By Jim Dickson
Black bears are an important big game animal in this country and they are widely hunted.
I cannot recommend anything smaller than .30-caliber for them as smaller calibers have led to too many wounded bears. The 8MM Mauser with European loads, as opposed to the wimpy American loads for this caliber, is among the best as it has the most power for the least recoil.
Dr. Lynn Rogers doing black bear research.
I remember knocking fist size chunks of dirt out of a backstop with 7.62 NATO rifle. An 8MM Mauser cartridge loaded in Europe fired from a G43 blew out a hole you could stick a 5-gallon bucket in. A Mauser 98K that has not been cut down to a so called “Sporter” will have very little felt recoil due to its weight and its broad butt plate. Those narrow commercial butt stocks with their commonly useless recoil pads make the felt recoil worse as does the lighter weight.
The .45-70 is another old favorite for all North American big game and it is also an extremely good long range cartridge as long as you allow for its trajectory. Its stopping power on bear is on a par with the .375 H&H magnum. In a gun the weight of the old 9 ¼ -pound trapdoor Springfield rifle it has slightly less recoil than the 8 ¼- pound .30-06 M1903 Springfield rifle. In a 7-pound gun it kicks.
I am stressing recoil because I remember Alaskan guides wanting their clients to use a .30-06 with 180- or 220-grain bullets and shoot their brown bears through the lungs with that. Too many hunters had showed up with big magnums that they could not shoot well because the recoil made them flinch.
Just because my favorite hunting caliber is the .577 Nitro Express does not mean I think big bores with their vicious recoil are for the average shooter. They are only for those who love them and can overlook that recoil. If a .30-06 will work for Alaskan brown bears it is more than adequate for black bears.
The late Frank Stahlkuppe was a great black bear hunter as well as a great gunsmith. He used a .44 Magnum lever rifle for black bear. Frank had the big magnums but saw no need for them on his bear hunts preferring the fast handling little lever action carbine.
Black bears are hunted with dogs as well as over bait depending on local game regulations. Tracking one down and stalking it is a very advanced hunting skill seldom employed on them. These bears are extremely shy and elusive. Many are shot by deer hunters as targets of opportunity.
Bears are far ranging easily covering 20 miles a day and they have vast territories which makes hunting an individual bear a long term challenge in many cases.
Don’t be Afraid
The fear of bears is deep seated in people thanks to memories of the European bear, which is the same bear as our grizzly, and the grizzly bear’s reputation in the U.S. Remember that the original spelling was “Grisly” as in a grisly murder. While the black bears in Alaska and Canada are proven man-eaters in many cases the Eastern black bears are a different sort of bear as proven by Dr. Lynn Rogers’ research. Publicizing his work more should go a long way toward improving human attitudes toward this important game animal thereby allowing for a larger huntable population.
Dr. Rogers is the man who has spent over 50 years studying the black bear while living with them. His intimate relationship with black bears has allowed him even in the dens to handle the new born cubs in the mother bear’s presence. Dr. Rogers has senior-authored more peer-reviewed scientific articles on black bears than any other scientist, two of these being ranked among the top five contributions to the understanding of bears by a worldwide survey of bear biologists.
In order to study animals up close you have to first gain their trust. Bear behavior is heavily predicated by their fear of humans. Rogers began by feeding the bears. Contrary to prevailing, but incorrect, scientific beliefs the fed bears did not become dangerous when they lost their fear of man nor did they attack when the food ran out. A simple show of empty hands was enough to end the feeding sessions.
The degree of trust varies from bear to bear. Like all living creatures they are individuals with as much variation in personality as humans, or vice versa if you prefer. The most trusting individuals went on about their day ignoring the researchers after as little as 50-100 hours of contact. Many of the bears could be stroked. Dr. Rogers found that they particularly liked firm stroking along their backbone. The researchers stayed close to the bears, often as close as arm’s length away. The bears could ignore this better than something at a distance that required constant identification. Teams studied the bears round the clock and for the most part the bears ignored them. Mothers with cubs were no problem. They even let Rogers in their dens with them.
This trust enabled Rogers to put tracking collars on his bears without tranquilizing them first. This prevents trauma to the bear and eliminates the dangerous risks to the bear’s life that tranquilizing sometimes entails. One bear was like an overactive dog and required two people to get the collar on. He was not resisting; he just would not be still. Being able to easily change collars is vital as batteries wear out and young bears grow so fast they need the collar let out constantly. Constant chasing, trapping, and tranquilizing would have greatly increased the risk of death to the bear.
Fed bears lived longer and had 80% less conflict with humans than non-fed bears. When wild food ran out they went to feeding stations and homes where they knew they would be fed instead of frightening strangers begging for food.
Many misconceptions were disproved. A bear clacking its teeth together is a sign of nervousness and not a threat as Rogers observed when one nearly fell out of a tree and began clacking its teeth with nothing around for the shaken bear to be aggressive toward.
