“We had been tracking her, and her young were of good size.” “This sow was also radio-collared,” Swanson said. 23 in the Ruby Creek area of Oceana County’s Colfax Township was an animal DNR biologists had been studying. “Cubs at this age can already be the size of some yearlings and they understand how to collect food for themselves.” “Fortunately, in this situation, these cubs were born in early 2015,” said DNR bear specialist Kevin Swanson in Marquette. On Thursday, Bizon issued a warrant, charging a 27-year-old Ottawa County man with the unlawful taking of the bear.īiologists said the cubs have a good chance of surviving on their own, but they would have been better off had the sow accompanied them through the rest of the fall and selection of a winter denning site. With the help of the public, DNR conservation officers were able to present a case to Oceana County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Bizon. Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologists today said the recent illegal killing of a female black bear, which had three cubs with her, has aroused great public interest. John Jurcich, 23 CUBS SURVIVE ILLEGAL BLACK BEAR KILLING IN OCEANA COUNTY ARRAIGNMENT DATE SET FOR OTTAWA COUNTY MAN See below for the DNR Press Release on the West Michigan bear poaching incident.Ĭontact: Lt. Please call your Michigan Representative and ask them to take up Senate Bills 244-246 without delay! Deer restitution was already increased in a bill package passed and signed into law back in 2013. That is why MUCC and a number of conservation groups have come together around a legislative bill package, Senate Bills 244-246, to crack down on poaching and raise the fines and restitution for our more rare and highly valued wildlife species such as bear, moose, and elk. When individuals illegally take an animal in violation of any hunting, fishing, or trapping regulation, they are poaching and stealing that natural resource from the rest of us. So one can see why a bear tag alone is highly valued, and the opportunity to spend time with family and the meat from the hunt is even more of a prize. Bear hunting tags have been limited to less than 7,000 statewide in the last few seasons, where there are more than 50,000 applicants each season. Unlike deer and other wildlife species, adult female bears reproduce only every other year and cubs stay with their mother for the first year and a half. And the non-bear hunters I have talked to seem surprised to learn that shooting a sow with cubs has been a poaching violation for the last 20 years, when it was enacted by the NRC in 1995. The fines would be much more severe under proposed Senate Bills 244-246, which has passed the Senate unanimously, was approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources, and awaits action on the House floor.īear hunting has only been legal in Oceana County since 2007, as the Michigan bear population has expanded its range further south. Read on for the Michigan DNR press release. If convicted, he faces up to $1000 in fines (which goes to local libraries) and $1,500 in restitution (which goes into the Game and Fish Fund) and his hunting licenses will be revoked for this year and three years after. A southern Michigan man from Ottawa County has been accused of poaching a mother bear (sow) with cubs present in West Michigan.
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