[ConservativeDude]

good point.

my understnaind of bears is that if they show some spirit, they are male, otherwise hard to say....similarly size, ie, age, is actually very difficult to discern and usual indicators (ears for example) are deceptive...of course if you are close enough to see some spirit and guess at age, chances are it might be too late...oops! you are right this could be a well thought out safety issue.

[gundog]

Yeah...females with cubs can be pretty "spirited" if you get too close.

Banning the use of dogs in the hunting of bears in Oregon was a bad thing for the bears...they would get chased and treed and given the once-over before a decision to shoot or not was made...now they're shot on sight ...with twice as many tags available to hunters.