By KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors Writer on Sep 29, 2011, at 9:39 PM Updated on 9/29 at 9:39 PM
THE OUTDOORS
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Will Oklahoma again see a one-day black bear season in 2011?
Probably.
The archery-only season opens Saturday with a 20-bear quota for Pushmataha, Latimer and LaFlore counties only. Last year the quota of 20 bears, and then some, was filled in just 12 hours. Hunters killed 32 bears.
Although drought has fried the southeast counties as it has other parts of Oklahoma the acorn crop is not as poor as some imagined said regional biologist Joe Hemphill. Natural food sources tend to lure bears away from baiting stations.
“We had some hunters with bears on bait for a long time but now it’s been about a week since they’ve seen bears, so I’m not sure what to think about it,” he said. “Still, I think in one day they’ll probably do it, but it’s just a guessing deal right now.”
Resident hunters must purchase a $101 permit before the season opens and report kills as soon as possible. Each morning hunters check a recorded message to find out if the season is still open. The first year for the bear season, in 2009, hunters only killed 19 bears in a month-long effort that carried over into muzzleloader season.
The great majority of bear kills have come at bait stations on private land. Bear baiting is not allowed in public hunting areas.
Even though some hunters haven’t seen bears for a few days, Hemphill said if he was forced to guess one way or the other he would guess at it being another one-day season because so many hunters have had bears coming to bait.
The guess is logical. In the third year of the season a lot of local hunters have these bears pretty well figured out and over a three-county area, 20 bears really isn't very many compared to the great number of bears in the area.
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