Black Bear

Ursus americanus

American Black Bear, Cinnamon Bear, Bruin (a common name for all bears)

• Length - 4.5-8 feet (1.4-2.4 metres)
• Height at the shoulder - 2.5-3 feet (0.8-1 metre)
• Weight - 300-500 (135-227 kg.)

This medium-sized bear is usually black with a brown muzzle, lacks a shoulder hump, and often has a white patch on the chest. Although black is the predominant color, chocolate and cinnamon brown color phases are also common, which often results in people confusing them with brown bears.

Black Bears live primarily in forested areas and are very adapt at climbing trees. A Black Bear uses its front paws to wrap around the tree and then use's the hind paw's claws to dig into the tree. Black Bears are solitary animals except for a mother with cubs. The average lifespan of a black bear in the wild is 20 years.

A Black Bears eyesight and hearing is about the same as human's but their olfactory system is about a hundred times more sensitive that a human's. Their sense of smell is so acute that they can locate their prey from miles (kilometres) away. They use their sense of smell to locate food and mates during the breeding season. Black Bears are classified as carnivores and do hunt other animals but for the most part their diet is comprised of plants like fruits, berries and nuts.

Females reach sexual maturity at three to four years of age and males a year or so later. Mating takes place in June, July, and August, and pairs may remain together for only a few hours or for several days. Pregnancy last s about 220 days, and the cubs are born in a maternity den in January and February. Litter size ranges from one to five, but two is the average. Cubs may be weaned at six to eight months, but they remain with their mothers for a year and a half. Consequently, the most often that female black bears can mate, unless they lose their cubs prematurely, is every two years.

Thunderbird Lodge & Outposts provides hunters from all over the world, some of the most successful trophy bear hunting opportunities in North America. With thousands of square miles provided to this one outfitter, and state of the art conservation policies, our hunters are constantly going home with bragging size bruins. Our hunts will leave you with memories that will last a lifetime and are simply 'Manitoba's finest outdoor wilderness adventure'.

At each one of our outcamps, we conduct only one or two bear hunts consisting of 3-4 hunters per year. This will be in the spring or the fall, whichever the hunting group prefers. Our hunts are fully guided by some of the best, most aggressive guides in the business. Their enthusiasm for a successful hunt is infectious and our hospitality is genuine. This in turn results in 100% shooting opportunities and 85% success rate for our guests. Many of our bears taken meet Pope and Young minimum and some make the Boone and Crocket minimum.

All sites are prebaited, long before you get to camp, and baited by your guides while there. Hunting is done mainly from tree stands that are set 10-15 feet high (3-4.6 meters) and 10-20 yards (9.1-18.2 meters) from the bait site. This accommodates both bowhunter and rifle hunter.

• 7 day/6 night hunting adventure
• Round-trip transportation to Thunderbird Lodge from Pine Dock, Manitoba
• Rate includes all licences, export permit, game transportation, and taxes
• Accomodations include all meals, hot showers, wood stove
• Fully guided hunt using baits and stands
• Spring hunts are last two weeks of May, Fall hunts are last week of August or first week of September
• Guides will skin and take care of the meat
• You are responsible for your own gear
• Solo and bow hunts are subject to additional service fees
• Deposit of $1,500 per hunter is non-refundable

We hope this gives you some insight into one of the two famous big game in these parts (also see Moose). Our guests come from all over the world to bring down one of these beasts. Due to limited tags available and our strict conservation polices; this is one you shouldn't wait too long on.