The Minnesota bear hunting season opens Sept. 1 and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is asking hunters to avoid shooting marked research bears that carry distinctively large, colorful ear tags and have radio collars.
Researchers with the DNR are monitoring about 20 radio-collared black bears across the state, especially in bear hunting zones 25, 27, 45 and 451, and in parts of the no-quota zone. The bears are in or near the Chippewa National Forest between Grand Rapids and Bigfork and near Voyageurs National Park near Camp Ripley.
"We're asking hunters to avoid shooting these valuable research bears," said Andy Tri, DNR bear research scientist. "These collared bears give us much of the data we use in bear management and are most valuable to us when they are collared for multiple years."
The bear's coat often hides the collar, especially in the fall, and most of the collars are black. But all collared bears have 3-by-2-inch colorful ear tags so hunters can simply identify a collared animal by these large tags, whether or not a collar is visible. The tags should be plainly visible on trail cam photos or when a bear is at a bait.
Minnesota has an estimated 12,000 black bears. Last year, hunters shot more than 3,200 bears in Minnesota, up 25% from 2019 and the highest since 3,290 were harvested in 2006. Another high harvest is expected this year due to poor natural food crops in the woods pushing more bears to hunter bait stations.
For more information, go to dnr.state.mn.us/bear/index.html.
