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Hunters take 13% less bears than last year

Oct 21, 2018 01:57PM ● By Editor

Photo:  Minnesota DNR


From the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - October 19, 2018


Minnesota bear hunters took nearly 13 percent fewer black bears this year compared to 2017, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported last week.

Hunters killed 1,760 bears during the hunting season that ended last Sunday, down from 2,035 in 2017 and down 33 percent from 2,633 bears shot in 2016. It's the fewest bears taken since 2013 when just 1,624 were shot.

This year hunters took 66 percent male bears and 34 percent male bears. That's still too many females, wildlife managers say, to be sustainable. Because the DNR's goal is to increase bear numbers in the quota area — including northeastern Minnesota — they'd like to see fewer than 30 percent of the harvest females, said Tom Rusch, DNR wildlife manager for the Tower area.

The same number of permits was issued this year as last. So wildlife managers said the dip in bears shot isn't because there are fewer of them but because they were full. Ample natural food in the woods this year — berries, nuts and other mast crops — kept bears satisfied and less likely to eat at hunter bait stations.

For that to happen, hunters will have to shoot fewer females, which are slow to mature and don't begin breeding until age 4 or 5. Most females shot are younger than that and so never had the chance to add to the population, Rusch noted.

Because it's hard to distinguish males from females in the woods, the only sure way to shoot fewer females is to shoot fewer total bears, which means fewer permits available for hunters and more years between permits due to the lottery system.


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