August 15, 2024 • 8 mins
How do you tell the difference between a male and female bear? We'll give you some ways to think it through in the first ever BHM Short where bear biologist, Myron Means, gives us a breakdown of how he thinks about it and what he looks for. It's a sub ten minute podcast, you got time for it! Thanks for listening!!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast with me
Kobe Moorehead. We're gonna nerd out on bears hunting and
the outdoors. We'll tell stories, talk biology, tactics, gear, and
the fight to protect the pursuits that we hold here.
So grab your bino's, lace up your boots, load up
your barrels, and gather the hounds we venture on this
journey together. Welcome to today's episode of the Bear Hunting Magazine
(00:42):
Hunt Cast. Today, this one's gonna be a b HM short,
just real short, to the point. We're gonna talk about
one topic and as soon as we're done with that,
have a great weekend. So today we're joined by Myron Means,
the large carnivore biologist here in Arkansas. We're talking about
(01:03):
how to tell the difference between a boor and a cell,
and not just the things to look for, but how
to think about it. It's one thing to know the
different list of things that people look for. It's another
thing to understand how to think. So today when you're listening,
concentrate on learning how to think so that in the future,
(01:23):
if somebody talks to you about a bore versus a cell,
you could break it down inside of your own mind
and you don't have to just remember a list like
you're getting ready to take a test. All right, we're
gonna keep this one short. Let's get to it. Here's mine.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, there's some there's some real key anatomical features that
will differentiate males from females. I mean, of course, I've
looked at thousands and thousands and thousands of bears over
the over my career and everything, and I'm pretty good
at spotting one from a game campick and determine if
(02:06):
it's a male or female. But you have to you
have to think in terms of general anatomy of humans.
And now I'm speaking general anatomy here. Males typically are
built bigger in the shoulders and the biceps and the forearms,
in the hands, in the neck and all that. And
(02:30):
in the animal world, animals are built the same way,
especially bears. Male bears are built heavy in the shoulders,
in the arms, in the chest and the neck and
the head, and they're built heavier in that part of
the anatomy for one thing, for fighting, for competing for
(02:52):
females breeding rights, and they do. It's vicious battles. You
see these males that have you know, that are ten
twelve years old, and they have broke noses, they have
split ears, they have eyes that are gouged out, they
have teeth that are missing. I mean, they have huge
puncture you know, scars all over their neck, their shoulders,
(03:15):
their forearms. I mean, they fight for breeding rights, and
females don't have to fight for breeding rights. They don't
have to fight at all. Females are built. They don't
have to have broad shoulders, big arms, big front feet,
big thick necks, you know. So females are always built
(03:38):
heavyer towards the back end for reproducing, for carrying you know,
milk and memory glends and everything like that. So if
you're looking at general anatomy and you look at just
the body part of a bear, males tend to always
be rectangular shaped in the body part. Female bears tend
(04:01):
to be more pear shaped, heavier towards the back end.
The neck is always a dead giveaway to me. You know,
males have in proportion to their body, they have big necks.
You know, a lot of big males you can't even
put a radio collar on because their neck is bigger
(04:21):
than their head. You know, their radio car will just
slip right off, you know. And so, but females don't
have to have big necks. They don't have long necks.
Females tend to be kind of short and squatty. You know,
they have a short, compacted frame. They have very narrow wrists,
(04:41):
they have small front feet, and if you can see
them from like a straight on profile, invariably their legs
will always taper from the sho taper to the wrist.
