Bear Hunting Season Question: But first...this:

The New Jersey Fish and Game Council will vote today on a proposal to re-open bear hunting season for the first time in 30 years.

The state black bear population is more than 1,000, which is more than the habitat can support, said Patrick Carr, principal wildlife biologist with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. The agency says a sustainable level is 650 bears. Five years ago the division received 285 black bear complaints -- in 1999 there were 1,659 complaint calls. Of these calls, 6 percent were aggressive acts: 29 were reports of bears breaking into homes, 12 reported dog attacks and 25 reported livestock kills, according to a 2000 New Jersey black bear status report.

Carr says there has never been a recorded attack of a bear killing a human in New Jersey.

"We would like to reduce our population this year -- reduce it to a level people will tolerate, and keep it at that level," Carr said.

"Hunting is the only viable population control method, based on data from other states that have viable bear populations and Canada," Carr said.

The status report said contraceptive methods are not yet fully developed or FDA approved. Relocating the bears to suitable areas in the Pinelands was an option looked at in 1997, but it did not receive public support in a series of meetings. The wildlife control unit has also used aversive conditioning such as using noisemakers and rubber buckshots to scare the bears.

Suzanne Dragan, a consultant for the Humane Society, says more aversive conditioning needs to be done.

"We need to think in terms of nonlethal management techniques and the humane society has offered to work with Division of Fish and Wildlife," Dragan said.

Dragan said the Human Society feels the division`s population numbers are "inflated" and hunting is "biologically reckless."

Dragan also referred to an independent study the Humane Society released Wednesday finding 61 percent of the 435 people surveyed were against bear hunting.

Today`s vote comes only one week after a state Senate committee passed a bill banning bear hunts. The bill now goes to the full Senate for action.

Mary Barry, a Bethlehem resident, saw a bear and two cubs in her back yard Monday .

"The little ones were playing, the mother was eating the birdseed that was on the ground and then she dumped over the bird feeder," Barry said.

Barry said she is in favor of bear hunting if the carcass will be used.

"I think it is needed now. I think they are dangerous. The deer and the turkeys that come around don`t really bother me, but I am a little bit leery of bear."

The hunting season would run in three segments: Sept. 16 to 23, Sept. 30 to Oct. 27 and Dec. 4 to 9. Once the population is culled from 1,000 to 650 bears, the season would end.

Okay....My Question....What exactly can you use a bear for once you've bagged one? Can you eat them?, or are they only good for the fur? Could you kill a cute bear? Many people in the state are against hunting these bears. We have so very few of them. I've never seen one myself, but it's neat to know there actually IS bears someplace in this suburban state. Still, it *does* sound exciting to go on a bear hunt. (provided you don't actually kill it when you find it, unless it has that idea in mind for you) Anyone wanna go on a Bear hunt?

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), June 22, 2000

Answers

Well, count me out on the hunt. However, I do happen to know that you can in fact eat bear meat. My mother tells me that during the 1930's her father often killed bear for their meat, that it was one of the main proteins in their diet some winters.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), June 23, 2000.

yup....bear meat is edible......and quite tasty!

i had some when i was MUCH younger (about 10 years old) when my dad was stationed in alaska

one of the guys he used to go fishing with was a big hunter.....and i got to taste bear meat once.........i liked it even better than moose burgers : )

i remember it as not having much of a gamey taste.....was kinda sweet tasting

_______________

and believe it or not (i duck for cover when mentioning this on this board HA!) beaver meat is VERY tasty!! i've had beaver meat quite a few times, mostly bbq'd

never hunted them.......my ex used know a game and fish dood who had to trap them off people's property where they were causing trouble with their dams..........he only kept the tails to turn in for the bounty.....he fed the meat to his dogs till my ex got him to give us the meat

bear tastes a lot like beaver from what i remember

(and, no.......we never saw the heads, so i don't know if any gold front teeth were involved : )

-- mebs (mebs@joymail.com), June 24, 2000.

Hmm, maybe I *do* want to hunt a bear then....sounds tasty. Imagine how much meat that would be? Free meat! But then, I keep thinking of Booboo. (Yogi's cute little sidekick) Could you eat Booboo? Awwww.

mebs, .. .. heh.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), June 24, 2000.

YOU SHOULDN'T *D0* THAT !!

You scared the bejezus outa me. I thought you had decided to hunt ME !

Please make any future announcements more in the form of:

"Going hunting for bears (that are NOT Greybear)" or something like that.

And, as a closing (somewhat canabilistic) note, YES - bear meat is MOST delicious, I've had it on many ocassions. Fall bears are best, spring bears meat is not a "pure". OR If bear has been feasting on a lot of fish or carrion, the meat will not be as good.

-Greybear

-- Got Chicken ?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), June 24, 2000.

Hey Kritter, try some if you can before deciding to spring for a whole one. Wish I had done that with 3 large tunas I bought off a boat here! Canned it all up, and hated it! It is still feeding a kitty of a friend!

My relatives that lived in the lumber camps here in the pacific northwest would frequently eat bear. They said it was greasy and wierd, but that hey when you need to eat something, it was tolerable. I have also heard that they can have trichinosis, just like pork, so beware of that.......

-- (sis@homenow.zzz), June 25, 2000.

Wait a minute....let me get this unstraightened right back out and begin again from the rear bear .....

We ARE NOT supposed to hunt greybares...

ARE supposed to hunt fall bears (what if they can get up....are they still fall bears? Do we clap twice, then wait to see if they get up?

ARE NOT supposed to hunt spring bears...

ARE NOT supposed to hunt tune fish bears - since those are providing the kitty food ....

ARE supposed to hunt white bears .... unless they are black bears

ARE NOT supposed to BooBoo bears

ARE supposed to hunt bagged bears (What they are in plastic, not paper?)

ARE NOT supposed to hunt Chevy Suburbun bears, but country bears are ok - maybe Ford Expedition bears are only okay with odd-numbered license plates? What if they don't have a license plate?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 26, 2000.

If I bag a bear, I have to choose paper or plastic?

Don't worry, I will not be bagging a bear anyhow...the word Trichanosis was enough to put that thought right out of my mind!

Which reminds me, where has Helen been? Anyone seen her?

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), June 27, 2000.

kritter,

On the left coast, we have have a terrible problem with poachers who sell the pads of bear feet to China for 'medicine'. Kinda like the Rhino & Tiger situation.

-- flora (***@__._), June 27, 2000.

You guys are sick.

-- (anmlliberation@hotmail.com), August 02, 2002.

I have a question actually. How do you prepare a bear to be eaten, from when you first kill it? I have no idea, but if it ever comes to the point where its me or him, I will do what I have to do, then cut it up into meat, but I dont know how to do that.

-- Robert (xeon966@hotmail.com), September 24, 2002.

I have no idea how to prepare meat for eating ... since I usually don't bother shooting it.

All of my deer kills have been from the driver's seat ... and what was left over wasn't real tasty.

If ever needed, (me or he) I figure the priority is destroying the threat ... which might not leave much to eat.

Or at least not much to mount as a trophy.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (racookpe@earthlink.net), September 24, 2002.