The Retriever, Dog, & Wildlife Blog

Posted in Carnivorans, wildlife | Tagged American black bear | 9 Comments

9 Responses

1. on December 20, 2012 at 10:04 am | Reply Suhail

   This practice will ensure that they don’t have any bears of that size in future in order to keep our future generation safe, that is, if they get time away from texting to walk in the forests. All they will have is miniature black bears, like miniature schnauzers, that can eventually be farmed like chinchillas.

   :-)

   
   
2. on December 20, 2012 at 10:34 am | Reply massugu

   That is indeed a very large BVlack Bear. And yes, Suhail, I agree, harvesting the biggest and best does seem to be counter-productive and out of sync with the normal predation pattern where the old, the very young, the halt, the weak, and the slow are most likely to be targeted for consumption.

   
   
   • on December 20, 2012 at 12:01 pm | Reply Suhail

     I suggest authorities levying fines for hunting bears over a certain weight, females and cubs. Since hunters will not have any sure way of finding out whether or not a male is within harvestable limits, they will be extra careful.

     
     
     • on December 21, 2012 at 4:31 am | Reply retrieverman

       In West Virginia, the law prohibits killing small bears, and the bear season is designed so that the sows that are going to give birth or have cubs have already started to “hibernate.” The only bears above ground in December are mature males like this one, juveniles, and sows that are not pregnant or have cubs.

       When I was a child there were only a few hundred bears left in the state. Now there are 10-12,000.

       So they’ve definitely got the science of bear management down.

       
       
       • on December 22, 2012 at 4:37 pm | Reply Suhail

         This is really good to know.

         
         
3. on December 20, 2012 at 1:11 pm | Reply kittenz

   A bear that has lived to achieve such a size has almost certainly been of breeding age for a few seasons & has sired or produced cubs :-). His progeny of various ages are probably scrambling around the forest producing and siring cubs of their own.

   
   
   • on December 21, 2012 at 4:32 am | Reply retrieverman

     I’m very glad we still have them. Every county in West Viriginia has bears now, and they are colonizing Ohio now.

     
     
4. on December 21, 2012 at 12:57 pm | Reply Anna

   I’ve heard a bear or two in the wild but have never seen one, despite a lifetime of backpacking. Glad to know they are thriving!

   
   
   • on December 22, 2012 at 4:36 pm | Reply Suhail

     I have hiked all over Appalachian Mountains. I only saw one young adult once in 2008 (at Shenandoah National Park). They are elusive.

     
     

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