Found a Monster Skull

[treillw]

Another thing to note...

I saw a wolf and heard them howling the same night i found the skull. I'd imagine they could eat through an animal pretty quickly.

 

[Stew]

Yeah. It was thick and the skull was laying on a logging road. Didn't look around too much for the rest of the story - was dark. Didn't smell anything, but I guess if the skull meat is gone, the rest of the meat is likely gone as well.

yes but other parts of the carcass may help in IDing it some hair or claws would tell you.

 

[Stew]

Another thing to note...

I saw a wolf and heard them howling the same night i found the skull. I'd imagine they could eat through an animal pretty quickly.

They will also kill a bear in its den in the winter.

 

[black dawg]

looks like a big black bear to me.

 

[EastMT]

Here is a 5’ black bear next to a 6’6” black bear if it helps, I don’t have any pics of the back side

 

[zbb]

You could measure one of the top molars. I have an uncle that found a grizz skull and that’s how he determined what it was. If I hadn’t have heard it from him I never would of thought about measuring the teeth.

Identifying Age & Sex of Grizzly Bears

Identifying Sex As a general rule of thumb, females and subadult grizzly bears generally tend to be lighter in color than adult male bears (Jonkel 1993). Male grizzly bears have a “blocky”...

www.yellowstonegrizzlyproject.org

 

[zbb]

I think I made a boo boo posting a link. I did, my bad. But you can measure the top m2 molar > 1 1/8“= grizzly, black bear have less than 1 1/8“. I got it from the Yellowstone grizzly project, I don’t know what their view is on hunting, but that’s where I got the info. I got the tooth measuring thing from my uncle who found a grizzly skull and that how he figured it out. My bad for posting the link.

 

[Mt Al]

Really cool find! Total SWAG but my guess is that it died last fall, froze and critters been eating the soft parts since thaw. Something like that. I go back to places where I've boned out deer and elk just to look at decomposition: that is the sum total of my "expertise" in that area.

If it was lying in the middle of a logging road without the rest of the carcass, that's a bit odd but could have been drug there by coyotes or something.

I'd carefully call FWP and ask them about keeping found bear skulls. I've found two places where I've found bear skeletons and it would be nice to know if I can go get the skulls, just never called.

From the nasal cavity volume, eye socket ovality, distance between the K9's and porosity of the skull material, I'm going out on a limb and calling this a Pol-iz-black: A polar bear came south and had "relations" with a griz. That offspring wandered South and struck up a nocturnal soiree with a big black bear. What you found is clearly the offspring of this event. No more guess work needed!

Congrats on finding that and thanks for sharing! Would love to hear what you find from an expert/biologist.

 

[FLAK]

No claws, hair or other evidence at the site?

 

[treillw]

No claws, hair or other evidence at the site?

It was dark, wolves howling, and I just found a huge skull in bear country. My wife and I didn't go digging through the brush looking for the rest of the kill haha.

I may need to make a trip back.

 

[dieNqvrs]

As mentioned above Molar size is a definitive determination for brown/grizz vs Black bears.

Lower 48 grizz are still endangered. Not legal to posses no matter what. Only exception would be donate to a school. And then they need a letter from the feds to posses.

My guess is a male grizz based on size/ over 20” , the length is very long in proportion and the sutures on the skull have not fully developed. Bet it was in the 6 year old range. Doesn’t have a sow size or shape.

Giant black bear would have more calcification like the other pics posted next to tape measure and sutures fully grown like the one coop posted.

My advise is measure to get confirmation and turn it with location info or just get rid of it. The fact you posted online has FWP/feds on notice.

 

[wildwilderness]

Approximate measurements without getting too fancy:
Length 12 1/2"
Width 7 3/4"
Height 6"

The bleached skull in the photo is my dwarf black bear. I definitely see the "fin" on the skull I found that would indicate grizzly.

I think a black bear. The eye orbits are a giveaway. Here is a picture of a 26” brown bear skull next to a 20” “monster” black bear.

look at the eyes, if you ever kill a grizz you’ll be shocked at the tiny beady eyes! When I get the skull cleaned will be easier to compare

 

[FLAK]

Dang that's a big skull!!!

 

[LK2HNT]

Yes, Grizz have beady little eyes lol. Heres a Grizz I just Shot Saturday night. Here is also her deformed skull, Im not sure what happened to her if it was a major injury when she was young or just born that way. Even with deformed skull she measured 23.5" skull

 

[treillw]

Black bear. Case closed.

 

[idelkslayer]

Impossible for it to be black bear or grizzly. All the bigfoot experts tell me that sasquatch is real because no one ever finds dead bear remains.

 

[treillw]

My only remaining question is how old is it?

 

[Broomd]

I found a griz skull on Kodiak in 2015 while mountain goat hunting.... lying there bleached white in perfect condition. It dwarfs my black bear skulls.
Yours looks like a griz skull to me at first glance.

 

[treillw]

I found a griz skull on Kodiak in 2015 while mountain goat hunting.... lying there bleached white in perfect condition. It dwarfs my black bear skulls.
Yours looks like a griz skull to me at first glance.

Measure your molar. Just curious.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I found a griz skull on Kodiak in 2015 while mountain goat hunting.... lying there bleached white in perfect condition. It dwarfs my black bear skulls.
Yours looks like a griz skull to me at first glance.View attachment 189905

That’s funny you say that Broomd, my son and I also found two brown bear skulls, on Kodiak, while goat hunting, in 2015. We found them at the bottom of a big bowl, and about 20 feet or so apart from each other. We didn’t find any other bones in this area, so I thought that was kind of strange.


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