In Search of Bigfoot

I first learned of the enormous black bear dubbed "Bigfoot" in the mid-1980s.

By all reports the bear had a tremendous bulk, one traveler swearing that its shoulder stood as high as the hood on his Nissan 4-wheel drive pickup. Estimated size of this animal ran to 700 pounds or more, and observers always identified this particular bruin as having a face and chest patch of a greyish-white color, perhaps belying its age.

Many good-sized bears are spotted annually by road travelers, trappers, hunters and fishermen, but few can measure up to this huge bruin which was observed on many occasions in Central Newfoundland near a remote highland area known as the Buchans Plateau.

Jim Hefford, once a specialized spring bear outfitter and now retired, is familiar with the bear. He and a few of his more skilled non-resident hunters have seen the bruin, but the crafty animal was always a step ahead of them and avoided being taken.

Hefford measured its rear paw print the morning after it had hit one of his bait stations, and it was more than 12 inches in length. Heavy logs covering the bait from fox and other hungry varmints were tossed aside like toothpicks. It was Hefford who named the animal "Bigfoot", and little wonder!

U.S. hunter Bob Verzi of Westminister, Maryland, saw the hoary-faced bruin while hunting over one of Hefford's baits in May of 1988, and tried a bowshot that missed the animal.

Verzi described the bear as "a monster" that would probably weigh in at better than 800 pounds. He was so excited that he returned to hunt with Hefford in September of that same year. He wanted another try at the trophy bear, this time with a rifle.

Later that autumn week Verzi bagged a much smaller bruin of some 300 pounds after four hours in a tree stand, but hadn't given up on the monster bear.

"I'll be back again for another try at 'Bigfoot'," Verzi vowed at the time. "That has to be a world record bear, and I'm going to try it with the bow again. You know, I've hunted bears back home in the States and in Ontario, but I don't think anything can compare to the bear hunting here in Newfoundland."

It was the size of Newfoundland's bruins that also lured bowhunter Kevin Lilly of Lewiston, Maine, to hunt on the island in 1988 for his second year in a row. Lilly was hunting over bait with outfitter Don Stowe in the spring of 1987 at his camp on Adies Lake in the Silver Mountains area. He spotted 28 black bears during his one-week stay, but couldn't get a clear shot at what he considered a trophy animal.

Lilly described several of the bruins as simply "huge", and went back home to Maine full of exciting stories which flowed over to his dad, fellow bowhunter Ernest Lilly. It wasn't long before father had decided to join son and see for himself if the tales of Newfoundland bears were true.

The senior Lilly climbed into one of Stowe's tree stands in late May, 1988, at 7 p.m. and a little over 50 minutes later, on his first night out, a large male came into the bait.

Ernest shot one arrow from close range which entered the chest cavity, severing several arteries in the process. The bruin walked about 20 feet, turned and pulled the arrow out with his teeth, and walked another 150 yards before dropping.

The trophy spring bear was estimated to weigh more than 450 pounds, it had a skull measurement of over 20 inches, and measured seven feet three inches from nose to tip of tail. It was a Pope and Young trophy, taken less than an hour into the hunt.

In the spirit of competition, son Kevin passed up eleven shots to wait for a specimen larger than his dad's record-book bruin. Although eight of the eleven were estimated to have exceeded the P & Y standard, he couldn't get a clear shot at anything large enough to beat his dad.

Why would bowhunters from Maine, with an estimated 23,000 black bears roaming the state, travel all the way to Newfoundland to hunt the same species they could hunt in their own backyard?

"It's the relative size of the bears here," says Don Stowe. "Maine hunters tell me they've never seen such a concentration of big bears in their lives. Maine might have more bears in terms of quantity, but we sure have the quality."

Wildlife biologist Shane Mahoney, the province's black bear expert, suspects there may be a predisposition to large body size by the island's bruins due to factors of isolation, a lack of hunting pressure, and bountiful food supply. These, coupled with a lack of predator competition, permit the bears to grow very large..

"We may have a situation here similar to that of the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia, where the bruins have lived in isolation and have developed genetically large body sizes," mused Mahoney. "We are continually researching bear data, and hope eventually to be able to confirm this theory."

Mahoney feels the lack of hunting pressure has been a major factor in bruin development.

"Residents have traditionally looked upon the black bear as a pest or nuisance, assuming that there were only a few of these animals and that they generally frequented dumps or cabins where there was a ready supply of food. The Newfoundland black bear was looked upon with disdain, and given little credibility as a big game animal."

Research by Mahoney and other biologists, both in Newfoundland and in other parts of Canada, have proven the black bear to be a surprisingly efficient predator, accounting for high percentages of moose and caribou calf mortality in test areas.

Newfoundland bruins were found to be efficient killers, taking as high as 45% of moose calves and up to 15% of woodland caribou calves in study areas during the spring season. This was an alarming statistic, for biologists had not previously considered the black bear to be such a major factor in island big game management.

Even more surprising, in some caribou herds the black bears accounted for some 30 to 40% of all adult mortality!

The usual bear modus operandi was evident in adult caribou carcasses. In a typical black bear attack, a hole had been opened in the rib cage, the animal eviscerated, and finally turned inside out as all nourishment was removed. Little was left but the skin and bones of these large caribou.

Field observers, primarily big game humters, reported some incidents of bear and moose encounters, in which black bears had attacked and dispatched mature bull and cow moose.

One alert hunter related a particularly gruesome account of a large bull moose,

partially disemboweled and its exposed innards dangling, being chased and harassed by a black bear about one-third its size, eventually succumbing to the bear's continued attacks.

Hunter statistics were also eye openers for Mahoney and other Wildlife officials.

Reports of spring bears weighing in excess of 500 pounds being taken by local hunters were not uncommon, and during the 1985 spring hunt two bears of 580 pounds and 670 pounds were shot. In subsequent years similar data has emerged from hunter reports and license returns..

Snaring studies by Wildlife Division also recorded extremely large body sizes for black bears. In their tiny study area in central Newfoundland, three of seven bears which were snared, weighed and collared for monitoring either approached or exceeded 500 pounds - and these were spring weights! By autumn these bruins would have weighed about 700 pounds!

Black bear populations on the island were originally estimated to be some 3,000 to 6,000 animals, but densities in the Wildlife Division's snaring area have been determined at 1 bear per two square kilometers, and densities reported by some outfitters who have been baiting regularly are startling. Mahoney thinks the estimates may have to be raised quite a bit higher.

The excitement of Verzi, the two Lillys, and other hunters who challenge these animals with primitive weapons is easy to understand.

Anyone who has hunted bears from a tree stand over bait can relate the experience. Anticipation builds as the sun wanes and evening approaches, for this is when black bears seem most active.

Adrenalin flows at each little snap of twig, each rustle of leaves, each far off crack as a heavy weight falls upon a dry log somewhere in the deep woods.

It is then that the primitive weapon hunter recalls the stories of moose and caribou being taken down by a swipe of a paw, and realizes the relative danger he is facing from his perch a scant four yards above the ground.

The hair on his neck raises and his stomach knots with the realization that the approaching animal could be a massive 700 pound black bear - possibly even "Bigfoot" - and suddenly the weapon in his hands seems woefully inadequate!

Hearts pump even stronger then, for when hunting black bears in Newfoundland - you never know what will show up!

For information about specialized outfitters who provide hunting packages for Newfoundland black bear, write or call for your free copy of "Newfoundland and Labrador Hunting and Fishing", available from:

Tourism Branch

Department of Tourism, Culture & Recreation

P. O. Box 8700

St. John's Nfld.

A1B 4J6

Tel. 1-800-563-6353 (Toll Free)

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