Let’s hope every Maine bear hunter this fall gets his or her bear. We’ve got way too many bears. It’s a very good thing that Maine voters defeated proposals to prohibit the use of traps, bait, and dogs for bear hunting. If that had happened, we’d probably be shooting bears in our homes, as recently happened in California. I’ll tell you more about that story at the end of this column
Here’s some important information, straight from DIF&W’s history of Maine’s bears. Maine’s bear population numbered 21,000 in 1985. By 1989, the population had declined to 18,000 bears in response to increasing harvest. Hunting seasons were adjusted and the population rebounded to 21,000 by 1997. Maine’s bear population stabilized at 23,000 in 1999. Starting in 2005, the population began increasing in response to declining hunter participation and harvest and by 2010 was at over 31,000 bears. Initial estimates for 2015, indicate that the bear population is still increasing and likely approaching 36,000.
This doesn’t mean we couldn’t support more bears. Again, from DIF&W’s report: Maine’s forest could support (i.e., carrying capacity) estimated at between 31,000 and 42,000 bears. This number was generated from acreage of bear habitat in Maine, the quality of bear habitat, and the assumption that optimal bear habitat could support between 1.5 and 2 bears/square mile.
Today, Maine’s bear population is close to exceeding the 2000 estimates of carrying capacity; however, other indicators (healthy bears during den visits, high survival of cubs, and low levels of conflicts, road mortalities, disease and starvation) suggest that Maine’s bear population remains below biological and social carrying capacity.
It’s that “social carrying capacity” that is really the issue. At the last meeting of the agency’s Big Game Steering Committee, these questions were raised: Do we need a population target? Should we actually reverse growth? How can we balance social and biological carrying capacity? And most interesting, what is the impact of bear carrying capacity on deer and moose?