Living in this part of Pennsylvania, it’s certainly not unusual for the topic of black bears to come up in a conversation, and that’s especially true during the bear hunting seasons. More and more people, including many who don’t hunt, are reporting sightings of bears than ever before. There’s a good reason for these increased sightings since there are more bears now in Pennsylvania than ever before and Game Commission biologists now estimate the state’s population to be well over 15,000 black bears. Today’s numbers are a far cry from the estimated 4,000 that roamed our state back in the 1970s. Sightings are definitely on the increase, and in our travels around our home area in northern Montour County, my wife and I have seen more than a half-dozen black bears, with several walking by our front door or down our driveway.
Of course, with the increased number of bears in our state, there has been an increase in nuisance bear conflicts. I did a little checking, and I found that in the 13 counties that comprise the Game Commission’s Northeast Region, there were about 600 nuisance reports annually. In the year 2000 that number increased to 813 and in 2001 it was over 1,000. In 2002, nuisance bear conflicts went to over 1,100 in the Northeast Region.
As expected over the years, as our bear numbers have increased, we have also had increases in the bears taken in hunting seasons. Adding to those increased harvest numbers is also the fact that we have increased our bear hunting opportunities with added seasons. In 2019, 4,653 bears were taken in hunting seasons, and to this day, it is still our highest-ever harvest. In 2021, 3,628 bears were taken, and in 2022, 3,170 were harvested. The seven top bear harvests have all occurred since 2005.
Surprisingly, this year’s total bear harvest has not made it to the 3,000 mark. While that number may be updated at a later date, here’s a look at those numbers broken down into the various seasons.
In the Early Archery Season in WMUs 2B, 5C, and 5D, five were taken, and in the Muzzleloader, Archery, and Special Firearms Season, another 1,226 were harvested. The Regular Firearms Statewide Season accounted for another 1,081, with the Extended Firearms Season bringing in another 578 for a season total of 2,890.
While it doesn’t surprise me, it is interesting to note how the harvest numbers ran during the four-day Statewide Firearms Season; opening day Saturday accounted for 698 bears, and on Sunday, 237 were taken. On Monday, 117, and on Tuesday, only 29 were killed; as expected, a steady decrease in numbers each day.
When looking at the northcentral part of the state, as usual, Lycoming County was up near the top on the bear take with 168, with Tioga County coming in first with 175. As you also might expect, heavily forested and thinly populated, Potter County came in next with 151. My own little county — Montour — had a total of two bears taken, with the surrounding counties of Columbia with 27 and Northumberland with 10.
There are obviously still a lot of bears roaming around out there and many have not yet started to den up. Just yesterday somebody showed me a photo of a bear he saw near his home. You could still see a bear roaming the countryside, especially a male, since they are usually later to den up, so keep your eyes open.
