Massachusetts, 2026-27 season year

Massachusetts Bear Season 2026-27

Q: When does bear season open in Massachusetts in 2026-27?

Black bear season: September 7, 2026 to December 12, 2026. Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) publishes these dates and the full zone tables on this page were read from its own page on September 19, 2026.

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

No. Massachusetts holds no spring bear season. MassWildlife's season framework runs from Labor Day until the end of the shotgun deer season, and its 2026 dates table carries nothing outside that fall window. Spring bear seasons are mostly a western pattern, and the national page lists the states that hold one in 2027.

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

At Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), 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 summer, they take advantage of ripening berries and can often be found in thick regenerating forest stands where berries are often found. Ripened corn and stands of oak, beech, and hickory trees are favored foods in the fall.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife)

Black bear season: September 7, 2026 to December 12, 2026. People report black bears in Massachusetts most in May, and 18 percent of all reports fall in September, October and November. Everything below is Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife)’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.

September 7, 2026 to December 12, 2026

Black bear season

published

No season

Archery bear season

no season

No season

Spring bear season

no season

May

Busiest reported month

920 reports on record

Fall activity

When black bears are most active in Massachusetts

MassWildlife estimates the statewide population at over 4,500 bears, growing and expanding eastward. Bears live and breed in Worcester County, northern Middlesex County and west to the Berkshires, with mostly young males and some breeding females living in other eastern communities along Route 495.

The bars count research grade American black bear observations people uploaded to iNaturalist for Massachusetts, by calendar month, across every year the platform holds. The busiest month in the record is May, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by October. 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.

920 research grade American black bear observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Massachusetts across every year the platform holds, and 18 percent of them fall in the three shaded fall months. The busiest month in the record is May, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by October. 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 Massachusetts by year, 2016 to 2025: 12 in 2016 and 117 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 Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) says

Fall feeding

In summer, they take advantage of ripening berries and can often be found in thick regenerating forest stands where berries are often found. Ripened corn and stands of oak, beech, and hickory trees are favored foods in the fall.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Denning

Depending on food availability and snow cover, bears will den between mid-November and early December and exit between early March and mid-April.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

When conflicts and sightings rise

It is not unusual for bears to use residential areas, and they are often attracted to yards by bird feeders and unsecured trash. Bears have excellent long-term memory and can remember the location of food sources years after the first visit.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), 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

Massachusetts bear seasons, 2026-27

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) dates American black bear 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 season

published

Black bear season is OPEN now in the All Wildlife Management Zones statewide, through December 12, 2026.

Massachusetts black bear season, as published by Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife)
Zone	Opens	Closes	Notes
All Wildlife Management Zones statewide	September 7, 2026	December 12, 2026

Dates read from Black bear hunting regulations, MassWildlife, accessed 2026-09-19.

For 2026 MassWildlife combined what had been a three-part bear season into one continuous season that runs from the Monday after Labor Day to the end of the shotgun deer season, statewide across all Wildlife Management Zones. The department's regulations page carries the further detail of the windows inside it.

Archery bear season

no season

Massachusetts holds no separately dated archery bear season. MassWildlife dates no separate archery bear season. For 2026 the single black bear season from September 7 to December 12 is the only dated bear window on its regulations page. Source: Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife).

Spring bear season

no season

Massachusetts holds no spring bear season. Massachusetts holds no spring bear season. MassWildlife's season framework runs from Labor Day until the end of the shotgun deer season, and its 2026 dates table carries nothing outside that fall window. Source: Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife).

The agency's own season sentence

New single season: The three-part black bear season has been combined into one season from September 7–December 12, 2026.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Current Massachusetts regulations

Permit and tag requirements, zone maps, permitted methods, tagging and reporting, and everything else a bear hunter is bound by for Massachusetts are set by Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), are legally binding and change annually. Its current regulations page is linked here.

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife): 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

Massachusetts deer seasonArchery, firearms, muzzleloader and youth deer windows for 2026-27, under the same sourcing rules.Massachusetts small game seasonPheasant, quail, grouse, rabbit and squirrel openers, read from the same agency.Massachusetts 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

Massachusetts bear season questions

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

In the observation record for Massachusetts, research grade black bear reports peak in May and 18 percent of all 920 reports fall in September, October and November. Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) 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 Massachusetts in 2026-27?

Does Massachusetts have a spring bear season in 2027?

When do black bears go into dens in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) describes the denning timing for Massachusetts 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 May peak by October and reach their low in February. 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 Massachusetts increasing?

The number of research grade black bear reports uploaded for Massachusetts went from 12 in 2016 to 117 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. Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) describes when sightings and conflicts rise in Massachusetts in the sentence quoted on this page.

Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Massachusetts?

Where are the rest of the Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife)’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.