess its time to leave. This year we had Three big bears near the fence in the months of June and July. One was over 300lbs and the other two were 200lbs. In a normal feed year like 2007 I only have to chase the bears away a few times and they stay out of the orchard.

This old bear was taken by a bow hunter near this tree a day later. I helped him haul it out and skin it. Estimated age was 15+ years old, weight was just abit over 200 lbs but this bear had no fat at all on it and its hide was very beat up from fighting other younger and bigger bears.

Same bear as previous picture but a closer view

This snake is watching my new pup who I am teaching to respect snakes. So he will not get bitten when I am not around. Blacktails are not as aggresive as the two most common desert snakes, Mohove and Diamondback but they realy don't like dogs and will strike if they get too close.

You should count yourself very lucky if you see one of these secretive cats. This one was treed by my dogs.

I have only had three coon's that I rember treed near our orchard.

This was treed just outside the fence at night. You will be very lucky to see a fox but we have alot of them in and around the orchard. When it snows one can see lots of tracks.

We get alot of browner colored bears but some are super dark like this one.

These are "treed" on a rock they run in groups of up to 30 and are often active during the day. The population crashed last year tho so they are not to common right now. Causes of the crash are likly drought and desease. Also a fav snack of mtn lions. Last year a person had 9 of these radio collered for a study and they were all eaten by a mtn lion.

These are sorta slow so usualy don't have time to climb a tree ahead of my dogs. We have four kinds of skunks here but this is the only one that can climb trees easily. Hooded, Striped, Hog-nosed and Spotted. Spotted skunks also stand on there front feet to spray, so if you see one doing a handstand watch out!

Another treed bobcat. These are fairly common in this area but are very hard to see without dogs. Average size is just abit over 20lbs but we did take one 34lbs once that was ripping the door of the chickenhouse off, to get free chicken dinners.

Dogs treed this at night on our property. These are very common, but are nocturnal so rarly seen

Good light so you can see the colors well

Cat in the tree and Jake barking like a nut, Tom SR in the background

Different cat looks to be a young one. They use the big sycamore trees as den trees.

Big buck we saw after deer season 2007

Another view of the 1911 cabin. As you can see it snows here. Most snow only lasts a few days and is less than 6 inches.

This view gives you a good idea of what the canyon looks like. Miller peak is in the background shrouded in clouds.

I usualy relocate any rattlesnakes I find on our property. They sometimes find thier way back but no one has been bitten while in the orchard yet. We only have 4 types up this high and mostly blacktails at this elevation the other 3 are up higher.

In the last ten years a new problem has emerged and the "Miller peak wilderness" is wilderness in name only. Altho curently 2007 we are seeing a slowdown of bordercrossers in this area they are still commonly encountered in the more remote areas of the canyon. And the trash they leave behind is building up.

These are four of my "bear" dogs. Jakes still in training 10 months old in this picture.

Carr reef is around 8000 feet in elevation.

The low point is Miller saddle around 8000 feet.

From left to right Fatso, Pip, Buck and Princess the three brown dogs were droped off as puppies so we took them in and a few years later when bear numbers increased they showed us that they weren't usless. Buck was also droped off and treed a mtn on the property when he was 2 years old.

They have somthing treed but I am not sure what as this is a very old picture.

Nice picture showing the cat's colors

Good look at the face on this one

Good pup for only 10 months old he is watching the deer eat acorns in the driveway in this picture.

Treeing walker/blacklab mix.

One of the few coons we see at this elevations. Mosty coons live on the Sandpadro river.

They are eating flowers from the butterfly garden.

This is a young male about 200lbs. The bear population was amost non existent 25 years ago in the huachucas. But has increased enough to allow a limited hunting season. (sadly no general hunt yet) After last year's bear troubles Game and Fish uped the estimated population to 80 bears from 20.

Found this up near Miller peak in December

This was taken before we fenced in the entire property with 6foot high horse fence. Bears can climb the fence but we have dogs to chase the bears off and keep them from destroying our orchard.

Just another nice bear, I have lots of differnt pictures of bears because thats what my dogs are best at treeing.

There are alot of acorns for the deer to eat this year and for some reason they like to eat them on our driveway.

Fatso was the best tracker... maybe because he was slower he had to learn how to follow a scent better.

The fox is up the tree that Jake is on.

Jake caught this fox on the ground and when I got to them it looked dead, but when I went to pick it up. The fox jumped up and ran up a small oak.

The fox is up the small oak that Jake is on.