REGIONAL— Bear hunters are having an excellent season, despite the robust wild foods still out in the woods. Abundant wild foods generally make hunters’ baits less attractive to bears, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this year as the harvest is running almost 40 percent above last year’s totals at this same point in the season.
“The season is off to a great start for bear hunters,” said Jessica Holmes, Tower area DNR wildlife manager.
As of Monday, hunters had registered a total of 3,221 bears statewide, a sharp increase over last year’s total of 2,006 registrations at the same point in the season. That represents a 60 percent success rate for hunters and it means the total bear harvest could reach 4,000 this year, which would be the most bears taken since 2001. That increase is a reflection, at least in part, of a sizable increase in the number of bear permits issued by the DNR over the past few years. This year, the DNR issued just over 5,300 permits in the quota zone, up from 3,900 as recently as 2024. Meanwhile, harvests in the no-quota parts of the state have also been trending upward over the past 20 years.
Of the bears registered so far this season, 55 percent were male. That’s a lower percentage than last year at this time, when males comprised 66 percent of registrations. Hunters tend to take a higher percentage of males when natural foods are more abundant, since females are typically more wary around bait stations, especially when natural foods are available.
Locally, hunters had registered 50 bears (68 percent males) in permit area 24, 228 (50 percent males) in PA 25, and 220 (66 percent males) in permit area 31 as of last week.