Minnesota’s black bear hunting season started Thursday, and one hopes no radio-collared research bears have been shot so far—or will be this season. The state Department of Natural Resources and renowned local researcher Dr. Lynn Rogers have made public pleas to hunters to leave these valuable research bears alone.

If the study bears go unscathed in the Ely-Tower area, anyone holding this year’s hunting permit for Areas 22, 24, 25 or 31 could be eligible to win a $5,000 jackpot. (Entrants must email a copy of their permit to entry@bearhuntersjackpot.com by the end of the 2011 bear hunting season to be eligible.)

Researchers go to all this trouble because the death of a key study bear can cut short years of in-depth research.

Although, why a hunter would pass up a shot at a collared bear is beyond some folks. After all, it’s not illegal to shoot one unless it’s accompanied by a researcher who has told the hunter the bear is a research animal. Otherwise, to keep from shooting, a hunter would have to be respectful of research or curious to hear a bit more about what the researchers might learn. Or perhaps they’d care about all the data that had been collected about that one collared bear and know the value of that research carrying on into the future. It’s just possible that in wanting to learn about black bears, a skilled hunter might realize that researchers and hunters have quite a bit in common.

Thinking about that, I came across a pithy 12-line poem called “The Three Goals.” David Budbill wrote in the first stanza:

“The first goal is to see the thing itself/in and for itself, to see it simply and clearly/for what it is./No symbolism, please.”

That’s what a successful researcher and a respectful hunter both want—to know the animal itself. In some ways, each is a student of the bear.

In the Ely-Tower area, Rogers has, for example, been following the offspring of one female bear to learn the social dynamics of the clan and how it uses the land. The bear’s social system is matriarchal, like that of most solitary animals. After mating, the males take off and the females hold the territory, foraging food for themselves and their young. Once the cubs mature at about a year and a half, the daughters are ceded a part of mom’s territory and the young males set out to make their fortunes in other areas.

Roger’s studies show that this female’s territory, and that of her daughters’ and granddaughters’ families has expanded to about 160 square miles in the Ely-Tower area, with a population of about one bear per 1.5 square miles.

The next stanza of Budbill’s poem is this:

“The second goal is to see each individual thing/as unified, as one, with all the other/ten thousand things./ In this regard, a little wine helps a lot.”

Taking that sip of wine, I read that bears are being studied as part of their ecosystems, in relation to bear-human conflict, how they communicate, eat, reproduce, raise cubs, hibernate, play, establish territories and travel. Those studies cover a few of Budbill’s “ten thousand things” about which a bear might teach an observer.

Hunters have their own relationship with bears and give them plenty of thought. Hunters applied for the bear license lottery back in May. Those who were allotted a license had to pick a specific area to hunt in and could start putting out bait piles in mid-August. From this week to Oct. 16 about 7,050 bear hunters will be in the Minnesota woods, having paid $39 for the privilege, or $201 if they are from out of state.

Hunters have been paying attention to likelydiscover where a bear may be found, looking for claw marks on trees, searching for tracks and scat. They’ve reviewed the many rules set forth in order to maintain an orderly hunt and sustain a healthy bear population. It’s only legal to shoot from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset. Bait used at bait stations can’t include, for example, any part of swine, except cured pork, meat from mammals that includes bones, or trash like bottles or cans. Anyone who kills a bear must submit a tooth sample to the DNR, where researchers examine the teeth to learn about bear populations. The rules go on.

In his final tongue-in-cheek stanza, Budbill writes this:

“The third goal is to grasp the first and second goals,/to see the universal and the particular,/simultaneously. Regarding this one, call me when you get it.”

In this case, one might get that both skilled hunters and researchers want to intimately know the bear, and both are learning from the same animal. To be successful, each must take into consideration the bear’s complex connection with the natural world. The universal world of the bear, researcher and hunter comes into sharp focus when the hunter meets a bear that the researcher has radio-collared and festooned with streamers. A moment of recognition and fellowship is possible then, a moment of compassion and of intention. It’s in that moment when the hunter and bear may simply stand in the natural world and regard each other, teacher and student.

If no one shoots, it’s in that moment when the hunter’s curiosity, integrity and appreciation for the natural world wins out. A bear lives to teach another day. That’s surely a jackpot for all concerned.