Category Archives: Bear Studies & Research

Bear Studies & Research.

Colorado Bear, mule deer have different problems, same solution

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Bears and mule deer continued to dominate the conversation among members of Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife Commission (PWC) and the sportsmen’s community at large during the monthly PWC meeting in Grand Junction on Thursday, albeit for converse reasons.

Commissioners taking on the annual task of approving limited big game hunting license recommendations for 2013 were once again reminded that Colorado has too many bears and not nearly enough mule deer to meet wildlife management objectives. Yet the short-term approach to both issues is the same: Increase the number of hunting licenses for both species.

The 20 percent increase in bear hunting licenses over 2012 by far outpaces the boost in license numbers for any other big game animal, although the sum of 21,167 bear licenses available in 2013 can’t compare with opportunities to hunt more popular big game animals like deer and elk. But state wildlife managers have made clear their intention to continue efforts to reduce Colorado’s black bear population conservatively estimated at about 18,000, and they’re looking at hunters for help. The predicted hunter harvest from the 2013 license allocation is 1,373 bears.

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Written by: Scott Willoughby or 303-954-1993
Source: The Denver Post
Bear Hunting Blog

2012 New York Bear Hunting Harvest Higher than 2011

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NY Bear Hunting

The statewide harvest of 1,337 black bears ranks third overall, lagging only behind the 2003 harvest of 1,864 and that of 2009 when 1,409 bears were taken. [Bear Hunting Blog file photo]

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation took a little more time than usual to release the harvest statistics from the 2012 deer season. But, they’re out there now along with the bear harvest numbers released in March.

Both sets of data come with some very informative reports and I encourage you to visit DEC’s website at http://www.dec.ny.gov for a solid look at them.

For now, here’s a glance at the New York bear hunting stats.

The statewide harvest of 1,337 black bears ranks third overall, lagging only behind the 2003 harvest of 1,864 and that of 2009 when 1,409 bears were taken.

The harvest for 2012 was slightly above 2011, which was 1,258. After a dismal 2011 harvest of only 275 black bears, things got back to normal in the Adirondack range where 606 bears were taken. That’s slightly above the five-year average of 547 and the historical average of 515.

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Story by: Dan Ladd Adirondack Hunting & Fishing Report
Source: Press Republican
Bear Hunting Blog

Ontario’s Del Villano bear hunt examined in Documentary

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TIMMINS – Timmins is a community that is built upon stories of heroism, bravery, ingenuity and downright strangeness.

From Sandy McIntyre to Maggie Buffalo, the snippets of Timmins past are wide spread and deeply rooted. But none of the stories transcended the borders of the community and the country quite like the tale of one mayor and his determination to see the Queen’s guard look their best marching in front of Buckingham Palace.

Leo Del Villano served as Mayor of Timmins for many years. Between 1956 and 1959 he gained international fame for having organized the largest bear hunt in Ontario’s history.

“I am looking at an overall perspective on Black Bear hunting and management in Ontario and as I had been going through a number of newspaper articles, I stumbled across Leo Del Villano’s story,” said Michael Commito, a PhD candidate from the Department of History at McMaster University.

Commito has focused his PhD on the history of the Black Bear hunt in Ontario from 1892 to 1999.

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Commito’s documentary is posted on YouTube. Click the link to see it

Story by: Kyle Gennings
Source:  Timmins Press
For more information on Ontario Bear Hunting, click the active link.
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Bear Hunting Wolf vs. Dog Study by Michigan Tech

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Wisconsin WolfsHOUGHTON — Bear hunters will tell you that a good way to attract a bear is to put out bait. And in 10 states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, that’s perfectly legal. Hunting dogs are another useful technique in the bear-hunter’s toolkit, and 17 states say that’s just fine.

But who else likes bear bait? Gray wolves, that’s who. And wolves that are feeling territorial about a bear bait stash can — and sometimes do — kill hunting dogs released at the bait site.

Like most interactions between wildlife and human beings, wolf attacks on hunting dogs illustrate a tangled trade-off:  attracting bears for the hunters, attracting danger for their dogs.

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Story by: By Jennifer Donovan
Source:  CBS Detroit
For additional information on Bear Hunting in Michigan, click the active link.
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Wyoming Grizzly delisting next year?

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Grizzly Bear Hunting in Wyoming

“Grizzly bears could be delisted in the next year or so, but it must be proven the bruins can get by without whitebark pine nuts.”

Grizzly bears could be delisted in the next year or so, but it must be proven the bruins can get by without whitebark pine nuts.

That’s what Mark Bruscino said at the Wyoming Outfitters Guide Association and Cody Country Outfitters and Guides Association meeting Saturday morning in Cody.

Bruscino is the Wyoming Game and Fish Department statewide supervisor of the large carnivore management section.

He was part of a panel comprised of state and federal officials and one outfitter.

“I’m optimistic — knock on wood — that we’re going to move this thing forward in the next 12 to 14 months,” Bruscino said.

Whitebark pine has declined by 90 percent in some areas of the northern Rockies.

