Alaska, 2026-27 season year

Alaska Bear Season 2026-27

Q: Does Alaska have a spring bear season in 2027?

No. Alaska prints no separate spring black bear season. The dated unit rows run from late summer straight through June, and much of the state has no closed season, so spring is already inside the season above rather than outside it. Spring bear seasons are mostly a western pattern, and the national page lists the states that hold one in 2027.

Q: Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Alaska?

Alaska Department of Fish and Game, on its page titled Living With Bears, which is linked from the agency notice on this page. That page is the agency's own guidance for Alaska residents on attractants, encounters and who to call, and its sentence on fall activity is quoted verbatim beside the link, read on September 19, 2026.

Q: Where are the rest of the Alaska bear hunting rules?

At Alaska Department of Fish and Game, whose regulations page is linked on this page. Those rules are legally binding, change annually and vary by zone and land ownership; the permit and tag system, zone maps, methods and reporting requirements are all published there. This page carries the season windows themselves, with the source page and read date attached.

In fall, brown and black bears are most commonly found on large rivers for salmon and associated riparian forest areas for roots, late berries and fruits. In the Interior, bears focus on alpine and subalpine berry patches.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Black Bear: August 20, 2026 to June 30, 2027, plus units the agency lists as year-round. People report black bears in Alaska most in July, and 11 percent of all reports fall in September, October and November. Everything below is Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s own words and dates, read on September 19, 2026, beside the record of what people reported.

This page covers the 2026-27 season year. Dates were read from the agency sources linked below, last checked September 19, 2026. Seasons change annually and agencies correct their own pages; confirm against the linked agency page before you hunt.

August 20, 2026 to June 30, 2027, plus units the agency lists as year-round

Black Bear

published

No season

Archery bear season

no season

No season

Spring bear season

no season

July

Busiest reported month

1,774 reports on record

Fall activity

When black bears are most active in Alaska

The department puts about 100,000 black bears in Alaska, and they range over most of the forested part of the state, sea level to alpine depending on the month. They are absent from the Seward Peninsula, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and everything north of the Brooks Range, from several of the big Gulf of Alaska islands including Kodiak, Montague and Hinchinbrook, and from the Alaska Peninsula south of the Lake Iliamna area. In Southeast they hold most islands except Admiralty, Baranof, Chichagof and Kruzof, which are brown bear islands. Brown bears, the same species as the grizzly, live across the state as well.

The bars count research grade American black bear observations people uploaded to iNaturalist for Alaska, by calendar month, across every year the platform holds. The busiest month in the record is July, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by September. The drop into winter reflects bears denning and fewer people outdoors in equal measure, which is why the agency’s sentences below, not the curve, carry the timing.

1,774 research grade American black bear observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Alaska across every year the platform holds, and 11 percent of them fall in the three shaded fall months. The busiest month in the record is July, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by September. These are counts of what people reported, so they measure observers as well as bears; they are not a population, not a survey and not a statement about this autumn. See the records on iNaturalist.

Research grade black bear reports uploaded for Alaska by year, 2016 to 2025: 32 in 2016 and 228 in 2025. Most of the climb is the platform itself growing, and every species on it shows the same shape, so this is a record of reporting rather than a population trend.

What Alaska Department of Fish and Game says

Fall feeding

In fall, brown and black bears are most commonly found on large rivers for salmon and associated riparian forest areas for roots, late berries and fruits. In the Interior, bears focus on alpine and subalpine berry patches.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Denning

Bears enter this dormancy period in the fall, after most food items become hard to find. They emerge in the spring when food is again available. Occasionally, in the more southern ranges, bears will emerge from their dens during winter. In the northern part of their range, bears may be dormant for as long as seven to eight months.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

When conflicts and sightings rise

Living in a state with large predators comes with responsibilities. In order to maintain healthy bear populations and reduce conflicts with bears, certain precautions should be taken. Whether it is keeping the garbage at your home secure, or maintaining a clean campsite, your behavior often dictates the bear's behavior.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

A young black bear resting its chin on a bare dead branch in a green hardwood forest, ears forward, looking at the camera — A young black bear on a dead limb in the hardwoods. In the eastern forests the fall feeding season runs on acorns and beechnuts, which is why the agency sentences quoted on these pages talk about hard mast and mast years. Photo: Courtney Celley, USFWS. “Black Bear (20083897724)”, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain

Hunting dates

Alaska bear seasons, 2026-27

Alaska Department of Fish and Game dates American black bear and brown bear, including grizzly seasons under its own names, and each is below under that name with the zone rows exactly as the agency lists them, the source page linked beside each table, and the date it was read.

Black Bear

published

Black Bear is OPEN now in the Unit 1, through June 30, 2027, with 7 zone segments open.

Alaska black bear, as published by Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Zone	Opens	Closes	Notes
Unit 1	September 1, 2026	June 30, 2027
Unit 2	September 1, 2026	June 30, 2027
Unit 3	September 1, 2026	June 30, 2027
Unit 5	September 1, 2026	June 30, 2027
Units 6A and 6B	August 20, 2026	June 30, 2027
Unit 6C	September 1, 2026	June 30, 2027
Unit 6D	September 10, 2026	June 10, 2027
Unit 7	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 9	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 11	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 12	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 13	Open year-round, per the agency
Units 14A and 14B	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 14C	Open year-round, per the agency		The management areas around Anchorage, Eagle River and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson each carry their own shorter window, and several of them are closed; the department prints that detail in the Unit 14 table.
Unit 15	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 16	Open year-round, per the agency		The strip within a mile of the mouth of Wolverine Creek runs Sep 15 to May 31 instead.
Unit 17	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 18	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 19	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 20	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 21	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 22	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 23	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 24	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 25	Open year-round, per the agency
Unit 26	Open year-round, per the agency

Dates read from Alaska Hunting Regulations, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, accessed 2026-09-19.

