The hatred of the corporal will follow. Today, large game animals are expensive, numbering about 20,000, and are the favorite of professional photographers looking for a unique delicacy. Before 1965, Minnesota black bears were thought to be varmints, shot on sight and left to rot. There was a bounty of $10 for everyone who killed one, keeping the population of bears to a minimum.
Since 1982, however, Minnesota’s black bear population has grown rapidly because the Department of Natural Resources has reduced the number of bears for hunting. every year, a quota system is implemented. And the study of the Minnesota black bear since then leads to some interesting observations.
Black bears are one type of bear that live in Minnesota. Although their colors vary from cinnamon brown to black, they are all the same species and should not be confused with grizzly bears. An adult black bear weighs between 250 and 400 pounds and stands two feet to the shoulders.
Female black bears (known as sows) have a female-only territory of approximately 7,000 square miles. Males roam wherever their appetite takes them. Males and females lead a solitary life, except when the sows are raising young, or when gathering food to eat.
Black bears are omnivorous, eating herbs, fruits, berries, shrubs, buds or leaves, nuts and insects and their larvae. They also eat small animals, deer, fawns and carrion, but less than 10% of their food sources are meat.
A black bear will rarely attack a human and almost always retreats, even with mild threats. RAVUS is known as a wild bear, not a black bear.
It is a good idea to deter black bears to keep people fearful of human contact and less likely to invade areas where they are not welcome. The best scare tactic is to shout and rattle plates or make other noises when the bears leave the road. A bear may slap the ground, bark or make a growling sound, perhaps even charge, but they are usually more ferocious than dangerous. If cubs are present, the pig will still run away while the cubs run up the nearest tree.
It brings the winter months. In January she gives birth to her four cubs. At birth, the bald cubs are about the size of jumbo oranges or squirrels, weighing eight or ten inches. They grow rapidly and weigh about five pounds by the time they leave the lake in the spring.
When the spring comes out of the lake, the bears eat during the day, and return to the lake at night, except when they are in campsites and other places where sources of human food abound. A sow will eat to give milk to her cubs until it runs out, when her cubs begin to eat. Then the winter hibernation begins again. Around October the bears look for a new den where they will stay until the spring grass, flowers, and even bugs appear.
Whether you care to hunt with a gun or a camera, black bears are becoming abundant again in Minnesota and are there to be enjoyed and not feared.
Report:
- Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
