Willie Allen of Outback Outfitters is one of several guides catering to bear hunters in the northeastern part of North Carolina. This bear was taken in Hyde County. Photo by Mike Marsh.

Mark Jones is the North Carolina Wildlife Commission's bear biologist. While he works with black bear data and checks hunters in the field routinely, one of his most exciting encounters with bears occurred during the spring 2007 wild turkey season. The encounter happened the day before Jones was interviewed for this article and his voice still rose, giving hints of the adrenaline rush he received at seeing bears acting naturally at close range.

"I was turkey hunting and had been calling to a gobbler," Jones said. "I was sitting with the gun ready to shoot and saw this black thing coming through the woods. I said to myself, 'I got you now, old boy.' But whatever it was had four legs instead of two. The bear got really close and once I started really looking around, I saw she had two of last year's cubs with her. They were nearly grown and it was getting to be time for her to chase them off to start her new family. I don't know if she was coming to sounds I made with the turkey call, but after that, I sure didn't hear anything else out of the turkey."

Bears are curious, especially when it comes to squeaky noises like turkey hen calls. In Western states, hunters routinely use predator calls to locate or attract bears. When what Jones expected to see had four legs instead of two and then went on to become 12 legs, his adrenaline started pumping. A sow defending her cubs can make for a ticklish situation, especially if she thinks the makings of her next meal is sitting under the tree your back happens to be leaning against.

"She was definitely on a mission, but something was bothering her," Jones said. "I've heard of people having coyotes and bobcats come up on them while they are calling turkeys. She acted like a turkey hunter and she was looking up in the trees. But it still may have just been coincidence that she happened to be coming that way and not responding to the turkey call. It was really neat to see them up close like that. Eventually, she turned around and went back the way she came from."

Not so long ago, such encounters were extremely rare anywhere in the state. Not only were there no turkeys in the Coastal Plain, black bears were just as rare.

However, the place where Jones was hunting was along the Neuse River floodplain in Craven County. The area currently has one of the highest bear densities in the state and also the nation and happens to be the location of some of the biggest black bears to be found anywhere in the world, as well.

Usually between one and three bears topping 700 pounds are taken by hunters along the coast of North Carolina each season. Last season, Jones didn't hear of any. Biologists visit hunters at the kill site of approximately 25 to 30 percent of all coastal bears annually, thanks to the "Bear Hotline." Hunters can call the commission's Division of Enforcement violations reporting number at (800) 662-7137, the first week of the bear season in each region and the dispatcher relays the information to biologists of the commission's Division of Wildlife Management in the field. The biologists try to get to as many kills as possible to take measurements and weights, then extract a tooth from each bear and the ovaries from the females for obtaining age and reproduction data.

"I heard of a few 600-pound bears being harvested in the coastal counties during the 2006 season," Jones said. "The coastal region traditionally produces the largest bears."

Jones said agriculture is the key to the size and densities of coastal bear populations. Bears use the thick swamps, pocosins and young pine plantations for cover. Their natural foods are grubs, insects and any other small animal that presents the opportunity, even carrion in the form of road kills or game animals wounded and not recovered by hunters or gut piles left in the woods by deer hunters. They are, however, largely vegetarian, feeding on seeds, berries and nuts of many species. Wild blueberries, huckleberries, blackberries, acorns, hickory nuts and blackgum or water tupelo drupes make up some of their preferred natural food source, essentially acting as candy to bears.

However, agricultural crops, including milo, corn, soybeans, wheat and rye are what make the difference in the size of coastal bears. Bears feeding on these crops have an advantage over mountain bears.

"In the mountains, if there's a poor mast year, with few acorns, bears have to move around more to find food," Jones said. "Bear hunting in the mountains is mostly done with hounds. If the bears move more, it's easier for the hounds to find their scent trails. On the coast if there's a poor mast year, bears just switch to farm crops. The alternative food is readily available and is high in nutrition. A bear can pack on a lot of weight quickly in a corn field."

Coastal bear hunting is an expensive way of hunting. Leases for bear hunting rights can run from $20 to $80 per acre. Only 6 percent of coastal bears are taken from the commission's game lands. It's not because there are no bears on game lands. It's because compared with the mountains, there is much less public hunting land.

"Croatan Game Land has lots of bears," Jones said. "Sometimes hunters experience good success at Holly Shelter Game Land. Van Swamp is a good spot and Chowan Swamp is another good place."