Contributors to this thread:
here is a good question for all you bear hunting enthusiasts. Anyone who spends as much time on bear stand as I do that hunt in a color phase area can maybe give me some insight. I have spent allot of time around "seasoned" bear hunters, outfitters, guides, trappers, and nobody seems to have an answer yet.
WHAT IS YOUR THEORY...??
what ever happens to all the blonde color phase bears as they grow older? I see on average 2-4 blonde cubs/yearlings each year, but yet I never seem to see them past the age of four or five! Do they end up changing color? Do they just remain "runts"? It's very uncommon to see them booner size? For as many hunters that visit the woods each year how many of these bears grow to adulthood neverless booners? I know here in Manitoba we have a healthy population of the blonde phase, but maybe some of the neighbouring Provinces (Sask/Alb) can give their stories/pics?
i think guys shoot them when there small because they are blonde.
x2 on that theory i beleive alot of people will sacrafice size for the color.
It seems like here in Colorado all the bears I ever see are color phased. HArdly ever see in black ones. Mostly cinnamon and blonde.
I saw 2 color phase bears last weekend, both very large animals, one was 400# give or take, he had a beautiful blonde mantle. That is in Northern California
Best of Luck, Jeff (Bowsite Sponsor)
Yes off-color gets killed earlier for the novelty of their coats. However, think of the demographic ratios: Using P&Y standards, large bear are a small subdivision of the overall population. Color phase bears are a subdivision of the overall bear population. It follows large color phase bears would mathematically be a minuscule representation of the overall population. Factor in that many blondies will be sows and you understand the reduced representative potential even more. Now add the novelty killing (guilty as charged) and you'll get the answer.
Paring down the divided and diminished yields the paltry.
Hi Jayson. It's funny you ask this question as I just mounted a cinnamon phase bear that was turning into his summer coat (black). Short black hair under the thinning cinnamon coat.
From what I understand, (some) bears will change color with the season change, and others won't. I talked to a farmer out east about his bear problem and he had a bear in his corn every fall that was brown in color but with a blonde streak down his back. Come the end of fall that bear would be totally blonde.
Up at my bear camp, I've got a monster cinnamon that when I first saw it, thought it was someone's Jersey cow 40 miles from it's pasture. He's cinammon right through the summer and into fall. Then I have a 6 foot pure white bear that was seen by a local helicopter pilot and his father, and he's been on my baits only once, but maybe he's turned color too or moved on. Who knows.
I do know, that some years we will harvest more color phase that other years. Even see more some years. What confuses me is, I'll get a picture of a 5-6 foot colored bear and put a hunter on the bait the very next day and not only will the hunter not see it, but I won't get another picture on my trial camera of that bear for the rest of the season.
Young bears may grow darker coats as they age. Older bears generally don't change color nor do they change with the seasons. Coats can also bleach somewhat in the sun.
Do a search, was a lenghtly thread on the subject last year.
Many of the bears I've encountered here in Colorado are some phase other than jet black. I was thrilled to get a black one here.
Most of the cubs I've seen around where I live here are some variation of cinammon or blonde or light brown with dark legs.
Very interesting thread ... I still haven't given up hope on taking a color phase.
"they change color"
I know this is a debate free thread, but that statement is incorrect. As said, do a search, already been debated.
I see far more color bears than I do black bears in the Rockies.
Here's quite an interesting bear I saw last fall while hunting elk in Colorado. She came into a waterhole I was sitting one morning with her cubs. One cub is about the color of the dark part of her coat and the other is more like the light part of her coat. But she is kind of split between the color of the two cubs.
On a side note I have seen many light colored bear through the years, but I see far more young that are light than I do mature light bears, although on occasion you do see a few.
Have a great bowhunt. BB
In the area of Sask. we hunt the 2 largest spring bears we've harvested were red. Don't know what to tell you?? (550 & 562 lb.)
TOP PIN, in answer to your original question specifically about whether blonde bears get darker colored as they age and become a cinnammon or chocolate I would say yes for sure. This is because in over 20 years of guiding bear hunts and seeing hundreds of dead bears I have never seen even a Pope and Young class or 200+ lb. truly blonde bear. Cinnammon? yes, lots of them, even several giants but not blonde. This is including when baiting was first started in Alberta so hunters hadn't killed them all at a young age yet. This is also in the Peace River area where at birth the % of colored bears is probably 30+%. Often the older blonde bears will have a cinnammon colored lower legs and face. Doesn't seem a big stretch that they get darker as they age?
Here is my color phase bear from CO. He was a nice one. 19 1/16 P&Y
Hard to tell in the pic. He was dark brown. I retired from the military early that Sept and went on two hunts in CO and IL. Very nice season I must say.
Zbone, not to get into a debate, but I just got off the phone with Hank Hristienko from Manitoba Natural resources. One of the only true bear biologists in Canada. I thought I was correct with what I said regarding the changing of color. He's just afirmed my statement. And I'll try to word it, word for word. Black bears with the black gene, stay black throughout their lives, mostly. Black bears with the color gene, will commonly have a summer time color and a dening, winter color. And color phase bears will commonly, but not all, will have a black summer time coat. Then there are some with a stronger color gene that stay one shade of color throughout their lives, but like Mike says and most of use who have 20+ years of experience with bears, lighter bears, darken with age and maturity.
My response is to not debate, but to inform, and from someone who's job it is to "know". Not mine, but a professional biologist who's work is used throught Canada.
Ron
"color phase bears will commonly, but not all, will have a black summer time coat"
Suppose this biologist is gonna tell you some yellow labs turn black in the summer also…
I think of it in terms of aging....I had blonde/silver hair when I was a younster, but now have brown hair. my brother had blonde/silver hair when he was young. His hair is more blackis brown...at least what he has left.
I suspect it's something like that with bears too.
You know Z I'm note quoting theory, I'm quoting one of the most knowledgable in Canada. If you want his phone number to discuss his facts with your theory, I'm here till Monday. pm me.
I was born blonde, and so was my father. Our hair turned black when we were around 6. He's 1/2 Cree. I'm salt and pepper now. Theory on that? As for labs, my black grows white hairs where ever he gets cut now and where it heals, is all white hair. theory? Maybe his black gene is not as strong as my previous 2 blacks..... I'm also a taxidermist. I've got in my shop right now, a cinnamon 1/2 mount bear, taken at my camp. It was shot in June. His underneath hair coming in before he was shot, is short and BLACK. I've had 1,000's of bear hides in my hands in the last 34 years. With what I've seen, Hank is correct.
What do you say, we just scratch our heads and say Hmmm... and leave it alone. Nature has her ways, and we ain't going to figure everything out.
Ron
Yep, I'm done with this thread too but in closing - color phase bears may change a little different in shades of the same color with age, but someone will have to show me a cinnamon bear turned jet black, or vise a versa before I’ll believe it.
agree z bone, i'll bet a black bear stays black and colored bears vary in shades
thanks for all the different theories guys....I guess it's tough to know exactly what happens but everyone has some good input.
It was a topic we had discussed over coffee in the past years, and it's good to see responses from all parts of the country. Funny how the rockies hold a higher population of colored black bears....I didn't know that!!
THANKS GUYS :)
Very few blackies around my area. I thought this was a decent blonde.
Very few blackies around my area. I thought this was a decent blonde.
here's the blonde that we shot last year the before and after photo's
