Oldest wild bear in the world dies

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported last week that a black bear they had been tracking since 1981 died in the wild at 39 1/2 years of age.

Bear No. 56 was found Aug. 21 in the Chippewa National Forest. She was radio-collared in July 1981 when she was seven years old.

At the time, the black bear was accompanied by three female cubs. From 1981 through 1995, Bear No. 56 had eight litters of cubs and successfully raised 21 of 22 cubs to 18 months of age.

Bear No. 56 outlived all of the 360 black bears that MDNR researchers radio-collared in 1981 by 19 years.

She also outlived any radio-collared bear of any species in the world. Few study bears reach 30 years of age. The second oldest was a brown bear in Alaska that lived to be 34.

In her last years, Bear No. 56 visited some baits left by hunters, but the hunters abided by MDNR’s request not to shoot radio-collared bears.

MDNR researcher Karen Noyce, who found Bear No. 56 after she died, had grown fond of the old bear. Noyce said the bear was having trouble getting around and wasn’t eating normally. The sow was the first bear in MDNR’s study to die of old age.