The North American Black Bear, Ursus Americanus, is the smallest of the North American bears, with an average weight of 250 pounds, a normal adult weight of 125-600 pounds and the heaviest weight recorded of 803 pounds. The adult male is generally 33% larger than the female. The height is normally 2.5-3 feet measured from the bottom of the paw flat on the ground to the highest point on the shoulder. The length of a black bear is measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail and averages 6 feet. The black bear is thought to have migrated over the Bering Land Bridge some 500,000 years ago from Asia. It is the only bear that is found only in the Americas, and thru its amazing adaptation abilities, it has thrived even near populated areas. A black bear will go to great lengths to avoid contact with humans, but has been known to attack when provoked, and on rare occurrence will even initiate an attack. The black bear walks on the soles of its feet, or plantigrade, and has five toes on each foot complete with strong, curved, non-retractable claws.
The bears front claws often measure 1 ¼ inches in length, and are used for defense, digging and climbing trees even as an adult. In addition bears have 42 teeth consisting of 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars and 10 molars. The canines are long and sharp with flat and broad crowns on molars for grinding. The typical black bear has long black hair covering most of its body, with most bears having a splash of white on the chest. The hair is often light colored on the muzzle and around the eyes. Black bears come in all shades of brown, blonde, smoky-blue and even pure white, and coloration can change with maturation, seasonal shedding and fading and with the intensity of the natural light.
The black bears senses are keen with its sense of smell leading the way. No animal has more acuteness of smell. With its nose the bear finds mates, avoids humans and other bears, identifies cubs and finds food. One black bear was known to have detected human scent that was 14 hours old, while another traveled upwind 3 miles in a straight line to a dead deer carcass. There is an old American Indian saying, A pine needle fell in the forest. The eagle saw it, the deer heard it, and the bear smelled it. Bears eyesight has long been considered poor, but now new studies are revealing that it might be reasonably good. They approach objects cautiously due to nearsightedness and often stand erect to increase their sight distance, yet they are able to distinguish color and slight motion at all levels of light in day or night. Some biologists believe that bears behave like they have poor eyesight because they don't trust their vision as much as they do hearing or smell. The black bears hearing is moderately good, and it is believed that they hear in the ultrasonic range of 16-20 megahertz or even higher. One bear has detected normal human conversation at more than 325 yards and another reacted to the click of a camera shutter nearly 50 yards away.
Bears possess enormous strength as evidenced by them moving rocks, moving large logs, digging huge holes and dragging or carrying large animal carcasses for miles. No animal of equal size is as powerful. A black bear can kill a moose, elk or deer with a single blow to the neck with one foreleg and then carry the carcass for great distances, however this bear is primarily an herbivore with its main source of animal protein coming from its primary prey: insects. A yearling black bear, later captured and weighed at 120 pounds, was seen turning over a flat-shaped rock, weighing over 310 pounds, with a single foreleg backhanded. The size of black bears in the wild has long been misjudged. A bear's size is usually expressed in weight, which is difficult to estimate at best, due to variations in height, thickness of fur, physical stature, as well as the nearness and stress level of the observer. During a close encounter and with an untrained eye, all bears are big, and most often much greater than the true weight. During a study in Great Smokey Mountains National Park, responses to the estimated weights of black bears were from 400 to 4000 pounds, while the actual weights ranged from 95 to 115 pounds.
If you are hunting for a big black bear, you must learn to tell what a big black bear looks like. Visit sporting goods stores that have a full mount, wildlife parks or zoos to get a relative idea of size and weight. Look for an indention on the bears forehead running straight back along the top of the head between the ears. This ferrule becomes more prominent as the bear gets older and bigger. Hunting the rut in your area will normally offer more opportunities as boars are attracted to females that are more apt to hit baits during daytime hours. Be patient and don't fill your tag with a smaller bear. Hunt where there are big bears. The area has to be big enough to support continuous hunting seasons and allow bears to reach mature age. Look for front paw prints that have a pad wider than 4 inches, as a pad of over 5 inches will usually be a record book sized bear. Try putting some jelly or maple syrup on a Styrofoam plate and leave it at a bait sight. Check for the bite marks and if you find the tip-to-tip spread of the bear's top canine teeth is over 2 inches the bear will almost certainly be record book material. To score a bear's skull, measure the width at the widest point and the length front to back without the bottom jaw. Your bear's score will be the sum of these measurements to the closest 1/16th of an inch.
Black bear are primarily hunted over bait or with hounds in Wisconsin. Hounds, where legal, can often produce a big bear that may have switched to nocturnal feeding. Hounds can drive a bruin out of his daytime lair, and sometimes bay him or tree him in position for a successful shot, but a bear will use every opportunity to escape hounds and often does. The chase is the major part of the hunt, and some of the most exciting and enjoyable bear hunts can be made with a camera during training seasons. It takes a special hound with the nose, courage, endurance, brains and speed to be a good bear hound. The most often used hounds are Plott, Walker, Blueticks, Black and Tans, and Redbones, with Plotts probably being the most popular. The best bear dogs appear to weigh between 40 and 65 pounds, being generally quick and agile enough to work a bear and fast enough to catch one. Heavier hounds tend to be slightly slower and may stand a better chance of getting hurt in an encounter, however there are always exceptions. Although one dog can tree a bear, it is normally teamwork on the part of a number of hounds that ends successfully. A great bear dog will have a nose that can smell a bear's scent at least 10 hours old and possess the ability to follow the old trail until the bear is jumped. The hound should then be able to tree the bear and remain for hours if necessary before the hunter arrives, all the while communicating in a loud and steady voice.
