Nevada, 2026-27 season year

Nevada Bear Season 2026-27

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

Black Bear Season: September 15, 2026 to December 1, 2026, varying by zone across 3 rows in the agency table. Nevada Department of Wildlife publishes these dates and the full zone tables on this page were read from its own page on September 19, 2026.

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

No. Nevada dates no spring bear season. The commission's only bear window runs from the middle of September into December. 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 Nevada?

Nevada Department of Wildlife, 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 Nevada 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 Nevada bear hunting rules?

At Nevada Department of Wildlife, 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.

During the fall, Black Bears go through a period called hyperphagia. During this time, their appetites go into hyper drive. They can consume 8,000 to 20,000 calories each day in order to put on enough fat to hibernate.

Nevada Department of Wildlife

Black Bear Season: September 15, 2026 to December 1, 2026. People report black bears in Nevada most in October, and 34 percent of all reports fall in September, October and November. Everything below is Nevada Department of Wildlife’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 15, 2026 to December 1, 2026

Black Bear Season

published

No season

Archery bear season

no season

No season

Spring bear season

no season

October

Busiest reported month

219 reports on record

Fall activity

When black bears are most active in Nevada

Nevada's bears are a comeback, and a recent one. The department says black bears had been extirpated from the state by the early 1900s and that the population in western Nevada has increased dramatically since the 1980s. The range is still a corner of the state rather than the whole of it: the mountainous areas and foothills of the Sierra Nevada and the Lake Tahoe country, which is where every one of the open hunt units sits.

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

219 research grade American black bear observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Nevada across every year the platform holds, and 34 percent of them fall in the three shaded fall months. The busiest month in the record is October, and reports drop below 40 percent of that peak by December. 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 Nevada by year, 2016 to 2025: 22 in 2016 and 17 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 Nevada Department of Wildlife says

Fall feeding

During the fall, Black Bears go through a period called hyperphagia. During this time, their appetites go into hyper drive. They can consume 8,000 to 20,000 calories each day in order to put on enough fat to hibernate.

Nevada Department of Wildlife, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Denning

If a winter is particularly mild or there is enough food in their territory, Black Bears do not have to hibernate. They can also wake during hibernation and move about their den or give birth.

Nevada Department of Wildlife, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

When conflicts and sightings rise

More than 90 percent of black bear conflict calls in western Nevada involve unsecured garbage or other human food sources. Once bears begin finding easy meals around homes and neighborhoods, they can lose their natural wariness of people and repeatedly return, increasing the likelihood of property damage and public safety concerns.

Nevada Department of Wildlife, 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

Nevada bear seasons, 2026-27

Nevada Department of Wildlife 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 Hunt units 192, 194, 195 and 196, except those portions of 192 and 194 described in the commission's special regulations, through December 1, 2026, with 3 zone segments open.

Nevada black bear season, as published by Nevada Department of Wildlife
Zone	Opens	Closes
Hunt units 192, 194, 195 and 196, except those portions of 192 and 194 described in the commission's special regulations	September 15, 2026	December 1, 2026
Hunt units 201, 202, 204 and 206	September 15, 2026	December 1, 2026
Hunt units 203 and 291	September 15, 2026	December 1, 2026

Dates read from CR 26-07, 2026 Black Bear Season, Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners, approved January 2026, accessed 2026-09-19.

Nevada runs one window, Sept 15 to Dec 1, across three groups of hunt units in the west of the state. The commission prints the end date as 'Sept 15 - Dec 1 (or until harvest limits are met)', so the window can close early; the department keeps a recorded hotline that says whether it has. The special regulations carve the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and a described block east of it out of units 192 and 194.

Archery bear season

no season

Nevada holds no separately dated archery bear season. Nevada dates no separate archery bear season. CR 26-07 sets one window per unit group and nothing else. Source: Nevada Department of Wildlife.

Spring bear season

no season

Nevada holds no spring bear season. Nevada dates no spring bear season. The commission's only bear window runs from the middle of September into December. Source: Nevada Department of Wildlife.

The agency's own season sentence

Black Bears are found in the mountainous areas and foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe areas. Rivers and streams provide a source of food, while forested areas offer cover.

Nevada Department of Wildlife, read September 19, 2026. Read it at the source

Current Nevada regulations

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

Nevada Department of Wildlife: 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

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

Nevada bear season questions

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

In the observation record for Nevada, research grade black bear reports peak in October and 34 percent of all 219 reports fall in September, October and November. Nevada Department of Wildlife 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 Nevada in 2026-27?

Does Nevada have a spring bear season in 2027?

When do black bears go into dens in Nevada?

Nevada Department of Wildlife describes the denning timing for Nevada 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 October peak by December 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 Nevada increasing?

The number of research grade black bear reports uploaded for Nevada went from 22 in 2016 to 17 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. Nevada Department of Wildlife describes when sightings and conflicts rise in Nevada in the sentence quoted on this page.

Who publishes guidance on living with bears in Nevada?

Where are the rest of the Nevada 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 Nevada Department of Wildlife’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.