Minnesota Bear Season Summary

[Emily]

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/ ... up/Sports/

Published November 24 2009
Bear harvest increases in Minnesota
Minnesota wildlife managers aren’t sure what to make of this year’s black bear hunt. Hunters took 2,795 bears this fall, up from 2,135 last year. And success rate among hunters was 30 percent, up from about 26 percent in recent years.
Minnesota wildlife managers aren’t sure what to make of this year’s black bear hunt.

Hunters took 2,795 bears this fall, up from 2,135 last year. And success rate among hunters was 30 percent, up from about 26 percent in recent years.

The Department of Natural Resources issued fewer bear hunting permits this fall than in recent years because they believed the population had been decreasing. Now, they aren’t sure what to think, said Dave Garshelis, DNR bear project manager in Grand Rapids.

“There are a couple of ways to think about it,” he said. “Either we took a few too many bears, or the population is better than we thought.”

Garshelis and other DNR wildlife biologists are now in the second year of a study to determine the state’s bear population. Hunters submitted ribs and teeth from the bears they killed this fall. Wildlife officials use chemical markers in the samples to determine the bear population, but that won’t be known until late winter.

More than 17,000 hunters applied for the 10,000 permits available this fall, up from a low of 15,725 in 2006. In the late 1990s, as many as 30,000 hunters applied for the permits each year. DNR officials aren’t sure why interest has dropped off.

“Maybe we’ve turned around on what we had thought was diminished interest in the hunt,” Garshelis said.

A total of 9,889 hunters actually purchased licenses and hunted this fall.

[Twopipe]

Thanks for posting this!