An estimated 15,000 black bears currently are “roaming the woods” throughout Pennsylvania, including in Bucks County, the state Game Commission has reported as varied bear-hunting seasons get underway.
While the odds of harvesting a bear are “long” – between 1.5 and 2.5 percent of licensed bear hunters are successful — now “is not the time to give up,” the state Game Commission said.
“Bears are again plentiful and widespread across Pennsylvania,” said Travis Lau, spokesman, state Game Commission. “If you hunted Pennsylvania bears for years without harvesting one, now is not the time to give up.”
Though no black bear has been harvested in Bucks County over the past few years, several sightings in lower Bucks recently have been reported – like in Lower Makefield, Lower Southampton and Warrington townships.
Said a Lower Makefield Township homeowner after seeing a bear outside her home: “There’s a lot of nature around here. You can hear the birds and there are turkeys and foxes and coyotes and all that kind of stuff. But never a bear before.”
The 2023 seasons – including archery through Nov. 24, with Sundays, Nov. 12 and 19; firearms Nov. 18 to Nov. 21, with Sunday Nov. 19 — is “long and varied, offering lots of opportunities including on three Sundays,” he said.
During the 2022 seasons, hunters harvested 3,170 bears, down from 3,628 in 2021, but still the 14th most of all time, according to Lau. The best was in 2019, with 4,653 harvested. Bears were taken last year in 58 of the state’s 67 counties. One bear was especially notable for its size at 755 pounds taken in Monroe County.
A hunter can get lucky and take down a second bear in their lifetime.
“There’s nothing to say a hunter who gets a bear can’t get another,” said Lau., nothing the state Game Commission recently surveyed about 2,100 bear hunters about their experiences, habits and more like a question on the level of success.
“Most hunters – some 43 percent of them – only ever harvested one bear,” said Emily Carrollo, bear biologist. “But 11 percent harvested five or more bears in their lifetime, and 1.5 percent harvested more than 10 bears in their lifetime.”
Carrollo said black bear hunting in Pennsylvania is as popular as ever. In 2022, she said, 213,639 people bought a bear license, the third most ever on record.
“Our season structure allows hunters to pursue black bears across multiple months, using multiple tools, when opportunity best matches up with their availability,” she said. “That’s good for them and good for helping us reach our management objectives.”
Source : The Reporter
