Colorado black bear range map
Where black bear live in Colorado, as Colorado Parks and Wildlife maps it. Free, over unit boundaries, land ownership and the topo map, with no account.
Open the black bear range map All the map does
The black bear range maps
3 maps are published for this animal. Switch on one or several. "Show it" opens the hunting map with that range drawn.
| Range | What it is | CPW's name for it | Mapped | Last changed | On the map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year-round range | All the country black bears are known to use, at any time of year. CPW's definition: The area which encompasses all known seasonal activity areas within the observed range of a population of black bear. | Black Bear Overall Range | 3 areas | September 2025 | Show it |
| Summer concentration | Summer ground that holds more black bears than the country around it. CPW's definition: That portion of the overall range where activity is greater than the surrounding overall range from June 15 to August 15. | Black Bear Summer Concentration | 124 areas | August 2025 | Show it |
| Fall concentration | Where black bears feed hard on nuts and berries from mid-August through September. CPW's definition: That portion of the overall range occupied from August 15 until September 30 for the purpose of ingesting large quantities of mast and berries to establish fat reserves for the winter hibernation period. | Black Bear Fall Concentration | 193 areas | September 2025 | Show it |
Counts and dates are from Colorado Parks and Wildlife's map service, read October 13, 2026. CPW revises these maps a region at a time, each region about every four years.
How to read a range map
- It is a broad area, not a sighting. Biologists and district wildlife managers draw these areas from what they know of each herd or population. It does not show where an animal is today.
- Weather, hunting pressure and the year all move animals.
- Being inside a mapped range gives no right to hunt the ground. Switch on land ownership and tap the spot for the owner on record.
- Your license names the units it is good in. Switch on unit boundaries to see the range and the unit line together.
Nothing on this map promises an animal. It is the published record of where the animal generally lives, and the hunting is still yours to do.
Units, seasons and licenses
Look up any license by its code under Colorado hunt codes, and put units side by side with the unit comparison.
What is left off, on purpose
Colorado Parks and Wildlife also maps single spots an animal comes back to, such as mineral licks, water sources and roost sites, and it maps migration. Those are left off this map. That is part of our fair chase promise: published public maps of broad areas only, and never a hunter's own sightings.
Other big game range maps
Elk, Mule deer, White-tailed deer, Moose, Pronghorn, Bighorn sheep, Mountain goat, Mountain lion. Small game and birds: wild turkey, dusky grouse, pheasant.
The map shows the ground. A plan tells you where to go.
The map is free. A FilledTag hunt plan is the paid part: for your tag and where you drive from, one exact plan with a legal place to park, a camp, morning and evening spots and the walk between them, checked against land records.