Charges all turned out to be bluffs with none carried through. Neither Dr. Rogers, his research associates or any of his many guests have ever been attacked and hurt by any of the many bears despite the closest interaction possible. Certain bears that remained fearful were avoided when guests were there.
Bear play has one cardinal rule: don’t bite hard! Bears can play with humans as well but most humans are as intimidated by this as much as a small child is by an adult.
Bears greet each other by sniffing noses. Intertwining tongues in a bear version of a French kiss expresses the deepest love. Allowed in the dens with many of the mother bears giving birth, Dr. Rogers has found that the best way to create a trust between man and bear is to sniff noses with it in its den just after its eyes are opened. This is the period before wariness sets in and once a part of the family in the birthing den you are forever recognized as a relative. That bear will grow up being one that you can easily work with.
Cycle of Life
In 2010 Dr. Rogers placed a webcam in the den of Lily, a two-year-old pregnant female under her watchful eyes. When she gave birth on Jan. 22 people in 132 countries were watching. Lily was a loving and attentive mother to her daughter Hope. Unlike human mothers, Lily attended to Hope’s EVERY cry. The bear’s reactions to large animals outside the den and mice inside the den were of international interest.
Over 500 schools included the webcam footage in their daily curriculum as students saw the tender side of bears and motherhood. Lily provided a fine example for all the young mothers to be someday to aspire to. REM sleep with dreaming evident as the bears slept showed the visualization and imagination associated with higher intelligence that science has traditionally denied exists in anything not human. Further proof that the Director of the Bronx Zoo in the 1930’s was right when he said “My bears are smarter than my great apes.” Having been around both I agree with him. What the great apes have that bears do not have is a capacity for evil that has made many trainers permanently quit working with the great apes. That capacity for evil may well be the apes most humanlike trait.
Currently Dr. Rogers is doing whatever research he can that does not require webcams or collars and is continuing to follow the clan of the second-oldest black bear on record. He has followed this clan through seven generations monitoring their survival, reproductive success, and bear human relations.
It is important to note that Dr. Roger’s studies are of black bear in the lower 48 states where extensive hunting has given them a respect and fear of man not found in some of the black bear in Alaska and British Columbia.
The Alaska DNR has a web page with tips on dealing with bears that is worth reading.
While Dr. Roger’s methods may well work there I would strongly recommend other members of the party to be armed with shotguns loaded with German Brenneke slugs so they can cover whoever is making contact. Even after you have made friends with a number of bears you never know when an outsider might show up with different things on his mind.
It is important to draw a clear distinction between black and grizzly bears. Doug Seuss, the trainer of the giant grizzly Bart the Bear seen in so many movies, concurs with every grizzly expert I have known saying that a grizzly goes back and forth between happy go lucky and violent rage and back again. Dr. Rogers has not observed that behavior in any black bear.
Get between a mother grizzly and her cubs and you can expect real trouble. For that matter, just get too close to a carcass a grizzly has been feeding on and he may attack you in its defense. A grizzly may attack if startled or frightened but is often more inclined to swat you out of the way (which can do more damage than most people imagine) whereas a black bear is more likely to press the attack home once committed to fight.
Black bears in the lower 48 are far less likely to attack you over cubs or food and their response to being startled is generally to run away. Most of “Common knowledge” about bears comes from accounts of grizzly bears. The grizzly is a brave and noble relatively fearless apex predator whereas the smaller black bear is a stealthier, timid, and unobtrusive predator. The black bear in the lower 48 states has a much deeper set fear and respect for man than the grizzly and conducts himself accordingly. A good example of this is in North Georgia where a burgeoning black bear population has been losing much of its fear of man. I have been within 10 to 15 feet of a mother with cubs as well as other bears just going to get my mail. (My mailbox is almost a half mile off my property because the U.S. Mail will not deliver any closer than that to my remote farm.) I once had a bear come down off the mountain and walk down the road with me 25 yards in front of me. I thought we were going all the way together but a rotten log full of grubs off the side of the dirt road drew him aside for a lunch break. He gradually drifted out of sight in the brush thus ending my bear watching. I always have a .45 on but have never had to use it and no bear has ever threatened me in any way around my farm. A very old bear once moved off grumbling to himself as I had disturbed him but that was just a grouchy old man and it was not directed at me.
A small town police chief in my county was predicting a bad human/bear encounter due to the bears losing their fear of man. The worst encounter that actually happened was a curious bear looking in a woman’s window. She took a picture of her furry peeping tom which ran on the front page of the local paper.
The bottom line is that a black bear losing its fear of man does not make him dangerous. If provoked by being pushed too far he may swat you but that is still not an attack nor is it the same as being swatted by a giant grizzly. Dr. Rogers’ work has paved the way for coexistence between black bears and men and that makes it of the greatest importance.
