Michigan’s Bear Season Produced Absolute Monsters: 2025 Harvest Report

If Michigan's 2025 bear season were a gym membership, the Upper Peninsula clearly never skipped leg day. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports a big, burly, berry-paid-off kind of year, with nearly 2,000 black bears harvested statewide and an eye-popping number tipping the scales like furry Ford Festivas.

A Heavyweight Year for Michigan Bears

Hunters tagged 1,952 bears, which is just above the 5-year average, but the real headline came out of the U.P., where apparently bears are now built like refrigerators. At the Escanaba area DNR check stations alone, officials recorded around 20 Bears over 400 lb and 8 pushing past 500 lb. That's not a bear. That's a couch with teeth.

RELATED: 2025's Bear Surge in Michigan: DNR Issues Safety Tips

The Upper Peninsula, home to 83% of Michigan's black bears, accounted for 1,522 harvests, while the lower Peninsula added 430. The U.P. remains Bear Central, and the bears clearly had an excellent buffet this year.

Why Upper Peninsula Bears Are So Big

DNR biologists say the surge in heavyweight bears points to strong food sources such as berries and vegetation, along with years of careful bear management. Michigan's black bear population sits around 12,500 statewide, and regulated hunting remains the main tool keeping that number healthy and balanced.

100 Years of Bear Hunting in Michigan

This season also marked 100 Years of regulated bear hunting in Michigan, with license demand at an all-time high. A century in, the system's working, the bears are thriving, and apparently, some of them are thriving a little too well. Big woods. Big bears. Pure Michigan stories.