FRANKFORT, Ky. – Hunters took four black bears during Kentucky’s third season for the bruins, held during the weekend of Dec. 10-11.

Neil Perkins, of Hallie, Ky., took a 350-pound male bear in Letcher County that is the heaviest bear taken since Kentucky’s first bear season in 2009, said Steven Dobey, bear program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Hunters took two bears in Letcher County and two in Harlan County.

Snow and ice storms created difficult hunting conditions during Kentucky’s two previous bear seasons. A total of six bears have now been taken in three seasons. Hunters purchased 484 permits for the 2011 hunt.

Black bears moved into Kentucky by natural range expansion from West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee. At the present time only three southeastern counties – Harlan, Letcher and Pike – are open to bear hunting in Kentucky.

“Our highest bear densities are on Pine Mountain, which runs through Harlan and Letcher counties and extends into Pike County along its southeastern boundary,” said Dobey. “Harlan and Letcher counties border Virginia, which has had a fall bear season for decades.”

Hunters are required to register their harvest online or over the telephone through the state’s Telecheck system. Hunters are also required to bring the bears to a check station so biologists can collect information on the bear’s age, sex, weight, body measurements, and the presence of tags or tattoos used to mark some animals.

Perkins’ bear had some history. “We had captured him in May 2010 in Hyden, Ky., in Leslie County for nuisance-related behavior, and released on Hensley-Pine Mountain WMA,” said Dobey. “At that time he weighed about 200 pounds.”

Dobey said the bear likely weighed more than 400 pounds before it was field dressed.

A House committee Monday approved a bill that would overturn a 19-year ban on the spring bear hunt.

House Bill 1294, sponsored by Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, won agricultural committee approval on an 8-5 vote. The bill would let the Division of Wildlife allow the hunting of bears whenever necessary. The legislation drew praise from Colorado’s agriculture community and fire from animal-rights activists.

Colorado voters passed the ban on the spring hunting of black bears, the only bear species that lives in Colorado’s wilds, with a 70 percent approval rate in 1992.

The ban was part of Measure 10, which also banned the use of dogs or bait by bear hunters. The bill does not change those aspects of the law.

Brown said he brought the bill as a “health and safety” concern following publicized incidents of human-bear encounters. Brown said he didn’t intend to reinstate the spring hunt but wanted to give the Colorado Division of Wildlife the authority to maintain the bear population as it sees fit.

“I just feel like the division needs a little more flexibility,” Brown said.  Click link below for full story!

via House committee endorses ending voter-approved ban on spring bear hunting – The Denver Post.

By RON SEELY | rseely@madison.com

BARABOO — In the deep summer green of a hardwood stand in Devil’s Lake State Park, Bill Ishmael puts on his reading glasses and stares closely at the bark of a slender tree. Up and down the trunk run parallel gouges and scars. In several places the bark is punctured by deep holes.

“We’ll put this one down as a hit,” said Ishmael, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources.

The pronouncement, coupled with the damage to the tree bark, immediately causes one to become more attentive. Suddenly, the forest feels different. It becomes wilder, deeper, stranger. More mysterious and maybe just a little scarier.

All because this woods may now be home to a black bear.

This spring has marked the beginning of a new era in how the DNR thinks of black bears in southern Wisconsin. With multiple bear sightings coming to the agency every day, including numerous reports of sows with cubs, DNR wildlife experts now believe southern Wisconsin is home to its own population of black bears for the first time since the late 1800s.

And this week saw the beginning of efforts to scientifically gather data on the fledgling population as Ishmael and Becky Roth, also a DNR wildlife biologist, conducted the first bear bait station surveys undertaken in southern Wisconsin.

“This year was just crazy compared to the last two years,” said Roth of bear sightings.  Click Link Below for Full Story!

via Black bears regain foothold in Wisconsin after 100-year absence.

BY JULIE BISBEE – Capitol Bureau

Published: February 18, 2009

A bill that would allow hunting of black bears passed the Senate on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 450, filed by Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, would allow hunters to get a permit to hunt black bears.

Corn said the Department of Wildlife requested a bill as a way to manage the growing black bear population in southeastern Oklahoma. A study of the population done by researchers at Oklahoma State University said there are about 700 to 800 bears in the area. The population is growing by about 12 percent each year.

The Department of Wildlife would set the requirements and seasons for bear hunting. Corn said the department has proposed limiting the number of bears killed each year to 20.  Click Link Below for Full Story!

via Bear hunting law passes the Oklahoma Senate | NewsOK.com.