It’s coming: Bear season
Oklahoma will have a black bear hunting season this fall if Gov. Brad Henry signs legislation passed Monday
The state Senate on Monday voted 37-9 in favor of HB 1464 which creates a black bear hunting license.
All that remains now is for Gov. Brad Henry to sign the bill and Oklahoma will have its first regulated black bear hunting season.
The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission voted last week to set the hunting season beginning Oct. 1 for archery in Pushmataha, Le Flore, McCurtain and Latimer counties.
Two wildlife commissioners voted against it. One of them, Mac Maguire of Oklahoma City, is a huge Cubs fan, so perhaps he just can’t stand to see a bear killed. A Cubs fan should be used to such suffering though.
Seriously, Maguire and fellow Commissioner David Riggs don’t like the notion that bears would be primarily hunted as trophies and not as a food source . Well, there are hunters who go after deer mainly for their horns, but that doesn’t mean the meat is not used by somebody.
It’s given away to family or friends or donated to charity. Hopefully, the same thing will happen with bear hunting.
The commissioners also are worried that Oklahoma doesn’t have a sufficient population yet to support bear hunting.
Maguire said Arkansas had 4,000 bears before they opened a hunting season. Alan Peoples, director of the wildlife division for the state Wildlife Department, counters that Arkansas also kills 600 bears per year.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation only is going to allow 20 bears to be killed this fall. Once 20 have been killed, the season will be closed.
It will be the hunters’ responsibility to call each day to see if the season remains open.
No one really knows how many bears are in Oklahoma, but state wildlife officials say they know there are at least 500 in Le Flore County alone. How do they know this?
Oklahoma State University contracted with the state Wildlife Department to do a five-year study on black bears in southeastern Oklahoma.
As part of their research, “hair catching traps” were set up in Le Flore County. Bait was put out to lure the bears through to certain area. To get to the baits, the bears had to squeeze through a small space where they had to rub against these traps that would snatch some hairs.
Through DNA analysis of those hairs, OSU researchers determined they had hair from 500 different bears, Peoples said.
If there are 500 bears in one county alone, only allowing 20 to be taken by hunters each year is a very conservative approach.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment