Black Bear Hunting

Black Bear Hunting is a very popular sport in the USA, but it is strictly regulated by the Endangered Species Act. Although Black Bears are quite common on the North American continent, their population amounting to 600,000 wild species, they are listed as endangered or threatened in some states, such as Louisiana and Florida. Black Bears are classified as endangered in Mexico too. In Canada, Black Bears are regarded as game animals.

Over the 20th century, Black Bear population sustained a serious decline due to loss of habitat. There were about 2 million Black Bears in North America before European colonization. Extensive Bear Hunting and poaching has contributed do the depopulation and has prompted the US government to apply legislative tools to limit Bear hunting. There are rules and regulations for professional Bear hunters, which define permissible hunting methods and tools.

Black Bear Hunting requires a lot of skill and responsibility. Hunting must be organized in such a way as to ensure security for hunters and to make it less destructive for environment. There are a few bear hunting techniques, which together ensure successful hunting: baiting, calling and trapping. Whatever method you use, the first thing you should know is how to properly behave in bear area. You must be able to recognize bear tracks and distinguish signs of the presence of bears in your vicinity. Also, you must properly choose the time for hunting, as long as bears are not equally active year round. Black Bears are quite easy to tell apart from other Bear species. They are not very large, their shoulder height not exceeding 3 ft. When standing up on their rear legs, they reach 5-7 ft tall. Males weigh 150-300 lbs; females are much smaller, weighing 50-200 lbs. American Black Bears have light brown muzzles, and may have brown markings on the chest.

Black Bears are solitary animals, and they maintain home ranges. Males have larger territories than females. Females are easier to attract than males. Usually, bears avoid contact with humans, but in some cases we get too close to animals unintentionally, which makes their behavior less predictable. Because Black Bears have padded feet, they can move very quietly so you may not hear a Bear approaching your location. More often than not, Black Bears do not dare approach baits as if they knew there was something nasty in store for them, so many hunting trips end in failure. As we can see, Black Bear Hunting is a very complicated process and it should be conducted with great responsibility and extreme caution.