Black bear in New Brunswick Canada are plentiful and for that reason need to be control to avoid over population, which leads to conflicts for food with other black bear and habitat for both bear and humans, especially as our towns and cities grow in size.

DNR does a great job at controlling the culling of black bear, keeping the population down to a healthy sustainable group.

Of course the black bear is considered to be big game and therefore hunted for sport and bragging rights, not to mention the great bear skin rugs they produce.

Speaking of bear rugs. I have a friend who is not only a black bear hunter but he is also a great black bear guide, outfitter and lodge owner. He has a huge black bear rug on the wall of his hunting and fishing lodge.

Black Bear Meat Makes Great Table Fare

I remember many moons ago, the first time I tried black bear meat. We were already used to eating wild meat as we lived on a farm out in the country and hunted a lot. I loved and said I felt like Daniel Boone. Black bear make for some great table fare.

Hunters Eager For Black Bear

Last year, in 2008, there were 2569 resident licences sold as well as 2740 non-resident licences sold for a total of 5309.

BTW: Out of the 2740 non-resident licences sold only 2380 were actually used.

The stats for the Black bear harvest for 2008 kind of shocked me. But it also shows me why it’s important to find a good black bear outfitter so that you have the best chance of bagging your black bear.

In 2008 only 407 black bears were harvested by resident hunters, so out of the 2569 licences sold only 407 bears were taken.

In 2008 there were 1357 black bear taken by the 2740 non-resident hunters. Note: Only 2380 of the 2740 licences sold were used by non-residents.

If you are not familiar with New Brunswick but you still want a great black bear hunting outfitter I would suggest you check out the post here on finding the best black bear hunting outfitter for you. You can also see what you need to do to prepare for your bear hunt.

The North American Black Bear

What Family Does The N.A. Black Bear Belong:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae

The N.A. Black Bear, the most common of all bears, and the smallest of the North American bear, is still a big game animal who lives in most states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada.

You may have heard them called the ‘clown of the woods’. If you didn’t know why it’s because they can be so amusing while they play around in their habitat. They can act like little kids but remember they are still a dangerous and wild animal so don’t decide that you could go play with them.

Most people in the world have only ever seen black bear on TV or in a zoo, which is kind of sad isn’t it. Although when black bear hunting season takes some of the female black bears with cubs, even if it’s by accident those cubs don’t really stand a chance and either die or are killed by other predators or they end up in the zoo.

The average weight of a N.A. black bear is somewhere between 200 to 350 pounds, but is seldom longer than 6 1/2 feet. Anything beyond that would be classified as a trophy black bear.

I was fishing for Atlantic salmon one fine fall day and turned around to see what I thought was a small black bear sitting there watching me but when it turned and walked back into the bush I could see that it was much bigger than I had thought. Don’t be deceived by black bear that look small, they are still dangerous.

What do Black Bear look like?

Black Bear have short legs with clawed feet and a small stubby tail and for most times of the year are rather heavy set and thick looking. They have a long nose or snout with a set of canine teeth for chomping down meat and flat molars to grind the other foods they eat.

Black bear will eat anything their powerful jaws can handle and that doesn’t leave much out of their diet. They are known as omnivorous because they are opportunistic feeders.

What’s in their diet?

Black bears will feast on other animals, usually the dead kind, but will take down a moose or a deer if hungry enough. They espeically love fish, salmon being one of their favorite, as it’s a great way to put on the pounds they need to survive the winter months. They also eat all kinds of plant matter that is available at any given time like fruits and berries, various grasses & roots, honey, insects.

Knowing how to handle a bear hunt situation can be crucial to success or possible going home empty handed. If you haven’t had a lot of experience with black bear hunting, this type of situation could cost you a beautiful trophy bear. Usually, it is a senior adult male bear that will stand up inspect a suspicious situation. The young black bears are careless, and like all species haven’t adapted yet.

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• Choosing the Right Black Bear Hunting Outfitter & Preparing For Your Trip (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

The Black bear, or Ursus americanus to scientists, is the most common species of bear in North America. If you go camping somewhere in the United States, Mexico or Canada and you see a bear, chances are you’re looking at a black bear.

And with the recent tragedy of the Clyde family and an assault by a black bear in Tennessee, it makes sense to approach them with respect and caution.

Compared to other American bears, black bears are smaller and more agile, usually weighing from 150-300 pounds, though they can sometimes weigh much more. While they are often black, black bears also come in dark brown and even grayish shades. They are almost always smaller and less furry than their brown bear cousins, and lack the distinctive shoulder hump of the grizzly.

Like most bears, the black bear is an omnivore and will eat virtually anything it can get its paws on, though black bears tend to eat more vegetation than their cousins. Roots, seeds, grasses, berries, leaves, twigs, sometimes even bark and the inner parts of trees will make up most of the bear’s diet throughout the year. Black bears will also eat a variety of insects, smaller mammals, and are good at catching fish.

