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Bear in the yard

Allegheny Tom said:
I have a tag. It's the 1st time I ever felt the desire to have one. Neighbor told me that one of the guys he lets hunt had a cub climb the tree right beside him last week.
Which begs the question...do I shoot a sow with cubs (young cubs)? I'm thinking that I would not. I hope I don't have to make that decision. Not because it's a hard decision, but because I'd rather we didn't have the things running around the neighborhood.
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I'm no expert but from what I've read about bears is their mating cycle is in the 2-3 year range. Females don't go into heat until their cubs are gone (hence why a boar is a present danger to cubs as they will kill cubs to force the female into estrous). The reason for that is because it takes a couple of years for cubs to be mature enough to go out on their own.

Compare that cycle to that of a deer like we're used to which is on a yearly mating cycle. By the time the rut rolls around fawns are basically old enough to fend for themselves and get run off by mama. Its no big deal to harvest a doe with fawns because their chance for survival is relatively high at this point in the year.

This distinction is important because if you kill a sow with cubs you are killing two generations of bears and setting back the local population by 6 years (give or take). I know in Colorado (and a few other states) you cannot harvest a sow with cubs. Again I am no expert, this is all book knowledge not first hand experience.
 
heretic said:
I'm no expert but from what I've read about bears is their mating cycle is in the 2-3 year range. Females don't go into heat until their cubs are gone (hence why a boar is a present danger to cubs as they will kill cubs to force the female into estrous). The reason for that is because it takes a couple of years for cubs to be mature enough to go out on their own.

Compare that cycle to that of a deer like we're used to which is on a yearly mating cycle. By the time the rut rolls around fawns are basically old enough to fend for themselves and get run off by mama. Its no big deal to harvest a doe with fawns because their chance for survival is relatively high at this point in the year.

This distinction is important because if you kill a sow with cubs you are killing two generations of bears and setting back the local population by 6 years (give or take). I know in Colorado (and a few other states) you cannot harvest a sow with cubs. Again I am no expert, this is all book knowledge not first hand experience.
Click to expand...
heretic said:
I'm no expert but from what I've read about bears is their mating cycle is in the 2-3 year range. Females don't go into heat until their cubs are gone (hence why a boar is a present danger to cubs as they will kill cubs to force the female into estrous). The reason for that is because it takes a couple of years for cubs to be mature enough to go out on their own.

Compare that cycle to that of a deer like we're used to which is on a yearly mating cycle. By the time the rut rolls around fawns are basically old enough to fend for themselves and get run off by mama. Its no big deal to harvest a doe with fawns because their chance for survival is relatively high at this point in the year.

This distinction is important because if you kill a sow with cubs you are killing two generations of bears and setting back the local population by 6 years (give or take). I know in Colorado (and a few other states) you cannot harvest a sow with cubs. Again I am no expert, this is all book knowledge not first hand experience.
Click to expand...
Sounds about right to me. I don’t think it is illegal here in Maine but it is considered taboo. I don’t know anyone that would do it.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
I have a tag. It's the 1st time I ever felt the desire to have one. Neighbor told me that one of the guys he lets hunt had a cub climb the tree right beside him last week.
Which begs the question...do I shoot a sow with cubs (young cubs)? I'm thinking that I would not. I hope I don't have to make that decision. Not because it's a hard decision, but because I'd rather we didn't have the things running around the neighborhood.
Click to expand...
I would have a tough time shooting a sow with young cubs too Tom - but I know what you mean about not wanting them running around the neighborhood.....Hope you het a chance at a big old dry sow or boar....

We've had an 'e-tag' for bear available in our part of the state for about 3 or so years now...$10 and bear is fair game during our regular deer season...They don't want bears in our part of the state so they are allowing this liberal season....I buy a tag every year just in case I see a bear even though its highly unlikely as there are very few around here, but there are more sightings around here every year - I figure if I kill one every 20 years thats only $200 invested in tags and thats cheap in my book....
 
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