Deadline is Friday, May 3
Prospective bear hunters have until Friday, May 3 to apply for a bear hunting license from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Applications for the 2024 season can be submitted online, at any license agent or by telephone at 888-665-4236.
A total of 4,030 licenses are available in 15 quota areas where licenses are limited for the 2024 season, which opens Sunday, Sept. 1, and closes Sunday, Oct. 13.
The number of licenses available each year in the quota area is based on Minnesota’s bear population trends for those areas. The trends indicate the bear population has stabilized and is slowly increasing, in part because of recent conservative license quotas. License quotas for the 2024 season are similar to those available for the 2023 season.
Bear hunters who plan to apply for bear permit area 51 should review the boundaries for newly created bear permit area 53 to ensure they select the right area they intend to hunt. Twenty licenses will be available in area 53, which DNR created at the request of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Lottery winners will be notified by Saturday, June 1. The deadline to purchase bear hunting licenses awarded by lottery is Thursday, Aug. 1. Any remaining unpurchased licenses will be available over the counter starting at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
An unlimited number of bear licenses also will be sold over-the-counter for the no-quota area that includes east-central and far northwestern Minnesota. No-quota licenses are valid only in the no-quota area.
Hunters with either a quota or no-quota license who are interested in taking a problem bear should contact the DNR wildlife manager for their area(s) of interest to be added to the hunter contact list for any opportunities that might arise.
Complete instructions about how to apply for a bear hunting license, maps of permit areas and a listing of permit availability for each area are available on the Minnesota DNR website.