Bear Cubs are Being Orphaned As We Speak

© Dan Newcomb Photography

Two weeks ago, writing about Ontario’s spring bear hunt (which is now under way), I said, “The spring bear hunt is theoretically restricted to male bears who take no role in rearing cubs (and may even kill them, although that is quite rare).” One knowledgeable colleague and friend thought that people might not understand that females are also killed. Some of those female bears will have cubs who will then starve.[teaserbreak]

Bear hunt apologists say that they don’t knowingly shoot nursing mother bears.

For me, the controversy dates back to the late 1990s, when we stopped spring hunting of black bears in Ontario out of concern for cubs left to starve. Cubs depend on their mothers for food and guidance. Even the “fall” hunt (which begins in summer) orphans larger cubs, most of whom probably won’t survive, either. Back then, Tom Beck, Wildlife Researcher for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, wrote, “In 1992, our last spring bear season, we determined that 22 nursing female bears had been killed and reported through mandatory check. However, none of these hunters reported shooting a female with cubs. This is from a total female bear sample of 61.”

Research in Ontario shows similar results. Here, too, hunters and outfitters claim they can identify, and avoid shooting, nursing bears. But, bears with dependent young produce little milk compared to most mammal species hunters are familiar with, and the angle of vision, especially from tree blinds, often prevents male genitalia from being visible (although usually, even at right angles, hair and shadows usually obscure the view).

Bears smell bait from kilometers away. As mother bears approach food, they make sure cubs stay out of sight, in case there is an aggressive male nearby. Very young cubs, like young humans, can’t keep up with their mothers—who, lacking daycare, often park them in a tree as they forage. To a hunter, this looks like bears without cubs.

Ontario studies indicate nursing female bears, legally protected, are less likely to be shot by an erring hunter than are non-nursing females (because bears do not give birth consecutive years)—which, in turn, are less likely to be shot than male bears. How many bear cubs dying from hunger or predation because of unintentional orphaning are acceptable? That’s a question compounded by the logistical difficulty of determining what that number might be.

My friend, Mike McIntosh, head of a black bear rehabilitation sanctuary in central Ontario called Bear With Us, told me he has had eight very young cubs brought to him so far this spring. Undoubtedly, a percentage of those cubs were orphaned by the current spring bear hunt. We can’t know exactly what that percentage might be, or how many cubs die unseen in the bush in the spring bear hunt… But, I think for most of us, one would be too many.

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry