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Michigan, 2026-27 season year

Michigan Bear Season 2026-27

Greatly increase food consumption during fall to prepare their body for winter.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Bear: September 9, 2026 to October 26, 2026. People report black bears in Michigan most in June, and 28 percent of all reports fall in September, October and November. Everything below is Michigan Department of Natural Resources’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 9, 2026 to October 26, 2026
Bear
published
No season
Archery bear season
no season
No season
Spring bear season
no season
June
Busiest reported month
456 reports on record
Fall activity

When black bears are most active in Michigan

Bears live in both peninsulas. A 2024 department survey put about 10,350 black bears in the Upper Peninsula and about 2,100 in the Lower Peninsula, roughly 12,450 statewide. Lower Peninsula bears sit mostly in the northern third, though the department reports them pushing south into mid-Michigan.

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

456 research grade American black bear observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Michigan across every year the platform holds, and 28 percent of them fall in the three shaded fall months. The busiest month in the record is June, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by November. 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 Michigan by year, 2016 to 2025: 4 in 2016 and 86 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 Michigan Department of Natural Resources says

Fall feeding

Greatly increase food consumption during fall to prepare their body for winter.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Denning

Female black bears typically produce offspring every two years, giving birth to two to three cubs in January or February while still in their winter dens. Black bear cubs typically stay with their mother for 16-18 months.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

When conflicts and sightings rise

Eliminating access to food and other attractants is the most effective method for reducing bear problems. Bears have an excellent memory of where food occurs and may teach their cubs to frequent those locations too.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, 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
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Hunting dates

Michigan bear seasons, 2026-27

Michigan Department of Natural Resources 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.

Bear

published

Bear is OPEN now in the Amasa 1, through October 21, 2026, with 19 zone segments open.

Michigan bear, as published by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
ZoneOpensClosesNotes
Amasa 1September 9, 2026October 21, 2026
Baraga 1September 9, 2026October 21, 2026
Bergland 1September 9, 2026October 21, 2026
Carney 1September 9, 2026October 21, 2026
Drummond Island 1September 9, 2026October 21, 2026
Gwinn 1September 9, 2026October 21, 2026
Newberry 1September 9, 2026October 21, 2026
Baldwin 1 (segment 1)September 12, 2026September 22, 2026Two separate windows with a nine-day gap between them.
Baldwin 1 (segment 2)October 2, 2026October 8, 2026
Gladwin 1 (segment 1)September 12, 2026September 22, 2026Two separate windows with a nine-day gap between them.
Gladwin 1 (segment 2)October 2, 2026October 8, 2026
Red Oak 1 (segment 1)September 12, 2026September 22, 2026Two separate windows with a nine-day gap between them.
Red Oak 1 (segment 2)October 2, 2026October 8, 2026
Amasa 2September 14, 2026October 26, 2026
Baraga 2September 14, 2026October 26, 2026
Bergland 2September 14, 2026October 26, 2026
Carney 2September 14, 2026October 26, 2026
Gwinn 2September 14, 2026October 26, 2026
Newberry 2September 14, 2026October 26, 2026
Amasa 3September 25, 2026October 26, 2026
Baraga 3September 25, 2026October 26, 2026
Bergland 3September 25, 2026October 26, 2026
Carney 3September 25, 2026October 26, 2026
Gwinn 3September 25, 2026October 26, 2026
Newberry 3September 25, 2026October 26, 2026

Dates read from Hunting season calendar, 2026 Bear hunting season calendar, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, accessed 2026-09-19.

Michigan prints one bear calendar rather than separate archery and firearm seasons. Each row is a bear management unit followed by its hunt period number, so Amasa 1, Amasa 2 and Amasa 3 are three staggered windows in the same unit. The three Lower Peninsula units, Baldwin, Gladwin and Red Oak, run a split window instead of one continuous stretch.

Archery bear season

no season

Michigan holds no separately dated archery bear season. Michigan does not print a separate archery bear season; the dates above are the whole calendar. Source: Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Spring bear season

no season

Michigan holds no spring bear season. Michigan has no spring bear season. The calendar runs September into October. Source: Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The agency's own season sentence

Black bears play an important ecological role by dispersing seeds and helping maintain forest health.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Current Michigan regulations

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

Michigan Department of Natural Resources: 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

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

Michigan bear season questions

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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 Michigan Department of Natural Resources’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.