Teeth have been collected from 410 bow kills, 587 gun kills, and 90 nonseasonal mortalities – a total of 1087 (58%) of 1,880 mortalities for 2003. 2002 samples have been received and hunters have been notified of their bear's age. Eight hundred and twenty-four of the 863 hunter harvested teeth were useable for age identification. The remaining 39 teeth were not able to be aged because of a broken tooth, wrong tooth submitted by hunter, etc. Thirty-six percent (246 M: 56F) were yearlings, 21% (109M: 68F) were 2-year olds, 16% (93M: 37F) were 3-year olds, and the remaining 27% were 4-years old or older. The oldest reported bear was a 19-year old male. He must have been very cautious to stay away from hunters that long.

Written by Christopher W. Ryan