Pennsylvania black bears getting bigger

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania’s black bear population has been growing since 1980, when about 3,000 bruins were believed to live in the state. Despite loss of traditional habitat, the state now holds some 20,000 bears, more than are thought to have occupied Penn’s Woods at the time of European settlement.

According to Boone and Crockett Club records, Pennsylvania now ranks second among all states and Canadian provinces in number of black bear entries. Ten percent of those record-setting bears were taken in Pennsylvania — a clear conservation milestone accomplished through scientifically applied regulated hunting.

Now the state’s bears are getting bigger. In the 2016 hunt, 60 bears topped 500 pounds including a 740pounder taken at 7 yards with archery gear.

In the run-up to this year’s four-day statewide firearm bear season, which starts Nov. 18, state Game Commission bear biologist Mark Ternent said bountiful hard and soft mast production and other favorable conditions could result in some of the biggest bears the region has ever produced.

“Pennsylvania bear hunters have already taken a few 800-pounders, and since there’s been no decline in bear health or body weights in recent years, the odds remain good for it to happen again,” he said in a statement. “However, it’s no small feat for a bear to reach that size when you consider it takes about nine years for a bear to reach 500 pounds.”

Ternent suggested that if the weather cooperates, this THIS WEEK: With the bear population at an historic high, Pennsylvania’s statewide firearm bear season should be expanded to more than four days. • Yes • No • LAST WEEK: I would be more likely to purchase an air rifle or semi-automatic rifle if it could be legally used to hunt for deer in Pennsylvania. year’s harvest could top the 3,539 taken in 2016, the state’s fifth-best year for bears when kills were confirmed in 58 of the state’s 67 counties. In 2015 hunters scored the third-best harvest with a total of 3,748. The biggest bear harvest occurred in 2011, the first year of the current four-day statewide firearms bear season, when 4,350 bears were taken.

Among the bears killed already this year with archery gear is a yearling taken in the northern reaches of Wildlife Management Unit 2B, which covers the Pittsburgh region.

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