(WWJ) As summer is wrapping up in Michigan, hunters are gearing up for fall.
Bear hunting season begins this week: on Wednesday, September 6, or Saturday, September 9, depending on where in the state you'll be hunting.
Here are the details from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources:
Upper Peninsula
Season dates for Bergland, Baraga, Amasa, Carney, Gwinn, Newberry and Drummond Island bear management units:
Hunt period 1: Sept. 6 – Oct. 21
Hunt period 2: Sept. 11 – Oct. 26
Hunt period 3: Sept. 25 – Oct. 26
Lower Peninsula
Season dates for Red Oak, Baldwin and Gladwin units are Sept. 9-19 and Oct. 6-12
What are the rules? Those interested in hunting black bears in Michigan must first apply for a license and then are entered into a drawing, which only a limited number of people win each year. (Here's where to buy a bear hunting license application).
Bear hunters also must adhere to strict baiting laws, to help prevent the spread of disease in Michigan's deer populations, and must register any bears that are taken. Within 72 hours of harvesting a bear, the hunter must take the unfrozen bear head and pelt, or the entire animal, to a bear registration station to be registered and sealed.
Why do people hunt black bears? Is it for sport, for meat, for population control?
Elijah Keller, Vice President of the Michigan Bear Hunters Association, says it's really all three.
"It's a multifaceted thing," he told WWJ's Brian Fisher, in a recent episode of The Daily J podcast. "One: Yeah, I mean simply bear meat's outstanding. In the U.S. we have a rich history of bear hunting, and it was the preferred game meat on the frontier. This culture's starting to come back."
"And, yeah, now we do have to do some population control on them. Not only to the carrying capacity of the land, but the carrying capacity of the population of bears with humans in regards to conflict."
To be clear, experts say aggressive attacks by black bears on humans in Michigan, and elsewhere, are extremely rare.
For more information about bear hunting in Michigan, check out the 2023 Bear Hunting Regulations Summary online at Michigan.gov/Bear or view it in the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app — available in the Apple app store or Google Play for Android devices.
Learn more about black bears in Michigan at this link.