WEBVTT - Judging Black Bears for Dummies 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:04.000 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network, brought to 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.920 you by Interstate Batteries. Interstate Batteries has been a proud 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:12.879 supporter of the Sportsman's Nation since day one. So if 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:17.279 you need batteries for your truck, batteries for your trail cameras, TV, 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:22.120 remote controls, flashlights, you name it, Interstate Batteries has what 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:25.680 you need. They have thousands of retail locations all over 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.400 the United States, so stop in talk to a battery specialist, 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:38.360 or for more information, visit Interstate Batteries dot com. My 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:40.680 name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host of the Bear 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:45.040 Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your host into the 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.840 world of hunting the icon of the North American wilderness. Prepare. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.520 We'll talk about tactics, gear, conservation, but will also bring 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.600 you into some of the wildest country on the planet, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:09.120 chasing batters, h boys and girls. Spring bear season is 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:13.480 upon us and despite despite the best efforts of a 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:18.440 global pandemic, most places that have bear seasons are still 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.840 having bear seasons. And it's it's go time. It's go time. 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:27.319 May and June always compared to the months of October 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.399 and November for white tails. So May and June are 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.960 that for bears, and this is when we hunt them 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.880 in the spring. So what we're doing this week is 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:42.600 we're re releasing an episode called Judging Black Bears for Dummies. 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:49.600 And I think this is the most comprehensive conversation, for sure, 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.400 that I've ever had, where we talk about all different 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.880 methods of judging bears from sex and bears, aging bears, 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.040 well I'm not really aging bears, but trying to term 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.840 with their mature. But I'm joined by Klobe Moorehead and 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:07.760 Ryan Greb and we go through the nitty gritty nerd 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.160 out stuff about judging bears, some of the most tough 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.200 animals of all the big game animals to judge. So 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.040 this is a technical you learn the stuff in this podcast, 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.920 you're gonna you're gonna learn something and uh then you 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.639 may be able to add something to this. But hey, 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.360 it's also time for those of you guys and states 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.120 where you can bait bears to start baiting. Check out 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.760 our buddies at Northwood's Bear Products also du Hunting Supply. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.960 They started a new podcast their hound supply company, but 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:46.760 you can search for the w W podcast and lastly 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.400 Western Bear Foundation. They're putting out some good content these 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.200 days through social media on judging bears as well, and 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:59.720 they're a membership driven nonprofit hunting conservation organization standing up 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.680 for bear hunters out west. You're gonna enjoy this podcast 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:08.320 and hey we're bear hunting. I mean, when you're listening 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:13.280 to this podcast, I am somewhere in a wild place 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.839 chasing a bear and you'll hear where that is at 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.560 some point and U but that's part of the reason 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.840 we're having to rerelease some stuff, um, just with the 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.520 timing and the COVID stuff. So man, I hope that 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.200 you get into some wild places and find a bear 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:36.080 hunter bear and man, yeah, be safe, be careful, and 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:42.320 good hunting. We are going to have another one of 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:50.880 our technical, nitty gritty nerd out Bear sessions about judging 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:55.880 bears in the field. Judging bears, trying to tell if 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.400 a bear is a male or female, if it's a 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.000 older man your male, or if it's a juvenile male. 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.760 Basically judging bears just like we would white tails, judging 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.400 what you judge of whitetail by all these different characteristics. 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.480 We're gonna talk about bears bears are one of the 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:16.400 hardest animals to judge in the field, for sure. I 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:17.960 mean I think you could talk to guys all over 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.200 the country that have hunted all over and they would say, 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.960 the hardest animal to judge in North America, it's a 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.520 black bear. I have with me again, Ryan Grab also 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:34.520 known as flint Face Grab flint Face. Yep, Ryan is Colby. 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:39.800 You wouldn't know this. Ryan is was notorious for taking 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.920 pictures with animals and just having this like flint face, 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.880 just like just flint face. So I started calling flint Face. 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:52.479 Now he's now he smiles more on these big trophy photos. 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.360 We've got Ryan Grab here with me. Yeah, now he 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:59.359 grins like a girl scout. I got so Ryan Grab 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.520 is here rides been on the last couple of podcasts, 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.359 and I've got to say it just in case you 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:07.560 haven't listened to the podcast before, but Ryan is an 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.960 expert bear hunter. Troubled with me many places in Canada. 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:16.120 But you've you have done your bear business here in Arkansas. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.279 And that's how I know you as being a expert 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.680 Arkansas bear hunter. Been hunting. I mean, you've killed a ton, 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.039 you've killed a pile of bears here in Arkansas. And 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:26.800 as I've said in the last three podcasts, you were 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.080 killing bears. Well, my mama was still wife of my nose. 