Wisconsin Bear Hunting: What the 2025 Zone Results Show

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The 2025 season statewide

Hunters with state-issued authorizations harvested 3,724 bears during the 35-day season, September 3 to October 7, 2025. The DNR had awarded 13,110 licenses through its lottery.

Statewide hunter success was about 28 percent, slightly below the five-year average of 32 percent. The harvest was slightly below the overall target of 4,075 bears. The release calls it on par with the five-year average of about 3,800 bears and within the expected range.

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Zone results

Dividing harvest by licenses reproduces the release's rounded rates. Zone A was the only zone above its target.

These are rates per state-issued hunting authorization. The report excludes other harvest categories from Table 1. They are not the share of hunters who saw a bear, and they are not a forecast for a later draw.

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More licenses did not mean higher success

Zone C issued 3,750 licenses, more than Zones A and B combined, and its rate was 18 percent. Zone E issued 2,000 and converted 6 percent. Zone A issued 1,680 and converted 69 percent.

In these zones, a larger license allocation did not go with a higher harvest-per-license rate. The number of licenses issued also says nothing on its own about drawing odds. Those depend on applicants and preference levels.

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Two statewide totals, different scopes

The full report records 3,836 bears across all included harvest categories. Its 3,724 state-authorization bears are the harvest numerator used for the zone comparisons above; issued hunting authorizations supply the denominator. An additional 34 Learn to Hunt bears, 51 nuisance or agricultural-damage bears and 27 tribal bears bring the total to 3,836.

Table 2 therefore has different zone totals from Table 1. Zone A has 1,235 in the broader tally versus 1,161 on state hunting authorizations. Zone D has 931 versus 906. Do not divide these broader totals by the hunting-authorization allocations.

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Field reports on food and weather

The release quotes large carnivore specialist Randy Johnson as saying field reports were variable. Some hunters called 2025 one of their best years. Others were challenged by abundant acorns and corn, which reduced the effectiveness of their baits.

He also cited below-average temperatures early in the season and above-average temperatures late, each of which can affect bear activity. These are attributed field reports. The release includes no acorn survey or bait-visit data.

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The 2023 season for comparison

The 2023 release is also preliminary. Targets and license numbers changed between years, so zone comparisons are not like for like.

The 2023 season ran September 6 to October 10, 2023. The release called its 2,922 bears the lowest yearly harvest since 2008, down from 4,009 the year before, and set its success against a recent five-year average of 32 percent.

Johnson linked the 2023 decline to a remarkably high acorn crop. He described the evidence as anecdotal reports from hunters. The release also said the Zone D drop was likely due at least in part to management actions intended to reduce the bear population there.

In both 2023 and 2025, the northern Zones A and B converted a much larger share of licenses than the southern Zones E and F. Two seasons do not establish a cause or a cycle.

Source limit: the 2025 zone comparison uses the full report’s state hunting-authorization scope. Its broader harvest total also includes nuisance or agricultural-damage, Learn to Hunt and tribal bears. The 2023 comparison remains preliminary. Rates describe harvest per authorization, not success per hunter-day or draw odds.