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Black bear hunting in North America is no joke! You definitely need someone to act as your guide, someone who has expert knowledge about bears, especially their habitats, habits and body language.

As far as their dwelling places go, black bears like it rough! And the cold does not bother them, though it might bother you! Though their favorite hidey-holes are forests and areas covered with shrubs, they also wander around ridge tops, burned areas, conifer forests, avalanche chutes, high tidelands, agricultural fields, wet meadows, riparian areas and swampy hardwood. So if you want to go black bear hunting, there?s quite a vast territory to cover!

How are black bears different from other bears? For one thing, their back legs are longer than most other bears. The rest of their features include?a large body, long snout, rounded ears, small eyes and a short tail. They have an acute sense of smell. Generally seen on all fours, you may also see them balancing on their hind legs only. Being flat-footed, the gait is lumbering. If seen during fall season, the time when they are preparing to go into hibernation, these animals seem to have grown in size!

Black bear hunting may be one of your favorite pursuits, but the law will not allow you to go shooting blindly! The reproductive rate of female black bears is very low. Therefore, black bear hunting requires licenses to hunt as well as hunting permits. In fact, they may be withheld during certain months of the year. Book early, to hunt early!

The ability to read the body language of a bear is very important. When a bear is up on its hind legs and sniffing the air, you automatically assume that it is taking up an aggressive stance. And so it might very well be. It could also mean that it suddenly comes back on all fours and charges at its enemy! Watch out for other signs depicting aggression, if you want to be safe. Black bears have been known to kill humans; fifty-six deaths were confirmed during the last century.

Any doubts in your mind during black bear hunting, refer to your guide! A cub may be mistaken for an adult and be killed. Note if the animal you are aiming for is older in age and larger in size. Smaller and younger bears should be left alone as they are just getting ready to breed. Mistakes can lead to alarming consequences.

So if you want to make your black bear hunting trip a memorable one, brush up your knowledge and skills. You are bound to get your reward!

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.

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.