Daryl, yes, bear here are small. The one my son shot here is a good slightly-above average sized boar. I really do not know what is the over-riding factor causing it; genetics, terrain, feed, age structure {possibly altered by hard hunting pressure} or all of the above.

What I do know is that if they decide to run as many do, they can go for many many miles, outrun the best of dogs and at the end of the day live for another. They are quite amazing animals.

I like bear as a game animal, tho they are serious depredators of deer and elk. But they can also be managed. Social values are changing here, tho, as the rage people feel about wolf introduction is trickling down to bear, and I suspect many more bear will be shot as more and more people refuse to let them go when they meet up with them during deer and elk seasons. "Kill all predators" is a growing attitude and I cannot say I blame people much for it.

Getting ready to go down into one of Saturday's holes.

Bear treed at the bottom.......naturally...

We let this one go. No sooner had we leashed up the dogs and started the climb back up than it scooted out of that tree and took off.