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.000 Would you agree with us if you say so? All right? 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.360 All right, So that's Ryan Grab. I've got Colby moorehead 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.560 with me. I've introduced Colby to Colby works for Bear 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.719 Hunting magazine. So Kobe is you don't really even have 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.440 a job title, do you know? It's just like Kobe. 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.800 Koby does all kind of stuff for me, Bear Tech, 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.440 bear Tech. Colby is a bear hunting magazine, Bear Tech, 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.599 Mr Ken do Attitude, can do. That's all right. Koby 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.720 is doing a ton of stuff for me, including getting 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.360 Bear Horizon on Amazon. I don't know when this podcast 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:06.320 is gonna be released, but you can be looking for it. 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.280 We're gonna have our Bear Horizon show on Amazon. That's 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.560 one thing that he's done for me. But anyway, he 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:13.320 does a whole lot of stuff. But that's neither here 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.320 nor there. Let's talk about Judge and bears. We're gonna 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.680 try to just jump right into this thing. Toughest big 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:24.160 game animal in North America to judge by many standards, Um, 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.360 bears don't have antlers do they Have you ever killed 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.719 a bear with antlers? No, I've only seen a couple 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:37.080 on trail Kim, But bears don't have antlers. And this 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.640 is just the truth of it. A hundred pound bear 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.080 has this has a lot of fairly similar to characteristics 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.960 as a four hundred pound bear, and that again, we're 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.440 gonna get into the nuances to disprove that. But I mean, 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.400 if you were to see a hundred pound bear on 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:01.799 a hillside five yards away, you could be deceived into 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.000 thinking that that was a big one because of what 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.200 we're gonna talk about scale. But what what we're looking 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.680 at is we're fine, We're we're we're nitpicking the nuanced 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.480 features of a bear to try to understand what makes 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.400 a trophy bear. And we're gonna use that term. Let's 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.000 let's let's let's not use the term trophy. Let's use 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:27.280 the term mature, mature male. That's what we're after inside 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.640 a bear hunting. The target animal and almost any situation 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.720 is going to be an older class, mature male animal. 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.720 That's what we're after. Okay, traditional methods, what would you say, Ryan? 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:45.120 Are the traditional statements that people use to describe big males. 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:52.480 I'd say the most notorious would be small ears yep, 0:07:52.640 --> 0:08:01.440 creased head yep, um, you know, bigger risk pads for sure. 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:07.560 Probably the small ear myth. Yeah, that's that's what you 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.600 hear people say all the time, Like you could google 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.200 search small eared bear and it would be there being 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:16.640 articles all over the place. But let's go ahead and 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.640 just jump right into this. Is that I have seen 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:24.240 you have seen times when that didn't characterize the characterizing 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:30.240 older mature male at all. Um. Definitely, the classic big 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.280 bore is gonna look like he has small ears that 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:35.600 are on the side of his head, you know, because 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.760 his skulls so big, head so big that it's like 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.160 those ears as he gets older just kind of moves 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.800 down his head. But I've also killed some whop or 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.640 bears that to me had mickey mouse ears. For instance, 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:51.400 the bear I killed this year in Oklahoma, I called 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.959 him Batman because of how big his ears were. He 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.000 had these big, curled ears. I have also found that 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:01.040 bears have different shapes and looks based upon what part 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.920 of the country they're in. I mean, I've never seen 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.360 in Arkansas, correct me if you think I'm wrong. I 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.800 personally have never hunted a really big giant bear in 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.680 Arkansas or Oklahoma that I would have categorized as having 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:20.080 small ears. Would you have, no, You know, I think 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:25.040 there's almost to me a difference and the way they 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:29.520 look in the Washingtaws here and you know, mid Arkansas 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:34.560 compared to the Yeah, it seems like they've got distinguished 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:40.199 facial features. Maybe even hide is a little different. Yeah. Well, 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.439 then there are two separate populations. I mean they really are. 