Black bears are not particularly aggressive or violent towards people. In many areas, bears are actually quite tame and unafraid of us, and will even be found begging for scraps along the sides of roads. Though their vision is only average, they have an amazing sense of smell, and have a knack for getting into places they shouldn’t be, like cars, gardens or dumpsters.

If you are going to be camping in an area where there are black bears, just make sure you don’t leave any food in a place you wouldn’t want a bear to get to. For example, never store opened food items inside your tent. Any food items that are exposed to the sense of smell should be kept tightly sealed, hung from a tree, or at the very least a good distance away from your campsite.

My only experience with black bears occurred while I was backpacking with friends in Yosemite. The campsite we reached on the first night was crawling with black bears. Though we were a little nervous at first, it was soon clear they weren’t going to bother us, so we set up camp as planned. As soon as we began cooking dinner, however, we found ourselves with a good-sized bear audience.

For the most part they kept their distance, but when we weren’t looking they’d creep closer and closer to get a better look and smell for what we were making. As soon as we looked over at them, they’d turn away and pretend like they weren’t really interested, feigning interest in some twig instead. When we woke the next morning, we discovered the bears had licked all our dishes completely clean.

Although the experience I had was actually quite humorous, black bears are certainly capable of causing great bodily injury to you if they feel threatened. Its never a good idea to approach a bear, and if you see bear cubs you should stay far away because there is a very good chance they have a protective mother nearby.

I was watching some videos this morning while having my early morning coffee. A great way to get motivated early in the morning. As I was scanning through Youtube I came across a video from Riverside Guide Service that brought back a few great memories of a trapline I shared with a girlfriend’s father back in 1973. Seems like a life time ago.

Heck I haven’t thought about that trapline in longest time. No, I haven’t thought about Debbie either dear.

Even though I was a bit wild back then I kept it under control while I was around Debbie’s dad Bruce. He was a big man and could have picked me up and tore me a new one real quick. Instead he took a real liking to me. Well I will admit that I worked hard and didn’t complain, I think that helped.

Deb’s mom and dad asked if we would like to move into their cottage, which was a little ways behind their house on the edge of a really niche pond. We thought about it for about 30 seconds and then moved right in.

We had it pretty good living there. Living so close to home we had no need to cook as there was always place settings at the table for us.

Bruce was full of songs and jokes and was a lot of fun to be around.

One gorgeous Saturday morning at the breakfast table Bruce asked me if I would like to join him on his daily run around his trapline. I was a bit of a hunter and fisher so I was more than happy to go with him and experience something my ancestors did to survive.

To make a long story a bit shorter Bruce asked if I would become a partner with him on the trapline for 50%. Because I already had a good job I would have to get up even earlier to monitor the traps daily but I was up for it.

I had a lot of fun, learned a lot about trapping and eventually quit my job to work with Bruce full time planting trees for clients. But back to the trapping story…

Bruce used to trap a beaver damn for years until some hunters went in and just for the fun of it they shot and killed all the beavers. Bruce thought that more beavers would move in but a year or two went by and nothing so he stopped going up in that area.

We didn’t actually go up in where that damn was but later I walked up in there on my own to see. I love to fish beaver damns and wanted to see what it was like.

To my surprise there were beaver signs everywhere. More beavers had indeed moved in. Of course I could hardly wait to finish the run so I could tell Bruce. When I told him he insisted that we hop in the canoe and head up there to see.

Before we left he grabbed what he needed to set a trap and we were on our way. I am sure I saw a tear in his eyes when we got there and sure enough there were beaver.

He showed me how to tie the wire to a cinder block and kink the wire in the right place to hold the beaver under the water when it got trapped, because they instinctively dive when paninced.

I went back there every day and nothing for about a week. It probably took that long for my scent to wear off the area. Anyways I went to the damn one day and there was a big beaver sitting there looking at me and it wasn’t dead like it should have been, just really ticked.

I don’t usually slack off but after days of not getting anything I walked up in there without my rifle and sure enough that was the day there was a trapped beaver that wasn’t drowned.

It had tangled in the chain and couldn’t even dive so I looked around for a weapon. I picked up a good size tree branch and hit the poor scared beaver as hard as I could and then then pinned it under the water for what I thought was a really long time.

I dragged it’s lifeless body out of the water, put the beaver over my back holding it by the hind legs and started back to the canoe.

Well I about half way back to the canoe when I thought it moved and before I was 100% sure it really let me know it wasn’t dead. If I hadn’t wore my girlfriend’s buckskin jacket that day I am sure I would have some scares on my back and perhaps my butt.

I think that was the scariest moment of my short life. Needless to say I immediately let go and jumped forward. Well that beaver got the better of me that day and lived to tell all his friends back at the damn and I never left my rifle in the canoe again.