Is there a reason why some big bears have small galls while some little bear have big ones? My wife shot a little boar yesterday that has a four or five ounce gall while I have shot bear quite a bit bigger bear with much smaller galls. Is it what they are eating,when they have eaten or just varies by bear?

I’d like to know the same thing but with beavers. The medium sized one hade huge heavy castors.

The liver produces bile which is stored in the gall bladder. Bill is used in the digestive process to break down fats into fatty acids so they can be absorbed by the body. Therefore I assume the size of the gall bladder is related to when the bear last are something and the size of the bear is just coincidental.

Beaver caster - used for marking territory.maybe bigger beaver are more aggressive and have more territory to mark. Whereas smaller beaver are too timid to mark territory. Just a guess on the beaver castor.

Know nothing of bear gall bladders, but my opinion on beaver castor goes like this:

As a beaver comes into the prime of his life and is plump and healthy that is when his/her genetic potential for castor size is best fulfilled. On average that would put them at 3-4 years of age. Colony beaver on smaller waters tend to have smaller castors...coincidentally, these beaver don't need to mark territory as much as they know all the beavers in their area. Get into the big rivers or any areas where beaver populations are larger and dispersal is rampant you tend to see a lot of territory marking and bigger castors. Genetics is what I believe is the driving force.

Some of the areas I trap on the big rivers average about 4 beaver to the lb. But if I've been trapping hard on some stretches of the river and reducing the number of 3-4 year olds then that number starts to increase to maybe 5-6 beaver to the lb reflecting the younger age classes of beaver I'm catching..

Is it still illegal to sell bear gall bladders?
Makes more sense to harvest the bladders , from legally taken bears and sell , than let the poachers make money on illegal bear bladders.
Save the bear population from poachers .
Same with all the ivory from elephants that are destroyed , instead of flooding the market to bring the prices down .

You can sell them in Idaho. We have pretty liberal regulations here about the only thing that I know of that can't be sold is bighorn sheep horns and the meat from game fish, big game, small game and game birds. We can also pick up and sell all roadkill except again the meat.

The OTA used to sell bear galls back in the day,and bear claws too at the auction house in North Bay.Then Ontario made bears a game animal as well as a furbearer and that was the end of parting out bears.They stopped handling claws etc I believe around 86 or 87.
Claws were $2 each and gall bladders,properly handled were $5 a gram.
Fall bears that were on the blueberries had blueish colored galls,spring galls a greenish colour-no difference in price.

The last I sold I received $2 a claw and $10 an ounce for the gall. If not shot in the head the skull can be sold and the hide is worth something also and of course we eat all edible meat.

Price of galls sure has dropped.

about the most I ever received was $20 an ounce.

My understanding is that it is not legal to sell bear gall bladders across state lines but if legal in the state in which the bear was taken the gall bladder can be sold in that state.

Hummm, I was up there 86-91 and my understanding was that it was illegal to sell the galls.
Found quite a few bear along the edges of grain fields with the galls and claws cut out.
I thought the paws were made into soup , and was surprised they didn't take the paws.
Good to know , might be why the price of galls in low and better for the bear population.

I don't believe a gall is worth enough to make it worth the risk of harvesting a bear illegally. It is a shame to waste a product that is in demand. Obviously there is not a huge demand or the price would be higher.

Legal in NY, as long as the bear is taken legally. My friend just sold one to a local fur buyer for $120. IMO, all legally harvested Black Bear galls should be put on the market. You are not going to change cultures that are centuries old, so for every legal gall left in the gut pile, could be an illegal one is needed to fill the market ?

What is the gall bladder used for?

Medicine and sexual needs. My buyer used to use a little for aches and pains. It is used mostly in Chinese medicine.