All animals should be gutted and cooled as soon as possible. This is especially true of bear because their fur and fat are designed to hold heat in. A bear should be gutted as soon as possible after it is killed, then packed with ice inside and out until it can be skinned. A bear will go bad even at temperatures below 40 degrees if not packed with ice because the hide will not release heat.
Unfortunately, we’ve had a couple of total losses with some bears as of late because they weren’t properly dressed, so much so that not only was the meat bad, the bear couldn’t even be mounted or skinned for a bear skin rug.
