Arkansas bear and elk report shows slight drop for 2019
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’s bear and elk harvests showed slight declines during the 2019 season.
Biologists with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said much of the decrease could be attributed to last year’s extremely productive hard mast crop.
According to Myron Means, the AGFC Large Carnivore Program biologist, hunters harvested 432 black bears in Arkansas during 2019.
“Considering the mast crop that we had available across the state, it was actually a pretty good harvest for bears,” Means said. “I didn’t expect it to be quite that high.”
Baited sites and food plots do not have the same appeal to deer, bear, elk and other game species when acorns and other natural foods are abundant in the woods. Animals can find all the food they need without moving long distances, making them much more challenging to hunt.
A total of 293 bears were harvested with archery equipment, while 57 bears were harvested with muzzleloaders and 82 bears were taken using modern guns.
“That’s nothing new,” Means said. “Most of our bears are taken over bait on private land, and archery hunters get those bears on bait while they are still in pre-hibernation.”
Commissioner J.D. Neeley of Camden asked when hunters could expect to see an open bear zone in southwest and south-central Arkansas. Each year more hunters in those areas are reporting bears on their deer leases.
Means explained that a current study at the University of Arkansas at Monticello is in its last year of field research to establish a population baseline on bears in those regions of the state.
“They hope to have us a final report in 2021,” Means said. “2022 would be the next regulations cycle to set season dates and quotas.”
Means stressed that if the zones were opened, it would start with a very conservative quota to protect the population from overharvest.
According to Wes Wright, the elk program coordinator, hunters checked 47 elk during two managed hunts in north Arkansas in 2019. The harvest showed a substantial decline in harvest from the 2018 season.
“Last year we had a record harvest of 67 elk, but we had just started a new method for the private land permit system that increased participation on that end,” Wright said. “This year was more in line with historic harvest numbers.”
Despite talk from some hunters about seeing relatively few elk on public land last year, public land harvest numbers remained steady.
“Again, the heavy mast crop likely dispersed elk and kept them closer to the woods where they are harder to find and harder to hunt,” Wright said.
The commission voted to continue granting one elk tag each to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation and Arkansas Wildlife Federation to help those organizations’ efforts in raising funding for and awareness of elk conservation in Arkansas.