Black Bear Tune-up

By: Steve Cegielski, Operations Manager, All-Canada Show
With Black Bear season about a month away from gearing up in Canada, I think it's time to dust off the rifle or tune the bow. Never to early to begin preparing for a quality Black Bear hunt north of the border.

A few years back I had a chance to hunt with Pine Acres Bear Camp out of Vermillion Bay, Ontario. Traveling back and forth from our baited stand locations with the owner of Pine Acres Bear Camp, Chris Lavoie, gave me a chance to pick a black bear experts brain on the bear. We discussed everything from hunting strategy to a bears life cycle. Here's some bear facts that I learned during our daily truck ride to and from the hunting grounds helped give me a better understanding of black bear habits and tendencies.
Black bears mating season occurs in June, and cubs are born in the den during the month of February. Sows have a gestations period of roughly 8 months before giving birth from 1 to 3 cubs. If you see cubs with a sow in August they are roughly 6 months of age. The sow will winter the following winter with the cubs before chasing them off in June before mating season at 18months of age and about 100lbs.
It’s difficult to tell the sex of adult bears from a distance, but some minute differences include; skull size, and body shape.

A black bear can live in excess of 25yrs.

Most people think black bears have a poor sense of sight, but in reality they have average eyesight. Sight alone won’t spook a bear, two senses must be peaked before they panic – sight and human odor will surely push the black bear into cover in a hurry.

I'm not heading north this year for bear season, but I'll be thinking about all the hunters living their dream hunt this fall. Shoot straight and then send me your story. If you haven't planned that awesome Black Bear hunt yet, check out http://www.allcanada.com/ to book that trip of a lifetime.