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.960 In Arkansas, we've got basically to what they call ala 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:50.280 Patrick populations of bears, which means they're kind of independent 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.640 of one another based upon some geographic and man made 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.560 barriers of the Arkansas River which is not man made 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:00.280 to Kolbe, but the Interstate forty which runs by the 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.120 Arkansas River is man made, so that it separates these 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.000 two populations. And very few bear bears are crossing over 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:10.280 to breed into these different places, and so there's even 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:17.240 slight differences in between ninety miles. You know. Um, there's 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:21.840 some generalizations like for instance, um, well these aren't generalizations, 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.480 these are true. Uh. Newfoundland is known for having big 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.960 skulled bears. Uh. Prince of Wales Island is known for 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:34.360 having large sculled bears. There's other places that are known 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.280 for not having big skulld bears. But you still might 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.280 have a big bear that is huge body wise, but 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:46.040 his skull would be smaller. Um. There are definitely different 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.440 characteristics of bears, just like white tails. I mean, you 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:53.200 have some places where white tails are gonna have express 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.679 this big, massive, heavy horn deer, like Canada, and they 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.480 have other places where they're not as much. UM. That 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:06.160 being said, bears are not affected by the um is 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.040 it Bergman's law that states that the further you get 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.079 away from the equator, the larger body sized mammals are 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.880 to retain heat. That's why Canadian white tails are bigger 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.439 than white tails. In the Florida Keys bears are exempt 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.640 from that law that because they hibernate during the winter, 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.400 they technically don't hibernate, they go into state of torpor, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:34.560 but they they are exempt from that law because they 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.960 are not enduring the cold temperatures, just taking it right 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.760 in the face like all these other animals. So bears 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.920 in Florida, bears in Arkansas, bears in Oklahoma, bears in 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:49.160 North Carolina could be as big or even bigger than 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.160 Canadian bears. Okay, let's just separate that out. There's just 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:57.440 some bared knowledge, bare nerd technoledge. I wish we had 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:02.480 the buddy size of the Carolina bears. That's amazing, no doubt. 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.880 I mean, we've got big bears, but they've got some monsters. 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.280 They do they do. Some of the biggest bears in 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.280 the world are on the Eastern Coast. Some of the 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.840 biggest skull bears in the world, though, are also in Pennsylvania. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.120 Some of the top five bears skulls in the world 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.920 have come come out of Pennsylvania. And part of that 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.840 probably has to do with their age structure, because they've 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:26.559 got a lot of older bears because they don't hunt 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.080 over bait or with hounds. They're just spotting stock or 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.840 drive hunting these bears, so they're really not taken out 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:38.280 a big percentage of their bears every year. But so, okay, 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.120 we've established that there are bears in different places are 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.600 going to be different, They're gonna look different. Um, we've 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.640 established that ears and a crease on the head are 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.840 sometimes that's what somebody might say small ears and a 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.280 crease on the head. That's the only bear you shoot well, 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.120 if that had been the way that I judged bears 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.040 my whole life, i'd have very few bears. A lot 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.199 of the big bears that I've killed. As a matter 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.400 of fact, the only Boone and Crockett bear that I 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.520 have ever killed, Ryan, I would say, didn't have either. 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.440 One of those didn't have a crease on his head, 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:14.840 and I would say he had big ears. Um and well, 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:16.679 I don't want to get into body weight yet, but 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.960 let's just talk about those two things. Um. My good 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.560 buddy Heath Martin, expert bear hunter here in Arkansas, has 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:25.840 a story of going to Canada and shooting a color 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.520 face bear that had, I mean just a ripple crease 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.040 down its forehead. They were hunting the big color phase mail. 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.840 This color phase bear comes in. They think it's the 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:36.880 big male, has a big crease. He shoots it and 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.559 it's a sal Sal with a crease. And I've been 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.800 noticing that more and more. The more I see bears, 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.920 the more I'm like, man, sALS will have a crease 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.600 on their head too. Have you have you seen that before? Ryan? 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:54.080 Not so much here in Arkansas probably no. Uh, I've 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.880 seen some big sales. I think a lot of The 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.760 determining factor on the sales is it seems like they're 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.559 muzzle wants to blend in even where they have the 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:09.040 blonde brows. Have you noticed that? And probably the total 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.920 length of the bear. The boars will always have lankier, 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:18.720 longer bodies versus a sale. They're more compact. Yes, yes, 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.120 I've heard people describe it that a sal is pear 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:29.840 shaped like a narrow front end, big back end. Uh. So, 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:31.880 let's see where do I want to go? There's so 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.360 many different places we could go here. Let's go Let's 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.160 go ahead and just describe the characteristics of older mature 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.680 mail as we would just say it now. We're not 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.240 saying that ears increase are not indicators of an older 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.480 mature mail. For instance, one of the first years I 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.080 spring bear hunted, we went to Alberta. We killed six 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.920 poping young bears in five days in our camp. One 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.800 of those bears I would have considered as a traditional 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:04.760 style big older male who's straight up had small ears, 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:06.840 straight up had ears on the side of his head, 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:12.800 straight up had a crease. One