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Colorado may ban killing hibernating black bears
By Keith Coffman ? Fri Mar 11, 12:13 pm ET
DENVER (Reuters) ? Hibernating black bears will no longer be fair game for Colorado hunters under new regulations proposed for the state, after an outcry over the killing of a 700-pound bruin in its den last fall.
Even some hunters have described the male bear's shooting death as unsportsmanlike and unethical, because the animal was not in the open but was resting in a secure place.
Colorado wildlife managers proposed the new regulation on Thursday, and the Colorado Wildlife Commission is widely expected to approve the policy change in May.
Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said the agency uses a "fair chase" standard for hunting rules, meaning an animal should have a fighting chance to escape.
"Most sportsmen understand when a bear is denned, you don't crawl in a hole after him," Hampton said. "That's the type of thing we want to avoid."
Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey also outlaw den hunting.
The killing of the bear in its den happened last November, when hunter Richard Kendall stalked and shot to death the massive animal near Meeker, Colorado, about 230 miles northwest of Denver.
Kendall told Reuters in a telephone interview that he and a hunting partner were looking for mountain lions, when they discovered bear tracks the size of his baseball cap.
They tracked the male bear to a cave and waited outside for the animal for several hours, he said.
"I was at the mouth of the cave and never crawled inside," Kendall told Reuters. "He started coming at me and I shot him."
Weighing in at 703 pounds, it was one of the largest black bears ever recorded in the state.
Although the kill was legal, Kendall was cited for shining a flashlight in the bruin's eyes and fined $68. Using artificial light to aid in hunting is illegal in Colorado.
The draft regulation before the Colorado Wildlife Commission states, "No person shall hunt, take or harass a bear in its den."
At Thursday's meeting representatives from two groups, the Colorado Trappers Association and the Mule Deer Association, spoke against the proposed rule change, citing their opposition to excessive regulation.
But a lifelong Colorado hunter, Joshua O'Manion, 35, told Reuters that he thought killing a denning bear "wasn't right."
"You don't shoot an animal that's sleeping. There's no sport in that," he said. "It's wrong unless you're starving and are going to eat the animal, and that wasn't the case here."
A male black bear, which is called a boar, usually weighs between 400 and 500 pounds and the female, or a sow, normally weighs around 200 pounds, according to University of Colorado biologist David Armstrong.
Colorado is home to about 14,000 black bears. Although they are called black bears, the animals cover the color spectrum, ranging from blond and cinnamon to brown and black.
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