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Bear Hunting
Black bears in metro Atlanta? Georgia’s bear population is on the rise, and these highly mobile critters are showing up more and more in areas where they’re not supposed to be. Odd sightings are especially frequent this time of year, when young males disperse. Larger adult males push young males out of their home ranges…
Middle Georgia’s first bear hunt in recent times was held on Nov. 12, 2011 in Bibb, Twiggs and Houston counties, and this bear hunt marks a significant success story for Georgia wildlife recovery efforts. Hunting by early pioneers nearly wiped out the bears in central Georgia. But the legally protected population very slowly grew in…
In the spring of 2010, WRD Law Enforcement rangers used a call out to the public to solve a bear case in which poachers killed a mother bear and one of her cubs. But as it turned out, the case they solved was not even the one they set out to. In early March 2010,…
From dense, tangled vegetation of the southeastern swamps to high mountain oak ridges, it’s already a record-breaking year for bear hunting in Georgia. On archery hunts alone, north Georgia hunters are killing more bears than they ever have. And dog hunters in south Georgia have broken the state record for live weight… twice. In south…
“When I heard the commotion, I spun around. I had thought the bear was dead, but he was on me before I could move. All I could see was a mouth full of teeth, right in my face. He wadded me up like he would a dog, and we went down together.” In that instant…
WRD Biologist Brent Womack said it was another good year for bear reproduction in north Georgia, and he’s heard several reports of sows with two or three cubs. “Four is not real common, but it’s not out of the question,” he said. Looks like the new two-bear limit for north Georgia black bears was just in…
Each month we turn back the clock to see what was being reported in the pages of GON, both 20 and 10 years ago. Here’s what was happening. 20 Years Ago: October 1991 • Shot-In-The Foot Hunt Accident Awards: During the 1990 season, there were 94 hunting accidents recorded in Georgia. Included among them were…
They grow them really big in south Georgia, and we are not talking about football players, sweet potatoes or watermelons. We are talking about trophy bears, bruins in the 400-plus-lb. range. Hunters who trek to Canada or out West in search of trophy bears might be surprised to learn they could avoid expensive travel and…
A doubling of the bear limit, banning dog training on Chattahoochee National Forest and the plan to charge fees for WMA users not hunting or fishing were all presented to the public at eight WRD regulations meetings Jan. 3-6. However, public comment was geared toward perennial concerns like baiting and deer populations. The meetings opened…
Kill a Georgia Mountain Bear Since the late 70s, when WRD began managing the bear harvest, the idea has been to grow the state’s bear populations to sustainable levels. Mission accomplished — especially in the north Georgia mountains, where nuisance bear complaints were at record levels last year, according to Adam Hammond, WRD’s Bear Committee…