of of six. Well, 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.600 I mean I said we killed six bears. The bears 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:17.960 that the two bears that I killed which were nineteen 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.800 inch but nineteen inch plus bears, which are that's a 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:25.200 big bear, well above the pope and young minimum Um 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:28.760 probably weighed in the three hundred three fifty pound range 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:30.840 in the spring, which is a big bear. These are 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.920 big bears. They all had what I would describe as 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.160 mickey mouse ears, and they were tall and looked like 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:42.880 race horses. Okay, um, they but the the defining features 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:45.560 of them that made me know that they were older 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:50.080 mature males was that they were tall, they were very tall, 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.640 and that they were long, and that they had their 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.800 front legs the front leg of a boar. A big boar, 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.160 he's gonna have like stove pipe, lay eggs like a bulldog, 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:06.680 Like a bulldog, big ankles, and big pads, as in 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.640 contrast to a sow, which is gonna have thinner legs, 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:15.040 thinner ankles, smaller pads. To me, almost every big bear 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:19.320 I've ever killed ryan I have noticed his feet. I mean, like, 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.560 if you were to show and I'd almost go to 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.200 that more than the head. Like I see some pictures 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.280 of sALS and get trail camera pictures of sALS, and 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:28.920 I was like, if you just showed me the head 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.600 of that bear, I couldn't tell you. I mean, I 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:33.360 would assume it would just be a big boar, But 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.600 to be a sal I would almost rather look at 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:40.000 the bear's feet than anything. It seems like the back 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.920 feet also want to sail as not as long as 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.280 a boar's you know, in length, the pads just don't. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:56.440 A sal's a lot shorter. Yeah. So when I when 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.080 I'm looking at a boar or they're looking to determine 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.200 if a boar as trophy size, looking at his feet, 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:05.680 looking at his front shoulders, looking at his height, that's 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:09.800 that is a massive factor. And when you're hitting over bait, 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.480 typically you've got a fifty five gallon drum. This this 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.960 rule could be applied anywhere on the earth where there's 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.640 black bears, which early in North America. But a bear 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.880 that is as tall as a thirty six inch tall drum, 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.280 if his shoulders, not his hairline, but his actual shoulders 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.200 come up to the top of that barrel, that's a 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.440 that's a big bear, is it not? Run? Yeah? Usually shooter. Yeah, 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.040 I mean, you just don't see an immature bear or 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.880 even a a salve that's gonna be as tall as 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.439 a barrel. Do you every once in a while, like 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.360 the say, the sal I had trouble with in Canada, 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:53.639 was it two years ago? You know, my first glance 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.480 of that, I thought, boy, there's a shooter. And she 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:03.119 was probably three hundred maybe bear, but big head, she 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:08.399 just short. Yeah, I mean that would have been a 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.959 tough one. Yeah. Yeah, she had a cup with her 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.000 though she did. That's probably the only reason you knew 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:14.639 it wasn't a born Yeah. I mean you might have 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.240 figured it out after a while. Yeah, it takes you know, 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.080 if you studied it for a minute or two, you 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.440 could probably do you think she was truly as tall 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:28.560 as a barrel like her shoulder, I don't know barrel. 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:30.600 There was a barrel there, but it was laying down, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.440 you know, it was chained a tree. But it was 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.879 a tall bear. Yeah, it was so. Yeah, that's a 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:41.680 tricky one because inside the barre world there's different variants 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.320 of height and well there's different there's all these different 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:48.760 shapes like you could here in Arkansas have a sal 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:53.760 bear that way hundred and eighty five pounds and she 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:58.679 might be eighteen years old and be fully mature, and 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:03.200 maybe she weighs a hundred pounds. Heath Martin four or 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.680 five years ago shot a bear here in Arkansas. Turned 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.280 out it was a soal weighed three hundred and forty 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:15.560 pounds on scale in the fall, And there's just all 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:20.080 this variation, just like in humans that ere a bit. Nope, 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.160 she didn't. She was a big dry sow and uh, 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.040 she didn't have a cub with her. I mean, they've 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.800 been getting pictures of this bear and uh, and she 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.479 was a prime animal to take out older female and 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.280 but it was just a big bear and uh, and 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:37.560 he kind of thought maybe it was a sal but 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.919 it was just you know, he took her. Um weighed 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.360 three pounds on a scale. That being said, there's all 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.679 this variation, So you can't just always say that a 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.879 sow is just gonna be a whole lot smaller, because 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.080 you could very well have a older age class male 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.360 board that weighed three and forty pounds. And I'd take 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.199 that bear anywhere in the world. I really would. If 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.359 I went to Canada. I mean, most