Pennsylvania Game News - October 2022 - 9

Cover Painting by Doug Pifer
Getting started on a hunt from a tree stand always is a process. Climber and
safety harness attached to the tree, and a haul rope looped around your
bow, quiver and pack, you're ready to shimmy to a comfortable hunting
height and lock in. But even then, you're not quite ready to hunt. Gear
must be hoisted from the ground, camouflage added to face and hands and
an arrow nocked. In completing these tasks, don't forget to look around.
A behemoth bear could be passing below, much quieter than you'd ever
expect. " Unaware " by Doug Pifer captures the spirit of those hunts when
opportunity knocks perhaps too soon, and maybe without revealing itself.
program that moved bears from areas
where they were abundant to areas they
weren't, primarily in the Southwest and
Southcentral regions. The effort undoubtedly
helped bears colonize the state faster
than they would have otherwise.
But give the bears themselves plenty
of credit, too.
" Bears are still expanding on their
own, which is something many states are
seeing, especially in places where bears
were nearly extirpated entirely, " Carrollo
said.
In Pennsylvania's case, that's because
the living is comparatively easy. There are
places around North America where bear
fortunes rise and fall based on the relative
abundance of one particular food source
or another. That's never a worry here.
" Pennsylvania has great bear habitat
that leads to big bears, and a lot of them, "
Carrollo said. " Additionally, during poor
mast years, bears in Pennsylvania will turn
to unnatural food resources that bears in
more remote areas like Canada may not
have access to. "
All of that food, of all kinds, in the
Keystone State leads to healthy bears,
too. Carrollo said females here typically
have their first litter of cubs when they're 3
years old, and they give birth to three cubs
each, on average. That reproduction rate
OCTOBER 2022
is among " the highest that can be found
anywhere in the bear range. "
Females then keep churning out cubs
every other year for a long time. Bears can
live to be 40 years old, Carrollo said. Few
do, of course. And the older a bear gets,
the fewer cubs it has.
Still, there are exceptions.
" If a female bear lives an average of
10 to 12 years, she would have anywhere
from four to five litters in her lifetime, "
Carrollo said. " But the oldest female we
ever handled that had cubs during the
winter den season was in her late 20s,
which is much older than even many of
the oldest bears we see in the harvest,
which are typically in their late teens. "
LOCATING BEARS
Hunters looking for one of the state's
plentiful bears this fall should focus on
finding what the animals are eating. Just
remember that changes seasonally.
" During the early seasons some of the
best places to find bears would be near
agricultural fields where bears may be
looking for crops at their peak and may
even be causing conflict for farmers, " Carrollo
said. " If you can gain access to an
agricultural field where a farmer is having
bear problems, you will probably have a
decent shot at harvesting a bear.
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Pennsylvania Game News - October 2022

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