Cooperator Program

Attention Bear Hunters:

Submitting the bear tooth is mandatory for all hunter harvested bears!

four orange ballcaps with camo bills with a bear graphic and the words North Carolina Black Bear Cooperator

Why submit the premolar tooth?

  • It is mandatory to submit one premolar tooth from your harvested bear by January 31. 
  • Your information allows NCWRC biologists to better monitor bear populations, make management decisions, and evaluate the impacts of bear hunting.
  • Mandatory tooth submission will help biologists more accurately model bear population trends at both the bear management unit level and the zone level.
  • We will send you a complimentary “North Carolina Black Bear Cooperator” ball cap and an age report for your bear in September.

How to submit your premolar tooth

  • Insert one the premolar tooth from your harvested bear in the NCWRC Tyvek tooth envelope and place the tooth envelope in the mail. Please do not submit multiple hunters bear teeth in the same Tyvek envelope, each hunter needs to submit a separate Tyvek envelope for their bear tooth.
  • Once we receive your tooth, you will be compliant with the state law and will get an e-mail notification if we have a valid e-mail address on file. Your big game harvest record will also indicate we received your tooth.
  • We advise you to extract and keep an additional premolar tooth as a back-up tooth in case we need that tooth.

If you lost the bear tooth Tyvek envelope, call 919-707-0050 to have a new envelope sent to you.

Instructions for Collecting Bear Teeth

Submit the first premolar from the upper jaw.
 

diagram of the 1st premolar of a black bear with instructions to pull this tooth
the open mouth of a black bear with an arrow pointing to where its premolar was extracted
  1. If you break the root of both upper premolars, or the upper premolars are gone, please try the lower premolars located immediately behind the lower canine.
  2. The tooth we need is the very small tooth immediately behind the upper and lower canine tooth (see pictures). 
  3. Use a knife blade to cut the gum down and away from the tooth. 
  4. Once loosened, pull the tooth out with pliers or pry it out with a screwdriver using the canine as a lever. Do not break the tooth off at the gumline; we need the whole tooth including the root.
  5. If you are unable to pull a premolar, the jaw can be cut and sent to us. 
  6. Removing this tooth and cutting into the gum does not impact taxidermy work or your mount.

Please call your local district biologist for help.

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