most of the time, 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:09.119 I'm gonna shoot that animal. Um so the boars, but 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.680 the one place, and and your deal would be an exception, 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:14.840 I would say, I would say the one place that 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.160 you could almost always tell a boar is his height 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:22.399 and lengthy. I mean, you're just never gonna have a 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:28.200 sou bear that is just this freight train long, tall, 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:34.080 big animal. You're just not gonna see it. And the 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:39.280 first time bear hunter might not distinguish that. You know, yes, 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.000 the more time you've spent bear hunting and get to 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:47.560 see tens upon hundreds of bears, it'll be easier for 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:52.040 a guy. And so that goes to the second thing 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.760 here we want to talk about is determining the sex 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:58.359 of a bear. When I was in Saskatchewan last year, 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.840 we watched bears for eight hours a day for five days. 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.200 We were just watching bears like crazy, and I realized 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:11.320 that these older seals were sometimes hard to distinguish from boars. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.040 The first thing I looked at, though, was ankle size 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:18.800 and pad size. Second, it was the first thing. The 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.800 second thing once they came in is some And the 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.200 reason I'm saying this is these seals were really mature, 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.320 Like I mean, you totally would have said that these 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.720 cells had small ears down the side of their head. 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:33.760 I mean really they were like like if you had 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:35.879 just taken a picture, I think you could have almost 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.000 convinced anyone that it was a mature male. So this 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.040 animals coming in, there's not really anything to scale the 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.240 bear by trying to determine is this is this a 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:47.960 nice male? Because in the spring, the males are smaller 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.080 I mean not physical, not the bone structure obviously, but 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:53.640 I mean they're they're less weight. They've been a then 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.520 for six months, they're thinner, So in the spring a 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:01.199 male and a female might be harder to distinguish. And 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:05.520 the second thing I look for was a penal sheath. Yeah, 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.359 Like I mean, a boar is gonna have these these 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:11.760 sheath hairs that hang down and they're four or five 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:15.159 inches long, sometimes hanging down right in the middle of 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.960 the belly. You can't see there. You can't see the sheath. Really, 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.639 it's not like something big hanging down, you know, but 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.640 you can see those sheath hairs hanging down. And when 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:27.639 you see that, all of a sudden, part of your 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:30.439 equation is solved. This is a male. I mean, that's 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:32.760 the first thing that I do anytime i'm bear hunt anywhere, 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.080 is that a boar or sow and that that sal's 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:38.880 gonna be pear shaped, she's gonna be smaller. She's gonna 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:40.840 be shorter, she's gonna have thinner ankles, she's gonna have 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:44.240 smaller pads, she's gonna have a more feminine face. And 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.359 that's kind of a hard thing to describe, but just 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:50.080 like in a dog, like a big old male, right 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.120 while there's gonna have this boxy, beefy nose and head 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.320 and a female, a sow bear kind of has a 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.560 more feminine feel to the face and head most of 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:04.600 the time. Agree with that, Ryan, I agree. You agree 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:08.480 with that, Kolbe. From what I've seen, I think you're 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:12.880 older bears too, And you know this works with sales. 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:17.439 Also is the scruff the beard under the chin. As 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:21.040 a bear gets older, it seems to have that little guiltee. Yeah, 0:23:21.800 --> 0:23:25.919 you see that with Arkansas bears sometimes, Yeah, kind of 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.560 that do lap like kind of yeah, like you got 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:34.520 going on? Yeah, yeah, kind of like me now that 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:37.760 it is their behavior change, like the way they come 0:23:37.760 --> 0:23:41.720 in on a date, the salve versus the boar. That's 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:46.440 a that's a good one. Yes, I mean I have seen. 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:50.000 I wrote an article and this last issue Bear Any 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:53.760 Magazine that was called five thoughts on judging Black Bear. 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:59.000 One thing that I have noticed is that the mature 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.200 boar that's coming into a bait site, and we're talking 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:06.560 about a bait site here, you can't always predict what 0:24:06.600 --> 0:24:09.479 he's gonna do. You can't just say, well, the mature 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.440 board is gonna just barrel in and run everything off 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:16.680 the barrel, or you can't say, the mature boar is 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:19.840 gonna be the one that's hanging back, and it's really cautious. 0:24:20.440 --> 0:24:22.560 You don't know what they're gonna do. But one thing 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:25.920 I have noticed is that they almost always act different 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:29.560 than every animal at debate site. That's not gonna play 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:34.400 true in every situation. But either he's gonna be like 0:24:34.520 --> 0:24:37.000 the bull of the woods and it's just gonna roll 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:39.440 in there, and you're just gonna be like that animal 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:42.840 is the king. I would use my example of when 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:45.960 I shot that color face bear in Canada that came 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:49.000 in and touched into my earraw. He was the boss 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:51.520 of those woods and he just barreled in there and 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:56.359