Yea where males a lot of times they don't taper much.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Stove putt.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, it's more of a stovepipe. Look. I mean they
have big, huge forearms, but they also have big biceps
and forearms, and it goes down to big wide front foot,
wide front feet, big hands.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And if and you know, obviously by size, I mean
you know you can you can look at a camera
and obviously, if you got one that looks like the
size of a Volts wagon and his bellies dragging the ground,
I mean it's obviously a male. You know, males in
Arkansas get five hundred plus pretty easily with good forage
(05:36):
and age. But you know, a three hundred pounds female
is a huge female. Average size of an adult female
in Arkansas is one hundred I'm going to say in
winter time in den cycle one hundred and seventy five
to two hundred and twenty five pounds. Yeah, two hundred
(05:58):
and twenty five pounds is a big female.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, that's a sign about the size of the female
we pulled out. Yeah, on the Den visit I went
on this year.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, And I mean I've done Den trips before where
they're in there with you yearling and at first glance,
it's almost hard to tell which one's a big, healthy,
strapping yearling in the female. Yeah, that's how small females
can be. And but you know it's once you get
past those past that three hundred pound mark, it's pretty
(06:28):
easy to determine it's a male. It's going to be
a male.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know, seeing a three hundred pound plus female on
the landscape, I won't say it won't happen, especially in
the late fall or in the early fall or late summer. Man,
that's a rarity. That's a rare bird right there. Three
hundred pound female walking around.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
All right. I hope you liked it, and don't be
discouraged if you have a hard time telling the difference
between a boar or a sal. And here's a word
the wise. I don't believe just anybody that they can
tell the difference between a bar or south. Like Myron said,
he's seen thousands of bears, and he's not only seam bears,
(07:10):
but he's verified afterwards with working with these bears. The
same thing with a lot of outfitters. They see so
many bears on their cameras and then whenever they have
hunters take bears there, they're able to verify if they
were a ride or not, and you kind of develop
a sense of whether it's a boar or sal. But
(07:32):
a juvenile bear is really hard to tell once they
get older. And like Myron said, like if it's over
three hundred, it's most likely a bore. It is something
that gets developed with time and the amount of bears
that you see. So don't just take any Joe Blows
ways of telling the difference between a boar's south. Listen
(07:54):
to people like Myron. Listen to outfitters whenever they tell
you some of these old things where hunters will tell
you old school, old wives tales on how to tell
the difference between a boarders take it all with a
grain of salt, Analyze it, use your brain. Hope this
(08:14):
helps you. Hope you're getting ready for the season, and
we'll see you again next week.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Take care, bye, Thank you for listening. The Bear Hunting
Magazine Hunt Cast is recorded by Bear Hunting Magazine and
produced by Mountain Gravity Media. Be sure leave us a
five star review on iTunes and keep guarding the caked
Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast with me
Kobe Moorehead. We're gonna nerd out on bears hunting and
the outdoors. We'll tell stories, talk biology, tactics, gear, and
the fight to protect the pursuits that we hold here.
So grab your bino's, lace up your boots, load up
your barrels, and gather the hounds we venture on this
journey together. Welcome to today's episode of the Bear Hunting Magazine
(00:42):
Hunt Cast. Today, this one's gonna be a b HM short,
just real short, to the point. We're gonna talk about
one topic and as soon as we're done with that,
have a great weekend. So today we're joined by Myron Means,
the large carnivore biologist here in Arkansas. We're talking about
(01:03):
how to tell the difference between a boor and a cell,
and not just the things to look for, but how
to think about it. It's one thing to know the
different list of things that people look for. It's another
thing to understand how to think. So today when you're listening,
concentrate on learning how to think so that in the future,
(01:23):
if somebody talks to you about a bore versus a cell,
you could break it down inside of your own mind
and you don't have to just remember a list like
you're getting ready to take a test. All right, we're
gonna keep this one short. Let's get to it. Here's mine.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, there's some there's some real key anatomical features that
will differentiate males from females. I mean, of course, I've
looked at thousands and thousands and thousands of bears over
the over my career and everything, and I'm pretty good
at spotting one from a game campick and determine if
(02:06):
it's a male or female. But you have to you
have to think in terms of general anatomy of humans.
