The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department says hunters who took a bear in the 2025 bear hunting seasons can now look up the age of their bear on the department's website.
A total of 886 usable bear teeth were received from successful hunters in 2025. The department was able to get accurate ages for 822 bears.
"Successful bear hunters help in our management of this magnificent big game animal by providing a small premolar tooth from their bear," said Jaclyn Comeau, bear project leader for Vermont Fish and Wildlife. "We have collected pre-molar teeth from harvested bears annually since 1968 to evaluate age composition of the harvest and to estimate the size of the population. The teeth are sent to a laboratory in Montana for aging by cementum analysis. The oldest female in 2025 was 19 years old, and the oldest male was 18 years old."
Hunters harvested 1,022 black bears in Vermont in 2025 -- the second highest in history and 232 above the 10-year average as well as 14 less than the record harvest in 2025. The 2025 Vermont Black Bear Harvest Report is available on Vermont Fish and Wildlife's website.