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. the picture shown is a good example of a
mature boar, with a broad muzzle.
 this
one has distinct shading. notice the white chest patches, these
are quite common and some unique. the head shows mature doming and
note how far back the ears seem to be set. the glossy coat shows the
superb condition and a fairly accurate estimate of age would be between
6-8 years.
at his prime, this boar is a trophy!
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.
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