And now I'm speaking general anatomy here. Males typically are
built bigger in the shoulders and the biceps and the forearms,
in the hands, in the neck and all that. And
(02:30):
in the animal world, animals are built the same way,
especially bears. Male bears are built heavy in the shoulders,
in the arms, in the chest and the neck and
the head, and they're built heavier in that part of
the anatomy for one thing, for fighting, for competing for
(02:52):
females breeding rights, and they do. It's vicious battles. You
see these males that have you know, that are ten
twelve years old, and they have broke noses, they have
split ears, they have eyes that are gouged out, they
have teeth that are missing. I mean, they have huge
puncture you know, scars all over their neck, their shoulders,
(03:15):
their forearms. I mean, they fight for breeding rights, and
females don't have to fight for breeding rights. They don't
have to fight at all. Females are built. They don't
have to have broad shoulders, big arms, big front feet,
big thick necks, you know. So females are always built
(03:38):
heavyer towards the back end for reproducing, for carrying you know,
milk and memory glends and everything like that. So if
you're looking at general anatomy and you look at just
the body part of a bear, males tend to always
be rectangular shaped in the body part. Female bears tend
(04:01):
to be more pear shaped, heavier towards the back end.
The neck is always a dead giveaway to me. You know,
males have in proportion to their body, they have big necks.
You know, a lot of big males you can't even
put a radio collar on because their neck is bigger
(04:21):
than their head. You know, their radio car will just
slip right off, you know. And so, but females don't
have to have big necks. They don't have long necks.
Females tend to be kind of short and squatty. You know,
they have a short, compacted frame. They have very narrow wrists,
(04:41):
they have small front feet, and if you can see
them from like a straight on profile, invariably their legs
will always taper from the sho taper to the wrist.
Yea where males a lot of times they don't taper much.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Stove putt.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, it's more of a stovepipe. Look. I mean they
have big, huge forearms, but they also have big biceps
and forearms, and it goes down to big wide front foot,
wide front feet, big hands.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And if and you know, obviously by size, I mean
you know you can you can look at a camera
and obviously, if you got one that looks like the
size of a Volts wagon and his bellies dragging the ground,
I mean it's obviously a male. You know, males in
Arkansas get five hundred plus pretty easily with good forage
(05:36):
and age. But you know, a three hundred pounds female
is a huge female. Average size of an adult female
in Arkansas is one hundred I'm going to say in
winter time in den cycle one hundred and seventy five
to two hundred and twenty five pounds. Yeah, two hundred
(05:58):
and twenty five pounds is a big female.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, that's a sign about the size of the female
we pulled out. Yeah, on the Den visit I went
on this year.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, And I mean I've done Den trips before where
they're in there with you yearling and at first glance,
it's almost hard to tell which one's a big, healthy,
strapping yearling in the female. Yeah, that's how small females
can be. And but you know it's once you get
past those past that three hundred pound mark, it's pretty
(06:28):
easy to determine it's a male. It's going to be
a male.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know, seeing a three hundred pound plus female on
the landscape, I won't say it won't happen, especially in
the late fall or in the early fall or late summer. Man,
that's a rarity. That's a rare bird right there. Three
hundred pound female walking around.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
All right. I hope you liked it, and don't be
discouraged if you have a hard time telling the difference
between a boar or a sal. And here's a word
the wise. I don't believe just anybody that they can
tell the difference between a bar or south. Like Myron said,
he's seen thousands of bears, and he's not only seam bears,
(07:10):
but he's verified afterwards with working with these bears. The
same thing with a lot of outfitters. They see so
many bears on their cameras and then whenever they have
hunters take bears there, they're able to verify if they
were a ride or not, and you kind of develop
a sense of whether it's a boar or sal. But
(07:32):
a juvenile bear is really hard to tell once they
get older. And like Myron said, like if it's over
three hundred, it's most likely a bore. It is something
that gets developed with time and the amount of bears
that you see. So don't just take any Joe Blows
ways of telling the difference between a boar's south. Listen
(07:54):
to people like Myron. Listen to outfitters whenever they tell
you some of these old things where hunters will tell
you old school, old wives tales on how to tell
the difference between a boarders take it all with a
grain of salt, Analyze it, use your brain. Hope this
(08:14):
helps you. Hope you're getting ready for the season, and
we'll see you again next week.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Take care, bye, Thank you for listening. The Bear Hunting
Magazine Hunt Cast is recorded by Bear Hunting Magazine and
produced by Mountain Gravity Media. Be sure leave us a
five star review on iTunes and keep guarding the caked
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