Record Book Black Bears

The Story Behind an Unusual Opportunity.

- Jim Matthews

There are two facts necessary to get out of the way to tell this story effectively. The first fact is that California’s bear population is booming, in spite of drought and continued human encroachment into the bears’ habitat. The big reason for the dramatic increase is that the use of hounds for hunting of bears in the state was banned in 2012, reducing the annual number shot by hunters to between 500 and 600 bears. The population has skyrocketed, and their range has been expanding dramatically ever since. Combined with a 10-year-plus drought that has helped disperse animals seeking food, the bears are showing up in places they have never been seen before. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) annual season-closing harvest quota of 1,700 bears has not been met since the use of hounds was banned, and the estimated statewide population has climbed from less than 27,000 animals in 2010 to nearly 37,000 bears in 2016.

The annual bear harvest during the 2012 season, the last season before the ban took effect, was 1,962 bears – very close to the all-time record of 2,029 bears killed in 2008. The CDFW’s population modeling and harvest numbers show that bear numbers have been tracking upward since 1983, but the growth has been dramatic (with no decline) in the past five years.

In the four seasons since the use of hounds was banned,an average of 1,219 bears a year have been killed. Before the ban, the average over the previous 12 years was 1,776. Because hunting over bait has never been legal in the state, all of these bears have been killed by still-hunting, sitting on stands or calling. Because bear seasons are concurrent with deer seasons in most of the state, about half of the bears were taken by hunters while deer hunting.