The 300-pound bear was hunted on opening day of the season, which conservationists say runs through Oct. 31.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Mo. — The first black bear harvested during Missouri’s fifth bear hunting season was bagged by a 16-year-old, according to conservationists.

The teen, named Corbin Wallace, recently hunted the 300-pound male bear on the hunting season’s opening day on Oct. 18, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. He and his grandfather, Robert Wallace, hunted the bear on private land in Douglas County.

The state’s fourth black bear hunting season in 2024 was a record breaker, where hunters set a new harvest record at 15 bears. That total stands above the state’s three previous years, with hunters harvesting 12 bears in 2023, 8 bears in 2022, and 12 bears in 2021.


The 2025 black bear hunting season runs through Oct. 31.  Last season ran shorter, only allowing bear harvesting from Oct. 21 to Oct. 30. More than 5,969 hunters applied for hunting permits in 2024, but the state only offers a maximum of 400 each season. The department said that of the 400 hunters who were randomly chosen among the applicants, 319 hunters purchased permits.

The presence of a black bear hunting season is a testament to conservation efforts bringing the animal back from the brink of being extirpated from the state in the early 1900s. Conservationists estimate that since the first study categorizing the bear population in Missouri found around 300 bears in 2010, the population has grown to more than 900.

Missouri is split up into three Bear Management Zones (BMZ) south of the Missouri River. The department also broke down how many bears were hunted in each of the zones. 12 bears were harvested in zone one, three were harvested in zone two, and none were harvested in zone three, according to the department’s website.