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One of my hunting buddies asked me to try to find out likely reasons behind the following set of rules:
- The shooting of cubs or female bears accompanied by a cub is not permitted during the spring season.
The questions are:
Why it is allowed to shoot the "same" sow or cub in the fall ?
How to differentiate between this years cub vs last years cub, during the spring hunt,while alone ,or together with their mom?
Appreciate your feedback.
Would only be speculating but shooting a sow with cubs will result in the death of the cubs, shooting a cub will result in a pretty pissed off sow hence the prohibition in the spring.
The reasons are many and varied. It's best to refer your friend to OMNR's biology department for definitive answers. I was always lead to believe that newborn cubs couldn't survive until they were at least 8 months old without the sow,therefore,sows are illegal to take. Newborn cubs are quite small,but,grow quickly the first year. Yearling cubs are almost as big as the sow,but,easily identifiable.Quote:
Originally Posted by gbk
Agree100%.Quote:
Originally Posted by trimmer21
When the spring bear hunt was cancelled back in the 1990’s, one of the reasons cited was the belief that new-born cubs were being orphaned.
IIRC, there was some justification for allowing the shooting of mother bears in the fall as they said orphaned cubs might be able to survive on their own. Additionally, because cubs are often first to the bait, hunters would not shoot the sows.
First year cubs are about the size of a football, yearlings are at least twice as big.
The cubs on the bottom left were born in the Spring last year and were the size of footballs when I got them on camera, this photo is them on the 21st September 2024 with the sow.
The photo on the bottom right is the same sows yearlings who were born in the Spring of 2023. So the cubs went from foot balls to about 40lbs and the yearlings went to about 120lbs.
Ignore the date on bottom of photos as its just the posting date.
Attachment 44977Attachment 44978
some nice looking bears thereQuote:
Originally Posted by Gilroy
Seeing them on camera and then seeing them first hand are totally different as I've found out.
We had a cub I believe was orphaned hanging around my stand 2 years ago and you could definitely tell it was very young. This was in the fall and I would estimate it was the size of a large backpack.
Last year I shot a small bear in the fall, on camera it looked decent and once it was on the ground it shrunk. I never got a weight on the whole animal but roughly the size of a large dog (80-90lbs?). I believe it was a yearling.