Alaska runs its black bear seasons by game management unit, and the regulatory year runs July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, which is why the dated rows cross into 2027. Most of the Interior, the Southwest and the North have no closed season at all, so those rows read year-round. Units 4, 8 and 10 carry no black bear season because black bears do not live there; Unit 4 is the Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof island group, Unit 8 is Kodiak, and Unit 10 covers the Aleutians and Unimak. Each row is the unit's general framing; the department prints subarea detail in its own unit tables.

Archery bear season

no season

Alaska holds no separately dated archery bear season. Alaska does not print a separate archery black bear season. The unit rows above are the whole calendar, and the handful of areas near Anchorage that are limited by method sit inside Unit 14C rather than in a season of their own. Source: Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Spring bear season

no season

Alaska holds no spring bear season. Alaska prints no separate spring black bear season. The dated unit rows run from late summer straight through June, and much of the state has no closed season, so spring is already inside the season above rather than outside it. Source: Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The agency's own season sentence

Black bears (Ursus americanus) are the most abundant and widely distributed of the three species of North American bears.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Current Alaska regulations

Permit and tag requirements, zone maps, permitted methods, tagging and reporting, and everything else a bear hunter is bound by for Alaska are set by Alaska Department of Fish and Game, are legally binding and change annually. Its current regulations page is linked here.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game: current regulations

A black bear track pressed into wet grey mud, five rounded toes in an arc above a broad pad, with a second fainter print beside it — A black bear track in mud in Shenandoah National Park. Tracks, scat, turned over logs and claw marks on smooth beech bark are the sign most people meet in the fall woods, weeks before they meet the bear. Photo: M. Punches, NPS. “Black Bear Track in Mud (44654784885)”, ShenandoahNPS, Public domain

Bear season in other states

Alaska deer seasonArchery, firearms, muzzleloader and youth deer windows for 2026-27, under the same sourcing rules.Alaska small game seasonPheasant, quail, grouse, rabbit and squirrel openers, read from the same agency.Alaska foraging calendarThe acorns, beechnuts and berries the agency names as fall bear food are the same mast a forager follows.

An adult black bear standing on a broken limb high in a hardwood tree above two small cubs, all three looking down — A mother black bear and two cubs of the year in a hardwood tree. The denning sentences quoted on the state pages describe when family groups like this one go to ground, and it moves by weeks between a Gulf Coast winter and a northern one. Photo: Courtney Celley, USFWS. “Black Bear Family (20083894064)”, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain

Alaska bear season questions

When are black bears most active in Alaska in the fall?

In the observation record for Alaska, research grade black bear reports peak in July and 11 percent of all 1,774 reports fall in September, October and November. Alaska Department of Fish and Game describes the fall feeding period in its own words, quoted on this page with a link to the page it came from. Reports count people as well as bears, so the shape of the curve is the useful part and the exact numbers are not.

When does bear season open in Alaska in 2026-27?

Does Alaska have a spring bear season in 2027?

When do black bears go into dens in Alaska?

Alaska Department of Fish and Game describes the denning timing for Alaska in the sentence quoted on this page, read on September 19, 2026 from the page linked beside it. In the observation record, reports fall below 40 percent of the July peak by September and reach their low in January. That drop reflects bears denning and fewer people outdoors in equal measure, which is why the agency's sentence, not the curve, is the denning answer.

Are black bear sightings in Alaska increasing?

The number of research grade black bear reports uploaded for Alaska went from 32 in 2016 to 228 in 2025. Most of that rise is the platform itself growing, since every species on iNaturalist shows the same climb, so the year bars on this page are a record of reporting rather than a population trend. Alaska Department of Fish and Game describes when sightings and conflicts rise in Alaska in the sentence quoted on this page.

Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Alaska?

Where are the rest of the Alaska bear hunting rules?

A brown wooden Bear Country sign with a white bear pictogram and a red band, on two posts at the edge of a lodgepole pine campground in low sun — A Bear Country sign at Indian Creek Campground, Yellowstone. The land manager writes the rules on the board, and they change by campground and by season: food storage orders, closed drainages, and whether a soft sided tent is allowed at all. “Bear Country Sign for Indian Creek (14457698423)”, Yellowstone National Park from Yellowstone NP, USA, Public domain

A snow covered track running between pines bent low under heavy snow, with a strip of blue sky above — Midwinter at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Maine. This is denning season in the north; each agency's own sentence on when its bears enter and leave their dens is quoted on the state pages, and the month bars show the reports thinning to match. “Winter at Moosehorn (11714166893)”, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region, Public domain

This page covers the 2026-27 season year with agency data read on September 19, 2026 and an iNaturalist record to September 19, 2026. Every sentence about bear behaviour is Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s own, quoted exactly with a link to its page; every season window is republished from the agency page linked beside it, and windows the agency had not yet published are labelled not yet published. The month bars count what members of the public reported and are not a population. See also the national bear season guide.