Moose Droppings

We are looking forward to a great adventure a trip like this brings, and hopefully the bounty of a few bears to bring back with us. I’ll have my camera with me and hopefully will catch a lot of the trip and be able to share some of the photos out here.

A question I’ve been asked a few times is what does the bear population look like and how will this season be. By all reports Maine and really all of New England is expecting a very good year. Here is excerpts from an article on the bear forecast from New England Fish & Game.

 New England’s 2006 Black Bear Forecast

Things are looking good for New England’s black bear hunters in 2006. Here’s the lowdown on what you can expect when you head for the woods this fall. (August 2006)

By Al Raychard

Based on the most recent harvest reports, bear hunters in New England had a slow season last fall. Although some harvest figures were still preliminary at the time of this writing, in Massachusetts and from Vermont across to Maine, hunters registered 20 to 40 percent fewer bears than in 2004, making 2005 one of the poorest seasons in years.

After several years of record-breaking or near record-breaking harvests in all four states, the obvious question is, why was 2005 so unproductive? Certainly not because the bears aren’t out there. According to biologists, black bear populations are on the rise throughout the region. And with bears showing up in areas where they haven’t been seen in modern times, there is mounting evidence that bears are also increasing their range.

Jennifer Vashon, the Bear Project leader for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, suggests several factors that may have contributed to the lower harvest.

“I can’t say what happened elsewhere,” she said, “but bad weather and poor hunting conditions during the first weeks of the season led to lower hunter success in Maine.”

Weather conditions can have a strong impact on hunter success, especially if bad weather occurs early in the season, Vashon said. Poor hunting conditions were reported across Maine last year.

There was also a bumper mast crop last fall throughout northern New England’s top bear range. Years with big nut and berry crops generally result in high harvests because when food is abundant, bears den late. In Maine and New Hampshire, bear activity on baits during the baiting season — traditionally the most productive hunting period — can be slowed due to the availability of natural foods. In Maine, lower hunter participation means that simply fewer hunters were in the woods to take advantage of the situation.

Another factor may have contributed to the lower-than-normal harvest. A number of Maine guiding operations reported lower hunter participation due to the uncertainty of the referendum to prohibit traditional hunting methods in Maine.

“Many hunters opted to hunt in 2004, but probably didn’t book hunts for 2005,” Vashon says.

Whatever the reason for last fall’s low yield, biologists generally agree on one thing: There will be plenty of bears out there this fall. As usual, weather conditions will play a role, but most managers are predicting that not only will hunter participation be back to normal, but so will the numbers of bears harvested.

There’s also another thing to look forward to. Last winter was one of the driest and mildest on record. There are several reports of bears leaving the dens early this spring, which means they will have more time to put on some weight before the fall seasons.

Bigger bruins is always good news.

 MAINE
Maine is home to more bears than any state in the Lower 48, and more than in some provinces north of the border. Wildlife officials estimate Maine’s bear population at 23,000 animals. According to biologist Vashon of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the harvest levels in recent years have stabilized the bear population in accordance with the department’s management goal.

Between 2000 and 2004, according to Vashon, Maine’s bear harvests have been rather consistent, with a meager 1 percent difference between three of the four years — in 2000, 2001 and 2003 — when the harvest was 3,900 or higher. In 2002, hunters took 3,512 bear, but that was a low mast year, and in 2004, the harvest was 3,123.

At the time of this writing, final harvest figures for 2005 were not available. But in early October of last fall, the harvest for weeks 1 through 4 was estimated at 1,872 to 2,908 bears, using the regression equation first developed in 2002. That equation is based on fifteen years of bear-harvest data collected from registration stations after the first four weeks of the season. The 2005 figure during that period compares to 3,470 taken during the same period in 2004. Even with an additional 305 bears added to the October 2005 figure — which is the average for weeks 5 through 13 in recent years — the 2005 harvest should be between around 2,350 and 3,050, the lowest harvest since 1998, or up to 40 percent fewer than in the past five years. Considering last year’s low harvest, Maine hunters can expect plenty of bear this fall and plenty of opportunities to bag one.

Bigger and more is even better news.

I plan to go after mine with a muzzleloader not quite ready to try to tackle one with a bow yet. I hope to be able to get on here and update everyone on the trip and hopefully to post some great bear photos.