JJHACK
Lil-Rokslider
During my years as a wildlife manager for the Weyerhaeuser Tree farms I had the great pleasure and education of attending seminars and meetings with other bear "experts" around the country and even from Japan and Europe.
One in particular Dr. Charles Jonkel was at the time the top dog in Bear study. He was working in the state of Montana at the time, on all sorts of grizzly recovery and other bear research projects. I was blessed with the opportunity to talk with and learn from what was the most knowledgable bear guy probably in the world. He was right up there with Gary Alt,(PA.) and Lynn Rogers (Mn).
During one particular project we had to measure the internal body temperature of the bears while active in the fall and record the differences when those same bears were in the winter sleep. Oddly most people reference the term Hibernation directly to the bear. Doubtful many people will hear the word hibernation and not have the first word in their minds being Bear. Bears do not hibernate. To actually hibernate they must be in a trance or a comatose condition. Squirrels, woodchucks, marmots, reptiles and amphibians hibernate. Bears and raccoons among others just go into a deep sleep. The can be awakened! They can be aggressive although slow and not quite as sharp as mid summer! ( still cranky and angry)
With the bears that we caught and implanted with the temperature transducers and the telemetry collars we could measure the body temps from a distance. For a week we watched the Monarch Butterflies on Strawberry mountain in Montana in the area of Glacier Park. The butterflies were there by the millions. The bears were there gorging on them. It was all well above treeline in the wide open. Probably one of the early influences in my life to find some way to buy the best optics I could possibly get. Watching them through a spotting scope to see which bears were there and whether we had tagged them. We glassed and scanned hill sides for hours every day. Poor glasses would generate a splitting headache in short order.
I was making notes on the temperature readings for each bear. Over the week(s) of tracking and taking notes I found something else. There was no column or requirement to make a note of the color phase of the bears, However in the margins I did make a couple notes. BLK BLND RED, BRN, or whatever the designation required. I only did this to quicker see the bear up there and find the tag number faster on my spreadsheet.
However some time later, when looking over the information I learned something by coincidence. Or maybe we just learn things by working hard and we figure out things we did not even know we needed to learn yet. Once I looked this over I shared what I found with Charles. We shared the data and looked at it from every angle. What we realized was so obvious, yet unpublished, or as yet unknown.
The Bears that were out eating berries and larva on the hills were in bright hot sunshine. Those bears that were black would be out there for 20-30 minutes and wander off, most of the time back to the trees. We originally thought they were just full and were going to sleep off the full stomach. However the bears that were very light color or what many refer to as "color phase" bears would stay out in the sun for hours and just lay there and relax. One event means nothing to me in education or factual and meaningful data collection. However this was not once or ten times. It's every time for days and weeks.
When I had this laid out, it came to mind that this area was almost all black bears, however few were actually black. They are all sorts of shades of brown, blonde, red, and multi colored with light backs turning to darker legs to bears that could be called Grizzly colored.
In SE Alaska where I had been working seasonally as a bear hunting guide we only had black color phases, but there were a couple places that were said to have the occasional Lighter colored brownish phase bears. The area around the town of Hoonah Alaska in the rain shadow has them though. On the coast of Washington there are only black bears, on the west side of the cascades near the coast they are only black. On the west facing mountains going up the cascades there are about 30-40% brown with the more rare but possible reddish and blonde colored bears. On the east side of these same mountains, there ratio is exactly the opposite. There about 60-70 percent are not black. In the rockies of Idaho, black color is about 50% and every other color possible makes up the other half. In Montana there are not as many black color black bears. Arizona, colorado, Northern California, The rockies of Canada 50% or less black color bears.
Going east from the rockies in Canada and the USA seeing a bear that is other then black is so rare it's probably unknown to most people. Why is this? Well based on what we learned, there is a kind of a darwin situation going on that creates the frequency of lighter color phases. It's indisputable that the greater the amount of direct exposure to the sun. Plus the requirement to be in the open above tree line to feed in fall has a huge influence on the amount of light or other then black color phase bears. Not many light brown or blond bears taken in Ontario, SE Alaska, coastal Wa. NY, Pa, the SE USA. Nothing above treeline, no need to feed in roasting hot sunshine.
High country Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Eastern Wa. Idaho, Montana, Utah, Oregon, etc. All have very high percentages of light color bears. I hope this helps with the basic understanding of where to begin the search for your light color or cinnamon color bears. Hunt above treeline in the west. One down side to these locations is the harsh winters, short summer, and marginal foods. This means that these are not often the biggest bears by body size. The biggest bears in North America by weight are typically from the Eastern USA and north central Canada.
Nobody tracks bears with records by weight, or at least not on a national level. It's all about the skull size. With this you need to look at Arizona, Utah, SE Alaska only on the islands, not the mainland. Also the north Eastern USA and much of the central Canadian provinces. So with this now you have the exact location for the biggest bears by skull size, weight, and color phase. The northern portions of central Canada. So much wilderness, so much food, plenty of space to get bears older then 15 years, such low hunting pressure.
