State Posts One of the Best Bear Seasons Ever
Pennsylvania’s 2002 black bear season, which ended a week ago today, has turned out to be one of the best ever for hunters. The total harvest was 2,654, based on the raw data. Local counties, particularly Centre, once again played a big part in the total kill.
Preliminary results show that during the regular three day season hunters harvested 2,505 bears, which then placed it as the fourth largest harvest in the state’s history. Centre County supplied 113 of those bears, ranking it fifth among all counties. Huntingdon County had a harvest 78 bears and Blair had only 30, down from 52 harvested last year.
The regular statewide season ran from November 25-27, but this year a second six-day season was added in three northeastern counties: Pike, Monroe and Carbon. The extended season was instituted by the Game Commission to increase hunter pressure on the overabundance of bears in communities and resort areas of the Poconos. Nuisance bears in those three counties have been causing increasing problems. The second season ran concurrently with the opening week of deer season, December 2-7.
The new extended season boosted the annual total well over 1998’s 2,598 bear harvest. In fact, preliminary results from the first three days of the extra season added an additional 108 bears to the tally, and the last three days added another 66 bears, making the total 2,654. This moves 2002’s harvest into third place.
Game Commission Executive Director Vern Ross noted, “Pennsylvania’s top three bear kills have occurred in the last three years.”
Even with these large harvests Pennsylvania’s healthy bear population continues to grow in numbers and expand in range. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the statewide season lengthened in future years. Prior to this fall’s season, PGC bear biologist PGC bear biologist Mark Ternent estimated the bruin population at nearly 15,000. While Ternent hoped for a harvest of about 3,000, he anticipated that weather and food availability might lower the bear harvest.
As it turned out, a lower than average acorn crop did cause bears to den early in many areas of the state, making fewer bears available to hunters. First day harvest figures released by the Game Commission showed that 1,348 bears were processed at the agency’s 26 check stations on November 25. That was down from 1,812 processed on the opener of last year’s season. Commission employees checked an additional 674 bears on Tuesday, November 26, which was also down from 2001’s second day tally of 828.
Although harvest numbers always sag on the third day, the fresh snow that fell on Tuesday evening gave hunters a tracking snow and increased visibility. Wednesday’s total kill was 480, which was up from last year in both percentage of the total harvest and number of bears checked. On the third and final day of the 2001 season, hunters tallied only 423 bruins.
According to preliminary data released this week, during the extended season Pike County’s 225 bears passed Lycoming County’s 224 bears. Clinton County, which owned the top spot for the past three years, posted a harvest of 179 and finished third. Monroe County, passed Centre during the extended season to move into the forth spot with 116. Centre County finished after Monroe, with 113 bears harvested. Centre County has finished in the top five counties in each of the past five seasons.
More Big Bears
Even though this year’s bear harvest was lower than the past two seasons, the number of larger bears harvested actually increased. Last year, nine bears topped the scales with estimated live weights of over 600 pounds, with the largest a 666-pound male that was killed in Lycoming County. This year, a dozen bears topped the 600-pound mark. The largest, a male, was shot in Luzerne County on the opening day. That bruin had an estimated live weight of a whopping 761 pounds. The sixth place bear, weighing 629 pounds, also came from Luzerne County.
None of the top bears came from Blair or Centre counties, however, two of this year’s top 12 were harvested in neighboring Huntingdon County. Joshua Cutchall of Robertsdale took a 642-pound male in Todd Township on the morning of November 26 and 614-pound male was shot the same morning in Jackson Township by David Peachey of Belleville. James Watson of Altoona shot a 618-pound male in Clinton County on November 25. It was the ninth heaviest bear harvested this season.
Huntingdon County is no stranger to big bears. Last year, Raymond Pruss, of Julian, bagged a monster 634-lb. bear in the northern end of the county. That bear was the fifth heaviest bruin to be harvested in Pennsylvania in 2001 and recent skull measurements tie it for the eighth largest black bear in the world. I’ll share Pruss’ story with you in an upcoming column.
Before the season began Ternent had said, “A statewide harvest of about 3,000 bears would be ideal for meeting the agency’s management goals.” Hunters harvested 3,062 bears last year and an all-time record of 3,075 in 2000. I’m sure Ternent will be satisfied with this year’s harvest of over 2,600 bears, particularly since a higher number of those came from the Pocono counties. When the totals are finalized, the 2002 harvest will only be off the 2000-2001 average by less than 15 percent.
Mark Nale can be reached at MarkAngler@aol.com
