DougE

Every bear that's shot in Pa is taken to a check station where a tooth is pulled and sent away to be aged.It's not uncommon at at for a cub to have a live weight from 80-100lbs.Sows in pa breed every other year and have 2-5 cubs.Our bears have the highest reproductive and growth rates in the US.Cubs usually stay with their mothers for the first two years and get booted when she breeds in the spring.A cub that loses it's mother during hunting season will usually have the instincts to den on it's own and survive.

An 80-100lb bear could be a tough call under hunting situations.One under 50lbs is not hard to judge.It is distasteful to me when I see such a small bear at a check station but we continue to have a trend in record harvests so they need to be managed accordingly.

moosemike

I'm not wet or anything else. I wasn't talking abour your bear or Walters bear either. Get a grip you people.

Phil from Maine

They do? Sorry but everyone here would have a big problem with this statement. Bears first of all breed in the fall and have cubs in the den during the mid to later part of winter. The biologists move in on tagged sows to hybernating to get wieghts of all bears and tag the cubs. So that would put the cubs away from the mother during the breeding season before reaching the age of 2 years old. It is common here for bears to have 3 cubs however.

moosemike

Where do bears breed in the fall Phil? Around here they breed in June and July.

DougE

Pa has done extensive research on Black bears.Bears breed in the spring,not the fall.Cubs are usually born in January.Sows generally breed every other year.In Pa,three cubs are most common.Two cubs are as common as four cubs and one cub is as common as five.Cubs generally stay with the sow for two years but they can make it on their own if the sow is killed.

Phil from Maine

I stand corrected on this issue of breeding. Here is what is under Maine's web site on breeding black bears.

Black bears breed from May through August, with most activity peaking in June and July. Adults are solitary, and during the summer months males travel over large areas to enhance their chances for encountering mates. Although males become sexually mature at 1-2 years of age, most do not participate in breeding until they have reached full adult size, at about 4-6 years in Maine.
Females in Maine become sexually mature at 3-5 years of age. Individual females have a 2-year reproductive cycle, which is related to their long period of parental care for cubs. Bears have a long gestation period, but most fetal development is delayed until the final 6-8 weeks. Breeding occurs in the summer, prior to the fall feeding period that provides the female with stored body fat to supply demands for fetal development and her survival during the winter. If a female is unable to store sufficient body fat, the pregnancy is terminated. Most fetal development occurs in early winter, after the female has entered a den, and 1-4 cubs are born inside the winter den during January - February. Cubs weight about 12 ounces at birth, and depend on their mother for warmth and nutrition during the remainder of the winter. They grow to 4-10 pounds by mid-late April, when the mother leads them away from the den. The family group remains together for 16-18 months, until the female reenters estrus and disperses her yearlings as another breeding season begins. In northern Maine, fluctuating beechnut crops have produced alternating years of high and low cub production, with most cubs being born on odd-numbered years. Cub production is more consistent in central Maine, where more stable fall food supplies result in nearly half of adult females giving birth each year.

Montana Mike

Amen brother, I guess this fella hasnt been on many bear drives in Pa.

Schultzy

Cubs don't usually stay with the mom after they come out of the den their 2nd time together. If they did the only reason I could see was that the sow didn't come Into heat for some reason that spring. Sows have their cubs In January while denned up and the cubs again will den up with their mother the following winter. Come next spring around April or so the sow and her cubs come out again and when she starts coming Into heat she kicks the cubs out. If she didn't kick these 1.5 year old cubs away from her a boar that's wanting to breed a sow that's In heat will kill them. Sows generally get bred anywhere from May through July.

moosemike

He's been pretty quiet lately too. I don't think this thread went the way he wanted it to.

BOWHUNTERCOP

New Jersey held it's first bear hunt in recent times in 2003, I was lucky enough to get a bear on the last day. When I went to check it in, there was a female hunter also checking in bear, it was so small it reminded me of my daughters teddy bears that sit on there beds. I asked her if she was going to at least get it mounted, she replied with nope, and I'm not eating, I shot it cause I'm the first women to get one in NJ's Bear Hunt history.

I walked away shaking my head