Hi and lows like anything around rocky in the baiting zones I belive it was slow.  On my afternoon ride today could hardly keep the dog off point on ruff grouse.  This area is defontly on a low grouse cycle so a good spring would be great.  A buddie of mine in PG this spring on a 5 day grizz hunt saw 60 plus blacks and 15 grizz I am waiting for him to send me the pics.

Doug , I don't think the berry crop has to do with the mortality.  The thing that kills the bears is the lack of snow.  They need the snow cover to cover the dens which keeps them warmer.  Young bears are not great at learning the ropes at denning and may not get a good den site and with real cold winters they are more exposed if there is less snow around.  It makes sense that there should have been a higher chance for bear deaths last year with the lack of snow we got in some areas. 

That being said I don't know how to really calculate how well they are doing.  Spring weather is different every year.  A lot of seeing them has to do with how things green up.  I know my buddy went out one evening and saw 8 bears from 4pm and dark.  When I go out spot and stalk I never leave camp to go hunt till 4pm at the earliest as it seem the bears don't move till late afternoon.  It has worked well in the past.  Usually go fishing in the morning and then go.  Never seen a bear early morning before myself.  Not that it isn't possible but never had much luck is all. 

I was told this theory by a bear outfitter that used to do a lot of side studies with bears.  I am not sure how valid it is but I have heard it from one other guy as well and it makes sense.  I too have found bear dens when I was guiding and it is surprising how small and shallow a lot of them are.  Like I said the young bears don't know better and need some experience.  I think their lack of experience sometimes kills them the first go  around though. 

Young bears are not great at learning the ropes at denning and may not get a good den site and with real cold winters they are more exposed if there is less snow around.  It makes sense that there should have been a higher chance for bear deaths last year with the lack of snow we got in some areas.

While in Alberta hunting last week I noticed two different yearlings with no ears at all ... just little white outlines where the edges of the ears would normally begin. I asked my outfitter about it and he said exactly the same thing - the younger bears aren't real experienced at picking out good denning locations and these cubs probably had their ears literally freeze off because of exposure.