That's a good bear Ed.
An average adult polar bear when standing on hind legs is about 8' tall with its head level, not tilted upwards (that's average, not the largest), and on all four legs is about 52" at the shoulder. (4 ft plus 4 inches). A very large boar black bear of over 500 lbs, standing on hind legs with head not tilted upwards will be about 1 and 1/2 feet shorter than the polar bear.
How tall at the shoulder is a 500 + lb black bear? There are variables depending on amount of fat, of course, but one hanging on a meat poll that went nearly 600 lbs (where I did eight seasons of black bear hunting) would have been less than four feet at the shoulder standing on all four legs.
A general rule of thumb is that a black bear that squares 6 feet stands about 36 inches at the shoulders.
As stated, IF that bear in the pic is at least 40" at the shoulder, that's much more than the average adult male black bear. It's very important to have an objective means of measurement as bear images can be very subjective. The only objective means, in this case, is the height of the boat winch.
But I'll admit that the length of the bear doesn't match a bear that stands over 40 " at the shoulder, so the bear has to be at an unknown distance this side of the winch, as the length of the bear might only be five feet!
Bob
www.bigbores.ca
