I'll say it: it's a dink.
Quick visualization assessment:
* It is petite overall, there's way too much light underneath the bear, ears are still "big", has a small neck, and it has dainty ankles.
* Round 1 assessment: hello Booboo
Quick size comparison assessment:
* Bear hunters that bait and use barrels have a bench mark of 33" at the shoulder (height of a barrel). The horizontal branch is mid-thigh on you and just below the bears back. So what is the measurement to your mid thigh? If that was me in the photo, that bear's shoulder height would be about 27-28" which is well below the baiting barrel benchmark.
* What is your measurement from the left side of your butt to your right side of your butt? Double it to get the ballpark length of that bear (based upon the photos). My measurement is 16" so that would be a 32" long bear from the tip of the snout to its butt (if it was me in the photo). Throw in the tail length, and that is a 3 foot bear (square the hide measurement).
* Round 2 assessment: way too small
Other considerations that could override other assessments:
* Visual on its teeth? Pretty white? Yellow? Brown? Busted? Fully intact? Do not have so N/A (if worn/busted AND yellow/brown --> shoot).
* Front pad size? Do not have so N/A (if 5"+ --> shoot).
* Diameter of background trees (use in assessing length of bear)
Quick and dirty total assessment:
* Let it walk as it is a small ass bear.
Note: This is a quick and dirty assessment based upon the information provided as well as prior experience. It will not be 100% accurate 100% of the time but it'll give you a relatively close ballpark estimate.
The bear does have nice coloring and could be a pretty throw rug (small) or can make some pretty babies to hunt in the future.
But we all have different goals so if it floats your boat, go after it.
---------
Here is a bear for comparison; apologize for quality as I forgot my PhoneSkope and had to hand-hold the phone. This is an AZ desert bear and was 1 mile away. There's no light under the bear, the ears are small, and has a large thick neck. This bear will be about 350-375 pound range live weight.
