Big Black Bears In The East

[charles p]

700 lb black bears are taken in NC almost every year.  They seem to grow well near chicken houses, growing fond of dead chickens.  I hunt a farm across the road from a large chicken operation, but in a county with no season.  We see a bear a few times each year on that farm but  no other farms.  Our bear is about 300 lbs I'd guess.  There are surely more where one is. 

[muznut 54]

Do you eat your bears and if you do how do they taste living on chickens?

[charles p]

White chicken or red chicken?  Hen or rooster?  Ours all get Purdue white chickens.  Slight marigold taste I've been told.

[Mack in N.C.]

real 700 lbers killed in nc every year....600 lbers, several of them killed every year...
 
880 lb bear ..i dont care if he got that big eatin dead hogs or dunkin dognuts,he was still 880 lbs!
hear is the story of a 760 lber, yes 760 lber killed in nc (2009) and this guide has pics of one over 800 which he knows bears and if they say it is over 800 then belive it...
 
http://www.skinnymoose.com/moosedroppings/2009/11/11/massive-black-bear-killed-in-north-carolina/
 and here is one from last year of a 742 lber from nc so you can believe it or not where the big bears are!
 
http://chronicle.augusta.com/sports/outdoors/rob-pavey/2012-01-08/north-augusta-womans-bear-ranks-nc-recordbook

[Mack in N.C.]

the second link also mentions a756 lber killed in nc.....Mack

[cowboy66]

Mack I wasn't tring to take anything away from the bear, I was just stating a fact as to why they get so big in these parts, FOOD and lots of it, that is easy to come by. Jerry

[cowboy66]

This 880 pounder is listed as a world record by the American Bear Association FYI.

[Couger]

I agree with Wreckhog.  People over-estimate the weight of bears consistently.  Except for coastal browns and polar bears, a 650 pound grizzly would be considered very large.  Most black bears are in the 175-300 pound range unless they have access to garbage or other human sources of food.  If someone weighs a 600 pound black bear then we have to believe it, but the field estimating by most people is in the humorous category.

Lake Tahoe is about 40 minutes from my house and is full of Californians.  They do a terribel job of bear management, and now there are black bears that don't hibernate and live on garbage.   A few of them have been weighed at over 500 pounds, with one at 660 pounds.  They get air-lifted and released in the mountains behind my house (Pine Nut Range, NV).

I believe in bear-proof storage of trash and food for solving a lot of the bear-human conflicts.  Some hunting pressure and the use of dogs can help alleviate the problem further.

Excellent post PPine!  Esp your last couple sentences.  Too bad some many "Tahoe residents" are determined to mismanage the bear in and around their locale.     (but Kalifornicators are indeed from the land of flakes!, too.)

[dantana]

wife and I had just left our campsite near Roan Mtn. on NC/TN border 2 weeks ago and had crossed the BlueRidge Parkway near BearDen Camp ground and saw a very large mom with 4 cubs.  2 of the cubs had run up a tree just 20 yards off the dirt road with 2 cubs and mom at the base.  They all just sat there and watched us.  I started to get out of my car and walk over to them and hand her a creme puff.  I thought different after a while.

[muznut 54]

I suspect that NC bears get big not just from food but they don't have to hibernate very long if at all. One thing I do know is NC uses Maine state bear experts to help manage their bear population.

[tundragriz]

The NJ bear are offspring of immigrants from the Pocono region of Pa.  Pa grows big black bear and a fair number of them, big ones in body and skull are taken every year.  Entries in the top 10 B&C confirm Pa very well represented.  Traditionally our season was only 3 days and we were killing over 3500 bears and not meeting management goals so the season was extended and now we kill over 4000 in about 1 1/2 weeks, no dogs, no bait.
 
From 2011 last year http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2011-final-bear-harvest-sets-new-record-141735793.html 
Sizes are in the bottom 2 paragraphs, looks like 7 over 700lb.
 
Here's a couple nearing 900lb,
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101124/SPORTS/11240329/-1/NEWSMAP
 
 
 
 

[mcbammer]

If they are rare, they won't get shot, if they are common, they will get shot. The original premise was that they are common. I am positive that if you wanted to shoot a 700lb black bear, that you could fence off an area and feed one til it could not move anymore and then shoot it. But they don't typically get that big without people feeding them treats, and sooner or later, one of those people will kill it.

Yeah,  thats   how   some   of   these   record  book   whitetails   are   are  taken.