Yep... someone lied to him, probably trying to impress the customers... but I have seen two fall bears scale over 700 pounds and and four spring bears scale over 600 pounds... and a friend working for the MNR relocated an 800 pound boar from a local neighborhood... so they can get bigger than most would suspect.
Bears and more bears
- Thread starter umpherda
- Start date
Yep... someone lied to him, probably trying to impress the customers... but I have seen two fall bears scale over 700 pounds and and four spring bears scale over 600 pounds... and a friend working for the MNR relocated an 800 pound boar from a local neighborhood... so they can get bigger than most would suspect.
From the link posted a few comments above:
BEAR - ALL TIME RECORD
1. Road Kill 22-1/16 2005
The largest black bear in the All-Time category was submitted by Rocky Besek
A tow truck was required to haul this estimated 700-800 lb boar off the road where it met it’s demise. Rocky Besek was following a vehicle that collided with this great bear as it tried to cross the road. The driver of the vehicle was not interested in the bear so Rocky and his friend laid claim to it. They quickly realized that the two of them could not budge the animal so they called Rocky’s dad for help. Rocky’s father and grandfather own a towing company and they came down with a tow truck to load the bear. Though the bear was never weighed properly, Rocky and his friends skinned the bear and brought it to Jakob’s Taxidermy, where at least another 100 lbs of fat was scraped off the hide. The hide stretches 8 feet from nose to tail with the span between the front arms running just shy of that. The hide will be made into a rug and the skull will be cleaned and put in a glass case for display.
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
All discussion of skull size aside presuming those are 12" floor tiles, that's no 8' bear, the kid must by 7'6" as well if so. Not without a lot of help from the taxidermist and a stretching rack. 
My small change anyhow.
My small change anyhow.
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Those are damn big black bears, would be neat to see, here 400lbs is a large black bear, 500 would be extraordinary.
Yep... we have some big bears in this area... the only one of those that I didn't personally see the scale for was the MNR bear, but my friend said that they weighed the crate with and without the bear, simple subtraction from there.
Ardent
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
You would know better than anyone, but interesting when a bear is weighed, weighed a 6'3" bear with a 19" and a smidge skull whole on a freight scale (same skull as beside the lion)... 293lbs. I asked for estimates around and they all went higher, some much. Not a beast by any measure or dimension, but a good mature black bear boar for here, he was old and thin and likely 50lbs lower than he should have been. Still, figure on our good "shooter" boars in BC being 350lbs, our hogs 400lbs, and I've never seen a 500lb taken yet... 800lbs would really be an awe inspiring black bear, that's an order of magnitude bigger at double our big guys.
safehunter
Regular
- Location
- South Western Onterrible
I've seen two enormous black bears, one live one at the spruce haven zoo in Sault Ste Marie and one dead after an encounter with a truck east of Sudbury. More like 6'3" at the shoulder. 600+ would be my uneducated guess.
I lived in Ontario's black bear territory most of my life, and if I hadn't have seen those incredible specimens, I would also doubt - thankfully they are rare. The vast majority of everyday bears are much smaller.
I lived in Ontario's black bear territory most of my life, and if I hadn't have seen those incredible specimens, I would also doubt - thankfully they are rare. The vast majority of everyday bears are much smaller.
People with little bear experience tend to overestimate their weight, as you say, sometimes grossly, because it's a BEAR... and it is shocking to them to see one. People with a lot of bear experience tend to underestimate their weight, because a calibrated scale has administered a dose of "reality" into so many bear stories... the after scale commentary goes something like this; "... well, nice bear anyway...."
