Bkeepr
Senior Member
There is a stretch of the AT where bear-proof containers are mandatory for backpacking food. Has anyone tried hunting that area?
There is a stretch of the AT where bear-proof containers are mandatory for backpacking food. Has anyone tried hunting that area?
Cubs must have already been taken, therefore sow with no cubs now. That how it works
So thats how it works then. I'll be sure to check for milk before I shoot a sow with no cubs no matter the age.I wasn’t there nor have I seen any of the bears, but someone told me the majority were like 115-120 pound sows. That would be mostly adolescent sows and they don’t get bred often at that age and weight. Some of them could have been but it sounds like a bunch of adolescents were killed and that makes sense in an overpopulated area. Ask how many tickets have been issued for killing lactating females as it is against the law. No need for a witch hunt!
So 30 sows where kilt and none of them had small cubs? That's funny. Seems like every other sow I see has cubs.
OK, this thread is making me think of this:
How do they get milk from almonds?
Now back to your regularly scheduled hunting season already in progress.
All in the fun. While we awaited turn out. Let's get em in the books to.Man, ya'll seriously doing some keyboard game-warden-ing in here.
Go kill a bear. Its supposed to cool off this weekend.
Female black bears usually are not mature till 3-5 years, they don't breed until they are mature, so I would say 100-175lb. bears are not over three years old and haven't been bred. If a female bear is over 3-5 years of age and weighs in at less than 200 lbs. she will not breed, she has to be in ultimate shape for her age before she will go into heat. Ha! I knew some of this reading about bears would come in handy one day!
So thats how it works then. I'll be sure to check for milk before I shoot a sow with no cubs no matter the age.
If she was that small the cubs didn't make it, sounds like she was an old sow, that was on the downhill of life. The book I was talking about says they are not sexually mature until at least three years old. Most bear around here that are less than 3 years old are in that 100-150lb. range. There could be a strange case that one matured earlier, you know how nature is, blind sides you when you least expect it. I have saw lots of things in the woods that puzzled me, I was just trying to share what I had read, sorry, I wasn't trying to dispute what you were saying, just sharing a book fact I had learned.Ive seen a bear I thought was a cub come out of the brush only to see 3 puppy sized cubs come out right behind her. She'd barely made 100#. I didn't read about it. I saw it.