If there was ever a year when I thought my wife or someone else in the immediate family might get a chance at a black bear, I thought this year would be a good possibility. Why? Well, because we have been seeing more bears this past year than in previous years, that goes for neighbors and others who have shared their sightings with me.

In addition, I have talked to several folks who seem to have had more bear sightings on their game cameras than in the past. Case in point; a couple of months ago, I was sitting in my studio working on a painting when I got up and looked out the back door window, and 40 yards away was a 200-pound bear starring in at me — it was 3:00 in the afternoon. Just last month, our front door ringer went off; when viewing the camera’s recording later, a black bear was walking within inches of the front door. I’m sure others have had some interesting sightings.

It might surprise some people, but Pennsylvania has a pretty hefty black bear population, and those numbers have remained stable and even increased over the last dozen years. The Pennsylvania Game Commission presently puts our bear numbers in the 16-17,000 neighborhood. The national estimate for all of North America is between 600,000 and 900,000.

When you compare Pennsylvania’s bear numbers to other states, we find Michigan and Virginia are pretty similar to us, while Alaska tops all the states coming in at around 100,000. Maine is probably next with 24,000 to 36,000, with Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, California, Idaho, and maybe Wyoming all coming in with numbers in the 20-30,000 range.

I don’t have any figures for other states’ bear harvests, but I’m betting that Pennsylvania again ranks up in that top dozen category. Pennsylvania has had an average bear harvest around the 3,000 mark for at least the past dozen years, and this year at this point, 3,613 bears have gone through game commission check stations. Again, I don’t know what other states offer in the way of bear hunting opportunities, but Pennsylvania has added more bear hunting opportunities over a longer period of time.

While these increased opportunities may not have increased the bear take significantly, it has offered Pennsylvania hunters more time between October and December to take a bear. By the way, Lycoming County holds its own pretty well when it comes to harvest numbers; this year, Lycoming County led with 212, followed by Potter County with 179, Pike County coming in at 167, and Tioga at 165.

While Pennsylvania may not be in the top half-dozen when it comes to the numbers game, my guess is we would rank right up there in the top bracket when it comes to size.

Years ago, when I worked with Gary Alt, at one time the state’s leading bear biologist, he told me our state had some of the heaviest black bears in the country. This year the largest bear taken was a 722-pounder taken in Franklin County. Luzerne County came in second with a 681 pounder, Armstrong County was third with a weight of 676 pounds, Clearfield County fourth with 640 pounds, and Lycoming County fifth with a 640 pounder as well. Just to give this some perspective, the average adult male grizzly bear comes in at between 400-790 pounds, and females weigh in at 290-400 pounds.

There are obviously plenty of bears left, and I suspect new spring births will bring our numbers right back up to previous levels. I’ll be anxiously watching out my back and front door windows to see what shows up.