The Minnesota DNR began accepting applications for bear hunting permits yesterday, allowing residents and non-residents to compete in a lottery system for 7,050 permits around the state. And despite the pleas of researchers, the public and even many hunters, it will still be legal to kill brightly marked research bears.
Almost 3,000 bears were legally killed by hunters during last year's hunting season, including nearly a dozen bears that were being monitored by the DNR and the world famous North American Bear Center, who skyrocketed to internet fame after installing a web cam in the den of a wild bear named Lily and her cub in 2010.
The DNR estimates that about the same number of bears will be killed during the 2011 hunting season, which starts in September. They say that fewer permits will be awarded but unclaimed ones will be resold, which they believe will result in approximately the same number of bears being hunted this year as last.
The DNR quoted last year's figures on its web site:
In 2010, 7,086 hunters actually purchased a license. Those hunters were chosen from a pool of 18,647 applicants for the available 9,500 permit area licenses. Hunters harvested a total of 2,699 bears.
It is estimated that there are around 15,000 bears in Minnesota. Of these, less than 50 are traditionally monitored for research. The DNR had 34 research bears last year, of which 9 have been reported as killed by hunters last season. The North American Bear Center had 12, of which 2 were killed last season.
The state is divided into 11 permit zones, with different numbers of permits granted in each zone. Zones with high bear populations (especially of "nuisance" bears who raid farmers' crops and beekeepers' hives) have higher numbers of bear hunting permits given, while those with declining numbers have fewer. Area 51, west of Duluth, has the highest number of permits at 1,850.
In "no quota" areas along the western and southern parts of the state, there are no limits to the number of bears that can be hunted and anyone can get a license.
Bear hunting season will run from Thursday, Sept. 1, to Sunday, Oct. 16, this year. Hunters can be as young as 10 years old if they are Minnesota residents (12 if they are from out of state) and are allowed to use bait to lure the bears. Both firearms and bow and arrow are permitted.
Licenses to hunt the bears are $39 for residents and $201 for nonresidents.
Hunters are merely "discouraged" from killing bears wearing radio collars, which are being tracked by researchers. Earlier this year, researchers from the North American Bear Center in Ely asked the DNR to make it illegal to kill radio-collared bears. Hunters shot and killed two bears that were wearing the brightly marked radio collars last fall. The DNR refused, saying that it would be too hard to enforce -- a move that even Minnesota bear hunters disagreed with.
The DNR also tracks some bears with brightly ribboned collars and at least nine of their thirty-four research bears were killed by hunters last fall. One radio-collared bear was killed by a 12 year-old girl and her father, who saw the collar and decided to shoot it anyway.
Those who would like to help protect research bears can learn more at the Wildlife Institute Blog. Minnesotans are asked to ask legislators to draft legislation to protect the research bears, since the DNR has made it clear that they do not intend to.
You can view the full rules and view the hunting areas online here (PDF file).
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