Thursday, May 13, 2010
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: Bear hound hunters say they aren’t getting a fair shake
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
Bill Cochran's Outdoors
Recent columns
- Hunters and anglers still in the conservation business
- Drum fishing on Virginia’s Coast comes in two colors
- Elk advocate finally gets his day
- Turkeys are plentiful, so why are hunting regulations so tight fisted?
- Column archive
Bill's Mailbag
Bill's Field Reports
- Eagles are up; black rail are down
- A. Willis Robertson great name for new DGIF headquarters
- Field reports archive
Resources
Sportsmen who use hounds to pursue bears can make a case for being the most misunderstood group in the hunting fraternity.
When people see their 4-wheel drives rumbling down back roads, CB antennas waving in the breeze, cages full of anxious, well-bread hounds, radiotelemetry equipment in evidence, they feel they are witnessing an invasion.
But bear hound hunters tell a different story. They don’t believe they are getting a fair shake under current hunting regulations, nor are the bears.
In April, officers of the nearly 1,000-member Virginia Bear Hunters Association appeared before the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board to voice concern about two major issues:
- The DGIF’s effort to reduce the bear population out of concern that it is over-expanding in some areas.
- An unequal playing field that favors other hunters -- especially bowhunters -- over hound hunters.
You might think hound hunters kill the bulk of the bears, especially when you see one of those convoys go by, but that’s not the case.
Last year, a record 2,304 bears were reported killed by all hunters. Of that number, 447, or 19 percent, were taken by hound hunters during the general firearm’s season.
Bowhunters killed well over twice that, 1,017, or 44 percent, which was a 97 percent increase over their previous season kill. Muzzleloaders reported taking 356, or 15 percent, while general firearms hunters not using dogs killed 484, or 21 percent.
What’s behind the disparity between the hound hunters and bowhunters?
The archers have the longest and earliest season bear hunters are quick to point out.
Bowhunters get 73 days to hunt for bears; hound hunters 30. Bowhunters go afield in early October; bear hunters in late November, if you don’t count the chase season.
“The Virginia Bear Hunters Association does not think that sound bear management would allow any bear in Virginia to be harvested before late October,” the association said in a position paper read to the DGIF by the group’s vice president, David Steger of Catawba.
“Bears, especially sows, teaching first-year cubs how and where to forage, are much more vulnerable at that time because they are feeding 18 to 20 hours a day,” Steger said.
When a sow with cubs is killed the orphaned cubs are subject to a high mortality rate, he said. Bears also are attracted to the scents and lures put out by bowhunters, he said.
As for their being an overpopulation of bear, Steger said: “We do not agree that there are too many bears, and we think a more scientific estimate of the population is warranted. We hope that if a mistake is made, it would be to kill too few bears rather than too many.”
While the next hunting regulation review process is months off, the hound hunters said the seriousness of the situation prompted them to express their concerns early on. The DGIF board made room to discuss bears at its next meeting on June 8 in Richmond.
Charles Yates, board chairman, asked the DGIF staff to have some recommendations ready.
“I would like to think we can have some general consensus on bear hunting,” he said.
DGIF has a 10-year bear management plan under way and hound hunters asked that there be no increase in hunting days until that study is completed.
