Pennsylvania Game News - April 2020 - 44

certain other license holders could use
rifles. The bear archery season also was
expanded from one week to two, and
the extended seasons were expanded in
many Wildlife Management Units, and
lengthened in every WMU they were
held so they could open concurrently
with the firearms deer season on the
Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Not since 1931 had as many
days of bear hunting been offered in
Pennsylvania.
And hunters, in turn, headed to the
bear woods in astonishing numbers.
A record 202,043 bear licenses were
sold in 2019 - an increase of more than
27,000 bear hunters, or a 16 percent
spike. It was the greatest single-year
increase in bear hunters in any year since
Pennsylvania's bear license was created
in 1981.
Hunters harvested impressive
numbers of bears in all seasons. The
general-season harvest came in at 1,629
bears, 1,340 bears - more than 1,100
of them muzzleloader harvests - were
taken in the October seasons; 1,117 were
harvested in extended firearms seasons,
and 561 were taken in the bear archery
season. The muzzleloader, extendedseason and archery harvests all were
records for those seasons.
Perhaps the best news is that these
outcomes could be the new norm.
While the overall harvest was a
record, it fell within the expected range.
And while the harvest rate for bears - an
estimated 23 percent of the state's bear
population was harvested in 2019 - was
among the highest on record, it's also
within its historical range.
Bears were taken in 58 counties
and 22 of Pennsylvania's 23 Wildlife
Management Units (WMUs).
The largest bear through all 2019
44

seasons is the 813-pound male taken with
a rifle on the opening day of the general
season in Smithfield Township, Monroe
County, by Victor M. Vassalluzzo, of
Kintnersville.
Lycoming County finished with
284 bears to take the top county bear
harvest. It was followed by Clinton and
Tioga counties, both with 267. Other top
counties for bear harvests in 2019 were:
Huntingdon, 180; Potter, 174; Luzerne,
163; Pike, 161; Bedford, 156; Centre,
146; and Warren, 146.
Final county harvests by region (with
2018 figures in parentheses) are:
Northwest - 557 (517): Warren, 146 (72);
Venango, 80 (96); Forest, 69 (70); Crawford,
65 (79); Jefferson, 65 (79); Clarion, 65 (52);
Butler, 44 (26); Erie, 16 (29); Mercer, 7 (13);
and Lawrence, 0 (1).
Southwest - 347 (261): Somerset, 124 (85);
Fayette, 62 (58); Armstrong, 58 (33); Indiana,
42 (34); Cambria, 29 (21); Westmoreland,
29 (26); Allegheny, 2 (2); Greene, 1 (1); and
Beaver, 0 (1).
Northcentral - 1,605 (989): Lycoming, 284
(159); Clinton, 267 (158); Tioga, 267 (166);
Potter, 174 (109); Centre, 146 (87); McKean,
129 (67); Clearfield, 103 (87); Elk, 101
(54);Cameron, 80 (67); and Union, 54 (35).
Southcentral - 731 (474): Huntingdon,
180 (142); Bedford, 156 (80); Fulton, 80
(58); Perry, 68 (31); Mifflin, 54 (29); Franklin,
47 (26); Juniata, 42 (34); Blair, 40 (44);
Cumberland, 27 (12); Snyder, 25 (7); Adams,
11 (7); and York, 1 (4).
Northeast - 1,228 (775): Luzerne,
163 (105); Pike, 161 (104); Wayne, 131
(70); Monroe, 130 (103); Bradford, 128
(96); Carbon, 88 (60); Sullivan, 87 (53);
Susquehanna, 82 (46); Wyoming, 82 (40);
Lackawanna, 79 (34); Columbia, 64 (38);
Northumberland, 26 (24); and Montour, 7 (2).
Southeast - 185 (137): Schuylkill, 79 (50);
Dauphin, 67 (48); Berks, 17 (8); Northampton,
16 (17); Lehigh, 4 (4); and Lebanon, 2 (10).
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2020

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