Originally Posted by mrbb

IMO< a 1,000 lb black bear is possible if all the cards line up, and odds are a some helping hands too
and I say that with the fact, MANY bears get help from humans, be it on purpose(as in feeding baiting them) and or just planting crops and things they eat
I have seen MANY 600 lbs bears in spring time, and even seen a few in the 700 plus range(facts too not guesses, weighted on scales and released)
so, think a bear in early spring coming out of hibernation, that maybe LOST a 100-150 lbs over the winter
cannot get back to close to that 1,000 , is NOT that far off
one thing I think that makes this HARDER is, mating season, as even if a bear is 700 lbs say in June, come Aug, after 2 months of dogging females, eating very little along the way, they will drop a bunch of weight, making putting that ALL back on to get back to where they were before mating season, a hurtle in itself

NOW< find a big old male that gave up on chasing girls LOL if any exists
and then that 1,000 lb mark is for sure a possibility IMO, but will take easy meals, and a rare male that isn;t looking for girls in mating season

I know I watch every yr, a few local female bears here, that been showing up here for 12-14 yrs now(same bears) and watching them go from a 125 lbs or so in June and be 300-350 come Dec, more than doubling there weight
and its amazing HOW fast they can add lbs and size too, just from month to month, the gains can some times be huge!

get again a BIG male , that never lost weight in mating season, but just slowly gained it>
and records can be broken

and lets face it, whitetail deer, a species with about the most known info on, its been proven that some bucks DON"T Breed or mate, so why cannot some bears too??


I also think a HUGE bear like this might NOT be killed in a big tract of woods, but rather in a rural area, where easier hand outs happen, and lower hunting pressures, due to NO legal place to hunt them at times?
same as with some huge bucks that live in housing developments!