Rappahannock News

2020 was second largest bear harvest on record in Va.

- By Rachel Needham Rappahanno­ck News Staff

For the second year in a row, hunters in Virginia have harvested a record number of black bears, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). For several decades, the department has tracked annual deer, bear and turkey kills and recorded each animal’s sex, date of kill, weapon used and location.

Rappahanno­ck County hunters reported 23 bears harvested this winter, contributi­ng to the second-largest statewide bear harvest since the DWR (previously the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries) began keeping records in 1928. Across the state, hunters reported harvesting 3,464 animals during this year’s bear season, which lasted from Oct. 3, 2020 to Jan. 2, 2021. The DWR estimates that 57% of those bears were taken by hunters using hounds.

“The 2020-21 bear harvest was approximat­ely 2% lower than the previous year’s record harvest; however, as the second highest harvest on record, it was still 24% higher than the previous 5-year average during 2015-2019,” the DWR reports on its website.

During the 2019-20 season, hunters reported harvesting more than 3,500 animals.

The DWR says that the primary reason that hunters have been so successful over the past two seasons could be that the department expanded firearms hunting opportunit­ies and increased “recreation­al opportunit­ies in areas with expanding bear population­s.”

“As part of our bear management plan … in about 50 counties we changed the objective from stabilizin­g bear numbers to reducing bear numbers,” says David Kocka, district wildlife biologist for the DWR. Kocka said that as part of an effort to reach that new goal, in some counties in Northern Virginia and on both sides of the Blue Ridge the department implemente­d a threeday early season before the regular bow-hunting season opened.

The season during the winter of 2020-21 was also the second during which hunters could report their kills through the DWR’s electronic harvest reporting system over the internet with a computer or a phone app.

As for the white-tailed deer harvest, Rappahanno­ck County hunters took home approximat­ely 1,848 deer: 783 antlered males, 101 male fawns and 964 females.

Statewide, hunters took home 208,131 deer, up slightly from the 206,976 that were harvested in the winter of 2019-20. “Archery hunters took 14% of the total deer harvest while muzzleload­ing deer hunters and firearms hunters took 24% and 63% of the total harvest, respective­ly,” the DWR says.

Bear and deer harvests are essential to meeting the state’s goals for wildlife population­s and habitat.

DWR Deer Project Leader Matt Knox explains: “Where hunters have access to deer, they control the deer numbers. A lot of people think we’re trying to produce more and more deer for deer hunters but it’s actually just the opposite, we’re trying to control the deer numbers for all citizens, for hunters and non-hunters.”

The Spring Youth Hunt for the 2021 turkey season will be over the weekend of Apr. 3-4. Spring Turkey season begins Apr. 11 and ends May 16.

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