It’s hard to count black bears. They don’t travel in herds. They are generally solitary and reclusive omnivores — although they occasionally display their foraging skills when they wander into a populated area and break into a garbage can or, rarely, a house.
Bear hunting is highly regulated in California. There is a season, a quota and a rule against killing cubs or females with them. Baiting and hounding of bears is not allowed.
But despite the strict regulations, the state doesn’t have a reliable count of its bear population. And how many are out there is a concern, following the state’s disgraceful wildlife management decision a century ago to allow grizzly bears to be hunted until they were gone.
