The vast, unspoiled wilderness of Northern Ontario is home to the largest population of North American black bear in the the world. Enjoying a diet of native fruits, buds, leaves and ants, bears adapt from spring until fall to a variety of foods. They are by no means vegetarian, rather opportunist in nature, feasting on fish and raw meats as they locate them. The period from leaving the den in the spring until returning to denning for the following winter serves as a period of gorging to develop as much body fat as is possible.
Although we call it hibernation, bears in fact don’t truly hibernate. They den in a semi dormant state, sows giving birth to singleton, twins or even triplet cubs in February. Ever protective, sows, remain vigilant for the nomadic boars that attack and kill the young in acts of cannibalism. Aggressive boars have even been known to even enter dens and slaughter all inside. During the breeding period in June, all antagonism is forgotten for a brief period although the sow still keeps her cubs well away while she mates with the boar. An interesting fact about sows is the fact that while she mates in June the fertilized embryos remain virtually Dormant. Once denned and if she is in healthy condition to birth and nurture cubs, the pregnancy awakes and continues until birthing in February.
Once out of the den bears need a certain diet to awaken their digestive systems. For the first several weeks they live on a diet of grass and water. Once their digestive systems are normalized they start to gorge on whatever comes into their path.
Bears continue their growth throughout their lives and changes are quite visible, from scrawny, fine headed yearlings whose ears look too large to fine mature, robust adult bears that seem to roll as they walk. In maturity, the skull domes and ears appear tiny in comparison to their head. White chest patches are quite common and some unique. The head shows mature doming and the ears seem to be set far back.
Commonly, we harvest bear in the 300 lb. plus range with our largest fall bear weighing in at 397 lbs. We have a long term commitment to the bear that inhabit our bear management unit. We have continued our tradition of heavy feeding of quality protein in the spring (to supplement lean food years) and heavily in the fall to ensure sows go into the den in prime condition in preparation for healthy birthing. We also believe this decreases cannibalism by large boars of smaller male bears, cubs and sows during the year.
