BLACK bears are making lots of news these days. With their growing numbers and human encounters it seems that everyday someone finds a bear in his backyard, garage or even in the house.
The first bear-hunting season in 30 years will open in New Jersey next Monday and the two-year battle between antis and sportsmen over this hunt is still going on and will most likely go down to the wire.
While all this has been going on, hunters in New York and Pennsylvania have been making news of their own. Both states are in the middle of their bear-hunting seasons and from the numbers that are coming in, there is no doubt that there are more bears around than at anytime in recent memory.
New York hunters have killed more than 250 black bears since the season opened eight days ago in the Catskills. As of last Wednesday, Sullivan County led the region with 83, followed by Ulster with 64 and Orange with 41.
In Delaware County, hunters killed 39 while Greene County hunters shot 21. A couple were taken just outside the Catskill line. These are preliminary figures and don’t include the Adirondacks, were over 800 bears were taken during that region’s bear-hunting season.
The New York figures pale in comparison to what is happening in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported that their employees processed 845 bears at check stations on Tuesday, the season’s second day. This brought the total number of bears checked after two days to 2,299. In 2002, agency personnel processed 2,022 over the season’s first two days. In 2001, when the state posted its second largest bear harvest, the two-day total was 2,640.
“We’re about 300 bears above last year’s harvest pace after two days, which puts our harvest up about 14 percent over 2002’s,” said Mark Ternent, Game Commission bear biologist. “Hunters are getting the job done; they may end up posting the state’s third best three-day bear harvest.
Hunters in the Keystone State have now taken at least 10 bears exceeding 600 pounds during the season’s first two days. The largest was a 739-pound male (estimated live weight) followed by a 725-pound male.
Pennsylvania also set some records during their elk-hunting season. The state’s third modern-day elk season produced the first woman to harvest a bull elk in modern times and the largest elk harvest since before the Civil War. The season ran Nov. 10-15.
The 100 hunters awarded licenses – selected in a public drawing from a field of more than 26,500 entrants – took 68 elk: 18 antlered and 50 antler-less. By the way, applications for the elk season came in from 48 states and all the Canadian provinces.
Last year, the 70 licensed hunters took 32 antlered and 29 antler-less elk. In 2001, 30 licensed hunters took 14 antlered and 13 antler-less elk in the state’s first modern-day elk hunt.
On Nov. 10, Janet Gruber, of Ellwood City, Lawrence County, became the first woman to harvest an antlered elk during an established season. She took a 7×6 antlered elk with an estimated live weight of 706 pounds, and was assisted by two female guides.