Bruscino said he hopes the service will issue a delisting rule saying whitebark pine is not a major obstacle in the grizzly’s recovery.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead supports delisting, said Steve Ferrell, policy adviser to the governor and former Game and Fish Department director.

Two years ago, the governor sent a letter to Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar saying the population was recovered. Mead is expecting a delisting rule by April 2014, Ferrell said.

Salazar wrote to Mead last summer and said he was expecting a report in 2014 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service analyzing the effects of decreasing whitebark on grizzlies.

“All participants agreed that the Yellowstone grizzly population was recovered and that declines in whitebark pine do not threaten the future of the grizzly population,” said Salazar in July 2012.

Most in the scientific community do not believe whitebark will cause a major impact in the grizzly population in the Greater Yellowstone Area, Bruscino said.

whitebark pine in Wyoming

“Grizzlies eat whitebark nuts when available and switch to other foods in whitebark bust years, such as young ungulates and truffles, Bruscino said. Truffles are a sort of wild potato.”

Grizzlies eat whitebark nuts when available and switch to other foods in whitebark bust years, such as young ungulates and truffles, Bruscino said. Truffles are a sort of wild potato.

“They (grizzlies) live in a lot of places where there is no whitebark pine,” Bruscino said.

Scientists don’t know what the future holds for whitebark or the decline of native fish and ungulates, but, “we think the bear will be fine,” said Dan Tyers, U.S. Forest Service grizzly coordinator.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service likely will issue a draft delisting rule in 2014 followed by a final rule in late 2014 or early 2015, Bruscino said.

If people or groups disagree with the rule, they can challenge delisting in court, Bruscino said.

An audience member asked what are signs the grizzly bear recovery area is at carrying capacity.

Some bears would have less body fat due to food competition, and subordinate bears would be pushed out of good habitat by older bears, resulting in increased bear-human conflicts, Bruscino said.

BJ Hill, a Jackson outfitter, said he has problems with older grizzlies entering his hunting camps.

Hunting could be used to reduce conflict bears. Hunting pressure could be directed in the front country where the problem bears are at to reduce conflicts, Bruscino said.

Environmentalists hold Yellowstone and Grand Teton park bears in very high regard, Hill said.

One of Hill’s examples was grizzly bear No. 399, one of the most photographed grizzly bears in Grand Teton National Park.

“Grand Teton, it’s the celebrity status that is going to make delisting an issue,” Hill said.

There were an estimated 610 grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Area in 2012, under the current counting model, but that is a conservative estimate. The actual number could be 20 percent higher than that, Bruscino said.

Hill said he believes there are 1,500 to 2,000 grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone area.

“I think that’s high,” Bruscino said.

With delisting would come Grizzly bear hunting.

The quota would be low the first year. What is important is to remove all the wolf and bear hunting hype, Bruscino said.

The population will be monitored. “It’s not a free fall,” Tyers said.

If there is any indication the population is declining, hunting will be the first thing to go, Bruscino said.

The Game and Fish has done all the grizzly recovery work in Wyoming. It can successfully manage the bear as a big game animal into the future if it is delisted, Bruscino said.

Written by Gib Mathers
Source: Powell Tribune
The Bear Hunting Blog

Black Bears in Nevada on the Comeback

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The black bear is on the rise and returning to parts of Nevada where it hasn’t been seen in almost a century. That’s the encouraging news from a report on 150 years of black bear history put together by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) which was published this week in The Journal of Wildlife Management.

Hunting Black Bear in Nevada

“The black bear is on the rise and returning to parts of Nevada where it hasn’t been seen in almost a century. That’s the encouraging news from a report on 150 years of black bear history put together by the WCS and NDOW.”

Although black bears had almost disappeared from the state in the early 1900′s, wildlife and law enforcement officers noticed a 17-fold increase in bears killed in road accidents between the early 1990′s and the mid-2000′s. There was also a corresponding rise in reported conflicts between humans and bears that began around 1987.

That forced the wildlife researchers to take a closer look at where Nevada’s black bears had lived in the past — and where they were returning after their near-extinction in the state by the early 1930′s. While lots of bears were certainly killed by over-hunting, they noted that the loss of habitat caused by clear-cutting the forest in that era also contributed to the disappearance of the species.

NDOW’s Carl Lackey, one of the study’s authors, told a Reno, Nevada newspaper that the bears are making a natural comeback to the territory they lived in before: “Black bears once roamed clear across Nevada. Everywhere you look at today and think bears could probably live in, they probably did at some point. It appears that some of them are going back.”

When most of the forest was cut down in the interior, a few black bears survived in the rugged, western part of the state. Now some of those bears are marching east.

In a controversial move, Nevada has even opened black bear hunting, with 25 bears being taken by hunters during the 2011 and 2012 seasons, bringing around $50,000 to the state for bear tags (hunting permits) and other costs. However, earlier in March, the legislature listened to debate about banning future hunts.

In my area, the Louisiana black bear is listed as a threatened subspecies. However, the US Fish and Wildlife Service says the species is on the rise in nearby Mississippi.

How about you? Is your area seeing more black bears?

Source: The Inquisitr
The Bear Hunting Blog