Bear harvest results released

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> The heaviest dressed weight black bear from the 2017 hunting season weighed 550 pounds and was taken in Lexington, Greene County, in the northern Catskills.

Statewide, hunters took 1,420 black bears -- 1,037 in the Southern Zone and 383 in the Northern Zone, including 15 in Saratoga County.

In Saratoga County, the zones are separated on an east-wide line that roughly parallels Route 29.

Of the 15 bears taken in Saratoga County, six were in Edinburg, four in Day, three in Hadley and one each in Providence and Wilton. Nine were taken during the regular hunting season, three during the muzzleloader season and three during the early season.

Statewide, Southern Zone numbers were comparable to the 2016 hunting season’s, while there was a 25 percent drop in the Northern Zone.

Bear take in the Northern Zone tends to alternate between strong harvests during the early season one year, followed by strong harvests during the regular season the next year, based primarily on cycles of food availability.

This year, the early season accounted for 82 bears, similar to the early seasons of 2011 and 2013. However, hunters fared much better during the regular season, taking 242 bears.

For the second year, junior hunters were allowed to take black bears during the Youth Firearms Big Game Hunt over Columbus Day weekend. That hunt overlapped with the early bear season in most of the Northern Zone, but one junior hunter in the Northern Zone and eight in

the Southern Zone took advantage of the opportunity to harvest a bear.

“New York has excellent bear habitat and vast, accessible public lands that offer exciting opportuni- ties for bear hunting,” said Basil Seggos, state Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner. “With abundant natural food sources this past year, bears were in great condition, and several hunters took bears weighing in excess of 500 pounds.”