Three to six hounds comprise a good pack, and Wisconsin limits the maximum size of the pack to six, with no relaying of dogs permitted. Too many dogs sometimes results in confusion and an unsuccessful hunt, and other times may cause hounds to be hurt when other dogs get in their way during a fight. Treeing a bear is always the object of hunting with hounds, but it is not always the result. Some bear just won't climb, and some hounds aren't capable of putting enough pressure on the bear to make him climb. It normally takes constant pressure in the form of barking and/or biting to put a bear up. Sometimes the combination of dogs and hunters will do the job, as people ahead of it and hounds behind may be more that a bear can take on the ground. Some bigger-than-average bear, unless pressured like this, will travel leisurely ahead of the pack of hounds, sometimes stopping for a fight, and never tire out. It takes an exceptional, well-trained and well-conditioned pack of hounds to consistently tree black bear, and consistently might mean one out of every three chases.
Baiting black bear can be a very rewarding experience if you can get past the mosquitoes, black flies, finding the bait you need and transporting the bait to your site. First locate a site in the remotest and most isolated spot that you can stand. There should be lots of cover backing up to very dense brush. It is illegal in Wisconsin to place, use or hunt over bait contained within or containing metal, paper, plastic, glass, wood other than hollow stumps or other non-degradable materials. It is also illegal to use any baiting material, liquid or scent for attracting wild animals containing honey, bones, fish, meat, solid animal fat including bacon grease, or parts of animal carcasses. A hollow stump works well or a hole in the ground will suffice, and this can be filled with a maximum of ten gallons of baiting material or liquid scent. Old bread soaked with molasses or used deep fryer grease works well as does donuts and other sweet items. Use dead logs to cover the bait so that the bear is the only animal that can get to it. Don't be afraid to walk in with your bait making non-threatening human sounds, as the bear may very well become accustomed to your scent and sounds and not feel threatened by them. You might even hang a shirt or something with your scent on it near the bait, and your scent will become associated with food. If you're planning to use insect repellant when you hunt, you could also squirt a little around the bait area. One way to get the word out about your bait is to loosen the dirt around the bait and pour some deep fryer oil on the dirt. When the first bear hits the bait, he will leave with greasy feet and leave a trail for other bears to follow back to your bait. Set up your tree stand or standing area, preferably against a tree that will break up your outline, at a comfortable shooting distance from your bait. Normally only one shooting lane is needed.
The bears front claws often measure 1 ¼ inches in length, and are used for defense, digging and climbing trees even as an adult. In addition bears have 42 teeth consisting of 12 incisors, 4 canines, 16 premolars and 10 molars. The canines are long and sharp with flat and broad crowns on molars for grinding. The typical black bear has long black hair covering most of its body, with most bears having a splash of white on the chest. The hair is often light colored on the muzzle and around the eyes. Black bears come in all shades of brown, blonde, smoky-blue and even pure white, and coloration can change with maturation, seasonal shedding and fading and with the intensity of the natural light.
The black bears senses are keen with its sense of smell leading the way. No animal has more acuteness of smell. With its nose the bear finds mates, avoids humans and other bears, identifies cubs and finds food. One black bear was known to have detected human scent that was 14 hours old, while another traveled upwind 3 miles in a straight line to a dead deer carcass. There is an old American Indian saying, A pine needle fell in the forest. The eagle saw it, the deer heard it, and the bear smelled it. Bears eyesight has long been considered poor, but now new studies are revealing that it might be reasonably good. They approach objects cautiously due to nearsightedness and often stand erect to increase their sight distance, yet they are able to distinguish color and slight motion at all levels of light in day or night. Some biologists believe that bears behave like they have poor eyesight because they don't trust their vision as much as they do hearing or smell. The black bears hearing is moderately good, and it is believed that they hear in the ultrasonic range of 16-20 megahertz or even higher. One bear has detected normal human conversation at more than 325 yards and another reacted to the click of a camera shutter nearly 50 yards away.
Bears possess enormous strength as evidenced by them moving rocks, moving large logs, digging huge holes and dragging or carrying large animal carcasses for miles. No animal of equal size is as powerful. A black bear can kill a moose, elk or deer with a single blow to the neck with one foreleg and then carry the carcass for great distances, however this bear is primarily an herbivore with its main source of animal protein coming from its primary prey: insects. A yearling black bear, later captured and weighed at 120 pounds, was seen turning over a flat-shaped rock, weighing over 310 pounds, with a single foreleg backhanded. The size of black bears in the wild has long been misjudged. A bear's size is usually expressed in weight, which is difficult to estimate at best, due to variations in height, thickness of fur, physical stature, as well as the nearness and stress level of the observer. During a close encounter and with an untrained eye, all bears are big, and most often much greater than the true weight. During a study in Great Smokey Mountains National Park, responses to the estimated weights of black bears were from 400 to 4000 pounds, while the actual weights ranged from 95 to 115 pounds.
