do you carry bear spray?

[RyanR]

wildtrout2 wrote:

RyanR wrote:

I used to (and still do when they offer it) go to hear Dr. Alt give seminars about PA black bears and I engaged in several discussions with him afterwards. During a seminar, he spoke of tagging (after tranquilizing it) a huge boar once that he said likely had a pre-denning weight of just over 1000lbs.

They don't weigh every bear that's been "tagged"? I'd think exact weight would be very important for their studies. I have to wonder if they weighed this bear previously, to guess a weight like that?

I believe he said he had weighed it in early spring and from that weight he extrapolated what it would likely weigh come late fall. It's not like the guy didn't have many years of hands-on experience with bears of all different weights to be able to make pretty darn accurate estimate. If I recall correctly he said it was the largest black bear he had ever had his hands on, and that says something given the bears he'd tagged or recorded over the years at check-ins. I remember the 100lbs part well because it was so stunning to hear, even considering there have been several with estimated live weights over 800lbs.