Wyoming Bear Season 2026-27

In the observation record for Wyoming, research grade black bear reports peak in June and 13 percent of all 3,407 reports fall in September, October and November. Wyoming Game and Fish Department 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.

Regular Season (fall): August 1, 2026 to November 15, 2026, varying by zone across 22 rows in the agency table. Special Archery Season (fall): August 1, 2026 to September 30, 2026. Wyoming Game and Fish Department publishes these dates and the full zone tables on this page were read from its own page on September 19, 2026.

Wyoming holds a spring bear season, and Wyoming Game and Fish Department had not published the 2027 dates as of September 19, 2026. Wyoming runs a spring black bear season in every hunt area, but the Chapter 3 regulation dated January 13, 2026 covers only the spring 2026 and fall 2026 seasons, and the 2027 edition that will set spring 2027 dates had not been posted as of September 19, 2026. For reference, the 2026 spring regular seasons opened April 15 or May 1 depending on hunt area and closed June 15, with spring special archery windows of April 15 to 30 or May 1 to 14 in the areas that have one. The dates will appear first on the agency page linked on this page.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department describes the denning timing for Wyoming 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 August 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.

The number of research grade black bear reports uploaded for Wyoming went from 76 in 2016 to 502 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. Wyoming Game and Fish Department describes when sightings and conflicts rise in Wyoming in the sentence quoted on this page.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department, on its page titled Bear Wise Wyoming, which is linked from the agency notice on this page. That page is the agency's own guidance for Wyoming 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.

At Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 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.