If you are hunting for a big black bear, you must learn to tell what a big black bear looks like. Visit sporting goods stores that have a full mount, wildlife parks or zoos to get a relative idea of size and weight. Look for an indention on the bears forehead running straight back along the top of the head between the ears. This ferrule becomes more prominent as the bear gets older and bigger. Hunting the rut in your area will normally offer more opportunities as boars are attracted to females that are more apt to hit baits during daytime hours. Be patient and don't fill your tag with a smaller bear. Hunt where there are big bears. The area has to be big enough to support continuous hunting seasons and allow bears to reach mature age. Look for front paw prints that have a pad wider than 4 inches, as a pad of over 5 inches will usually be a record book sized bear. Try putting some jelly or maple syrup on a Styrofoam plate and leave it at a bait sight. Check for the bite marks and if you find the tip-to-tip spread of the bear's top canine teeth is over 2 inches the bear will almost certainly be record book material. To score a bear's skull, measure the width at the widest point and the length front to back without the bottom jaw. Your bear's score will be the sum of these measurements to the closest 1/16th of an inch.
Black bear are primarily hunted over bait or with hounds in Wisconsin. Hounds, where legal, can often produce a big bear that may have switched to nocturnal feeding. Hounds can drive a bruin out of his daytime lair, and sometimes bay him or tree him in position for a successful shot, but a bear will use every opportunity to escape hounds and often does. The chase is the major part of the hunt, and some of the most exciting and enjoyable bear hunts can be made with a camera during training seasons. It takes a special hound with the nose, courage, endurance, brains and speed to be a good bear hound. The most often used hounds are Plott, Walker, Blueticks, Black and Tans, and Redbones, with Plotts probably being the most popular. The best bear dogs appear to weigh between 40 and 65 pounds, being generally quick and agile enough to work a bear and fast enough to catch one. Heavier hounds tend to be slightly slower and may stand a better chance of getting hurt in an encounter, however there are always exceptions. Although one dog can tree a bear, it is normally teamwork on the part of a number of hounds that ends successfully. A great bear dog will have a nose that can smell a bear's scent at least 10 hours old and possess the ability to follow the old trail until the bear is jumped. The hound should then be able to tree the bear and remain for hours if necessary before the hunter arrives, all the while communicating in a loud and steady voice.
Three to six hounds comprise a good pack, and Wisconsin limits the maximum size of the pack to six, with no relaying of dogs permitted. Too many dogs sometimes results in confusion and an unsuccessful hunt, and other times may cause hounds to be hurt when other dogs get in their way during a fight. Treeing a bear is always the object of hunting with hounds, but it is not always the result. Some bear just won't climb, and some hounds aren't capable of putting enough pressure on the bear to make him climb. It normally takes constant pressure in the form of barking and/or biting to put a bear up. Sometimes the combination of dogs and hunters will do the job, as people ahead of it and hounds behind may be more that a bear can take on the ground. Some bigger-than-average bear, unless pressured like this, will travel leisurely ahead of the pack of hounds, sometimes stopping for a fight, and never tire out. It takes an exceptional, well-trained and well-conditioned pack of hounds to consistently tree black bear, and consistently might mean one out of every three chases.
Baiting black bear can be a very rewarding experience if you can get past the mosquitoes, black flies, finding the bait you need and transporting the bait to your site. First locate a site in the remotest and most isolated spot that you can stand. There should be lots of cover backing up to very dense brush. It is illegal in Wisconsin to place, use or hunt over bait contained within or containing metal, paper, plastic, glass, wood other than hollow stumps or other non-degradable materials. It is also illegal to use any baiting material, liquid or scent for attracting wild animals containing honey, bones, fish, meat, solid animal fat including bacon grease, or parts of animal carcasses. A hollow stump works well or a hole in the ground will suffice, and this can be filled with a maximum of ten gallons of baiting material or liquid scent. Old bread soaked with molasses or used deep fryer grease works well as does donuts and other sweet items. Use dead logs to cover the bait so that the bear is the only animal that can get to it. Don't be afraid to walk in with your bait making non-threatening human sounds, as the bear may very well become accustomed to your scent and sounds and not feel threatened by them. You might even hang a shirt or something with your scent on it near the bait, and your scent will become associated with food. If you're planning to use insect repellant when you hunt, you could also squirt a little around the bait area. One way to get the word out about your bait is to loosen the dirt around the bait and pour some deep fryer oil on the dirt. When the first bear hits the bait, he will leave with greasy feet and leave a trail for other bears to follow back to your bait. Set up your tree stand or standing area, preferably against a tree that will break up your outline, at a comfortable shooting distance from your bait. Normally only one shooting lane is needed.