If my dream was a 7' square, 500lb, 21" reddish blonde bear....... Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta would be my area of concentration.
One in particular Dr. Charles Jonkel was at the time the top dog in Bear study. He was working in the state of Montana at the time, on all sorts of grizzly recovery and other bear research projects. I was blessed with the opportunity to talk with and learn from what was the most knowledgable bear guy probably in the world. He was right up there with Gary Alt,(PA.) and Lynn Rogers (Mn).
During one particular project we had to measure the internal body temperature of the bears while active in the fall and record the differences when those same bears were in the winter sleep. Oddly most people reference the term Hibernation directly to the bear. Doubtful many people will hear the word hibernation and not have the first word in their minds being Bear. Bears do not hibernate. To actually hibernate they must be in a trance or a comatose condition. Squirrels, woodchucks, marmots, reptiles and amphibians hibernate. Bears and raccoons among others just go into a deep sleep. The can be awakened! They can be aggressive although slow and not quite as sharp as mid summer! ( still cranky and angry)
With the bears that we caught and implanted with the temperature transducers and the telemetry collars we could measure the body temps from a distance. For a week we watched the Monarch Butterflies on Strawberry mountain in Montana in the area of Glacier Park. The butterflies were there by the millions. The bears were there gorging on them. It was all well above treeline in the wide open. Probably one of the early influences in my life to find some way to buy the best optics I could possibly get. Watching them through a spotting scope to see which bears were there and whether we had tagged them. We glassed and scanned hill sides for hours every day. Poor glasses would generate a splitting headache in short order.
I was making notes on the temperature readings for each bear. Over the week(s) of tracking and taking notes I found something else. There was no column or requirement to make a note of the color phase of the bears, However in the margins I did make a couple notes. BLK BLND RED, BRN, or whatever the designation required. I only did this to quicker see the bear up there and find the tag number faster on my spreadsheet.
However some time later, when looking over the information I learned something by coincidence. Or maybe we just learn things by working hard and we figure out things we did not even know we needed to learn yet. Once I looked this over I shared what I found with Charles. We shared the data and looked at it from every angle. What we realized was so obvious, yet unpublished, or as yet unknown.
The Bears that were out eating berries and larva on the hills were in bright hot sunshine. Those bears that were black would be out there for 20-30 minutes and wander off, most of the time back to the trees. We originally thought they were just full and were going to sleep off the full stomach. However the bears that were very light color or what many refer to as "color phase" bears would stay out in the sun for hours and just lay there and relax. One event means nothing to me in education or factual and meaningful data collection. However this was not once or ten times. It's every time for days and weeks.
When I had this laid out, it came to mind that this area was almost all black bears, however few were actually black. They are all sorts of shades of brown, blonde, red, and multi colored with light backs turning to darker legs to bears that could be called Grizzly colored.
In SE Alaska where I had been working seasonally as a bear hunting guide we only had black color phases, but there were a couple places that were said to have the occasional Lighter colored brownish phase bears. The area around the town of Hoonah Alaska in the rain shadow has them though. On the coast of Washington there are only black bears, on the west side of the cascades near the coast they are only black. On the west facing mountains going up the cascades there are about 30-40% brown with the more rare but possible reddish and blonde colored bears. On the east side of these same mountains, there ratio is exactly the opposite. There about 60-70 percent are not black. In the rockies of Idaho, black color is about 50% and every other color possible makes up the other half. In Montana there are not as many black color black bears. Arizona, colorado, Northern California, The rockies of Canada 50% or less black color bears.
Going east from the rockies in Canada and the USA seeing a bear that is other then black is so rare it's probably unknown to most people. Why is this? Well based on what we learned, there is a kind of a darwin situation going on that creates the frequency of lighter color phases. It's indisputable that the greater the amount of direct exposure to the sun. Plus the requirement to be in the open above tree line to feed in fall has a huge influence on the amount of light or other then black color phase bears. Not many light brown or blond bears taken in Ontario, SE Alaska, coastal Wa. NY, Pa, the SE USA. Nothing above treeline, no need to feed in roasting hot sunshine.
High country Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Eastern Wa. Idaho, Montana, Utah, Oregon, etc. All have very high percentages of light color bears. I hope this helps with the basic understanding of where to begin the search for your light color or cinnamon color bears. Hunt above treeline in the west. One down side to these locations is the harsh winters, short summer, and marginal foods. This means that these are not often the biggest bears by body size. The biggest bears in North America by weight are typically from the Eastern USA and north central Canada.
Nobody tracks bears with records by weight, or at least not on a national level. It's all about the skull size. With this you need to look at Arizona, Utah, SE Alaska only on the islands, not the mainland. Also the north Eastern USA and much of the central Canadian provinces. So with this now you have the exact location for the biggest bears by skull size, weight, and color phase. The northern portions of central Canada. So much wilderness, so much food, plenty of space to get bears older then 15 years, such low hunting pressure.
If my dream was a 7' square, 500lb, 21" reddish blonde bear....... Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta would be my area of concentration.
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