Minnesota, 2026-27 season year

Minnesota Bear Season 2026-27

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

Bear season: September 1, 2026 to October 18, 2026. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources publishes these dates and the full zone tables on this page were read from its own page on September 19, 2026.

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

No. Minnesota holds no spring bear season. The department's 2026 handbook dates the bear season in the fall only, and the next thing on its bear calendar after October 18 is the April 2027 application window for the following autumn. 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 Minnesota?

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 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 Minnesota 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 Minnesota bear hunting rules?

At Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 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.

Bears often roam long distances in the fall, looking for food-rich areas (especially acorns) where they can fatten for winter.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

Bear season: September 1, 2026 to October 18, 2026. People report black bears in Minnesota most in June, and 18 percent of all reports fall in September, October and November. Everything below is Minnesota 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 1, 2026 to October 18, 2026

Bear season

published

No season

Archery bear season

no season

No season

Spring bear season

no season

June

Busiest reported month

1,043 reports on record

Fall activity

When black bears are most active in Minnesota

The department puts the state's black bear population at roughly 13,000 to 18,000 and says they are found mainly in the northern third of Minnesota, ranging as far south as the interface between the forest and agricultural zones, where they use corn and other crops for subsistence. Hunting is organized around the department's numbered bear permit areas in that northern range plus a wider surrounding area on its southern and western edge.

The bars count research grade American black bear observations people uploaded to iNaturalist for Minnesota, 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 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.

1,043 research grade American black bear observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Minnesota 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 June, 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 Minnesota by year, 2016 to 2025: 10 in 2016 and 129 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 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says

Fall feeding

Bears often roam long distances in the fall, looking for food-rich areas (especially acorns) where they can fatten for winter.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Denning

The fertilized egg implants in November and the cubs are usually born in January, while the mother is denning. They leave the den usually in early April and remain with the mother for 17 months, hibernating with her when they are 1 year old.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

When conflicts and sightings rise

Conflicts between people and bears have increased as more people build homes and cabins and recreate in northern and central Minnesota. Conflicts can arise when bears interact with domestic pets, tip over garbage cans, or damage bird feeders, personal property, beehives, livestock and agricultural crops.

Minnesota 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

Hunting dates

Minnesota bear seasons, 2026-27

Minnesota 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 season

published

Bear season is OPEN now, through October 18, 2026.

Minnesota bear season, as published by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Zone	Opens	Closes	Notes
Statewide	September 1, 2026	October 18, 2026	The numbered permit areas and the wider surrounding area run on the same dates.

Dates read from 2026 Minnesota Hunting Regulations, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, accessed 2026-09-19.

Minnesota dates one bear season, September 1 through October 18, 2026, and it covers the department's numbered bear permit areas in the northern forest together with the wider area around them.

Archery bear season

no season

Minnesota holds no separately dated archery bear season. Minnesota dates no separate archery bear season. The 2026 Minnesota Hunting Regulations print a single bear row, September 1 to October 18, with no bow-only window beside it. Source: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Spring bear season

no season

Minnesota holds no spring bear season. Minnesota holds no spring bear season. The department's 2026 handbook dates the bear season in the fall only, and the next thing on its bear calendar after October 18 is the April 2027 application window for the following autumn. Source: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The agency's own season sentence

Bear season: September 1-October 18.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Current Minnesota regulations

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

Minnesota 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

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

Minnesota bear season questions

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

In the observation record for Minnesota, research grade black bear reports peak in June and 18 percent of all 1,043 reports fall in September, October and November. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 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 Minnesota in 2026-27?

Does Minnesota have a spring bear season in 2027?

When do black bears go into dens in Minnesota?

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources describes the denning timing for Minnesota 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 June peak by October and reach their low in December. 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 Minnesota increasing?

The number of research grade black bear reports uploaded for Minnesota went from 10 in 2016 to 129 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. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources describes when sightings and conflicts rise in Minnesota in the sentence quoted on this page.

Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Minnesota?

Where are the rest of the Minnesota 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 Minnesota 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.