Rodney Tischer with his 144-lb. She-bear from Twigs County. With Rodney is his son Gauge.
The temperature was a crisp 38 degrees, the wind was calm and the sky was partly cloudy as the sun rose over central Georgia for the annual one-day bear hunt in Houston, Twiggs, Bibb and Bleckley counties. The good weather meant the bears should be on the move, and Sam Land of Swainsboro sat patiently in his Twiggs County game pen, gazing out at the partially cleared rows of pines at the 1,700-acre Double 00 Hunting Club. After a short wait, he saw a 194-pound. Bear slipping through the pines and as he crossed an opening he dropped him with his 6.5 Creedmoor Rifle.
All bears killed in this particular hunt must be taken to the WMA Control Station in Oaky Woods for inspection. WRD biologist Bobby Bond pulled a tooth to age the bear, while UGA student Ben Carr used pliers to pull out a strand of hair, so DNA would be retrieved. Previous research has shown that Central Georgia bears do not breed with North or South Georgia bears, so over time this small population became genetically isolated due to habitat loss.
During the bear hunt in central Georgia that took place on December 17, researchers collected information from bears they had taken.
Also at the control station was Rosmarie Kelly, a Georgia Public Health Entomologist, who checked the bears for ticks. Bears carry ticks, but not in large numbers. She had to search to find ticks and they were all black-legged ticks that have the potential to transmit Lyme disease. Overall, deer carry many more ticks than bears, and all warm-blooded animals have the potential to carry and spread ticks, she says.
The one day bear hunt is a private country hunt with Oaky Woods and Ocmulgee WMAs closed for bear hunting. A total of 10 bears were killed during the hunt, giving Central Georgia hunters a unique opportunity to bag a bear without much travel time. Jesse Winn shot his 153-pound. female bear at the Oaky Woods Family Hunting Club in Houston County. Jesse was sitting in his booth around 5:15 p.m. when the bear wandered into an overgrown patch of watermelons that had recently been planted with pine trees. He dropped the bear with his 7mm Magnum rifle. Interestingly, Jesse had some trail cam photos in his mace of a bear that had learned to climb a tree to get to a feeding station that was suspended from a steel cable. He called it “circus bear”. It climbed the tree and used its arm and claws to work the wire to the feeder and attack it. He says bears can be pretty smart.
At the Bear Creek Hunting Club in Twiggs County, Will Bryson of Atlanta was in his box stand overlooking several intersecting game trails when a 122-lb. Bear went to his shooting range. He lined it up with his 6.5 Creedmoor rifle and had his first bear. Will is an economics student at UGA and has been out hunting with his father Chris and friend John Bridges, who was a guest at the club and has a 145-lb. female bear.
Chris Bryson (left) displays a 145-lb. Female owned by John Bridges, a guest at Bear Creek Hunting Club in Twiggs County. At right is his son Will Bryson with his 122-lb. male bear from the same club.
Airguns can be deadly killers of bears, deer, and other big game. Just ask Donald Wainwright from Florida. He dropped 122 pounds. male bears at a 600-acre hunting club near the Houston County Landfill. He used an Air Force brand airgun loaded with a 345-grain lead pellet.
Donald Wainwright shot this 122-lb. male bear with an Air Force brand airgun at a hunting club near Houston County Land Fill.
Todd Sherman of Marietta was hunting at the Promised Land Hunting Club in Twiggs County when the capricious hand of fate smiled at him. He was chasing his deer stand and surveying a feeding station, as an 87-pound. The male bear walked out and hit it with his .270 Weatherby Magnum rifle.
Another Twigs County bear fell to Rodney Tischer from Kathleen. As he walked to his elevated deer stand overlooking a green feeding ground, he thought he saw a bear grazing in the field. He climbed into the stand and sure enough, he aimed his scope at the black object, confirmed it was a legal bear over 75 pounds, and pulled the trigger on his .30-06 rifle. He hunted with his son Gauge and his good friend Hudson Warden. At the control station, the bear’s weight was confirmed to be 144 pounds.
James Germundsen of Perry was chasing a power line clearing when a large bear headed out of the dense forest towards a pecan orchard. He dropped the 175 pounds. male bear with his .308 rifle.
Macon’s Jason Ponegalek proved that staying positive and never giving up can bring good results. He was sitting in a deer pen all morning in Twiggs County, seeing nothing and thinking it was going to be a fruitless day, when he started walking around and found a forest trail with a fairly wide view. He decided to just watch the trail for a while, and around 5:30 a.m. a bear came out and he pierced it with a bullet from his .308 rifle. He says he was in the right place at the right time!
A recent bear was killed by Jim Daucette of Melbourne, Florida. It was a large female weighing 251 pounds caught in Houston County.
One item Georgia WRD will be discussing at January’s public meetings regarding the 2023-25 hunting regulations is a possible extension of the one-day bear season to a two-day season if the first-day kill is not excessive. More about these meetings and how to comment see GON.com/news/wrd-seekspublic-comment-for-2023-25-hunt-regulations.
Deciding whether to expand this one-day hunt is complicated. The question is whether a small bear population can withstand the pressure of hunting and the loss of breeding females. WRD biologist Bobby Bond says the bear population in central Georgia is still around 300 bears, but a firm number is very difficult to scientifically pinpoint. It is probably the smallest bear population in the US that is hunted. UGA bear researcher Ben Carr is currently studying the movements of five newly tagged bears and hopefully his findings, which will be released in 2025, can help shed more light on the bear population in central Georgia.
Bear researcher Mike Hooker found that the central Georgia population could lose only 11 females to all causes of loss (hunting, highway killing, poaching, etc.) without seriously harming the overall population. With recent road traffic kills in the high teens most years, and combined with hunting losses, the number of female bear breeding casualties is already at or may exceed the 11 allowable female bear kills. That year, however, road fatalities were below average, with only six bear losses reported as road fatalities.
Looking back to 2021, casualties to bear killings on the road totaled 19 and hunting losses six, for a total of 25. Central Georgia’s bear population faces future challenges from the planned expansion of Highway 96 from two four tracks in Houston and Twiggs counties. This could increase the number of road deaths, although it is hoped that a fence and underground tunnels could reduce the number of road deaths.
Another issue is that about 8% of the male bear population in central Georgia could have a reproductive issue where the testicles won’t descend and they may become sterile, but more research is needed on this issue. There has been some discussion about capturing other male bears from North or South Georgia populations and releasing them in Central Georgia, but no action has been taken to date.
Regardless of the outcome of the public hearings on these increased bear hunting opportunities in central Georgia, I am confident that the Georgia WRD will base its findings on sound management practices that will ensure the long-term viability of central Georgia’s bear population.
It takes a lot of staff to pull off the bear hunt in mid Georgia, so in addition to the DNR staff mentioned in this story, we salute Ocmulgee WMA Area Manager Tommy Shover, Oaky Woods WMA Area Manager Nathan Crowe, Law Enforcement Die Rangers David Fisher and Jason Bennett who conducted this hunt. Congratulations to all successful bear hunters!
This 194-pound. Wife was taken from Sam Land in Twigs County.
