Pennsylvania Game News - April 2024 - 10

by 2000, then to 20,000 by about 2015
or so. That was all by design, courtesy
of bear seasons that were slotted into the
calendar to protect cub-rearing females.
So, too, was the reduction in the bear
population that followed.
With bear-human conflicts growing
in areas, the archery bear season was
lengthened, the October muzzleloader
and special firearms seasons were added,
and extended firearms seasons were
added, lengthened or both.
All gave hunters more opportunity.
They responded in a big way.
Pennsylvania had fewer than 130,000
bear hunters in 2003. In 2023, it had
206,124. That total - the fourth-highest
ever - marked the fifth year in a row
that bear license sales topped 200,000.
But for all that participation, the
2023 bear harvest was down, to 2,920,
a decrease from the 3,170 taken in 2022
and the first time since 2007 the harvest
fell below the 3,000-bear mark.
Emily Carrollo, the Game Commission's
Black Bear Program Specialist,
said that wasn't necessarily unexpected.
The extended bear season was eliminated
in five Wildlife Management Units
(WMUs) - WMUs 1B, 2C, 4A, 4B and
4D - for 2023 specifically to ease the
pressure on bears in places where conflicts
waned. That worked.
On average, from 2019 to 2022,
those WMUs produced a harvest of 375
bears during the extended season.
" So I think this decrease in the overall
harvest is mostly explained by the
removal of the extended season in those
five WMUs, " Carrollo said. " That was
a deliberate decision. Obviously, there
are many other things that affect a harvest
season for any wildlife species. But
most of it can be explained by the removal
of those five WMUs. "
10
The smaller take likely also was
driven by a " little bit of a decrease " in
the bear harvest rate, something determined
by looking at the percentage of
tagged bears brought to check stations.
The harvest rate last year was 16%,
which as a decline from 2022 and the
lowest since 2019.
That might seem to suggest a bear
population in trouble. But, according
to the most recent population estimates,
Carrollo said the bear population actually
grew in 2023, after three consecutive
years of declines. She estimated it
at a little more than 18,000 bears.
The proposed change to the October
muzzleloader season is to address
concerns about how many females are
harvested in the early seasons while still
maximizing hunter opportunity.
The muzzleloader season isn't the
the longest bear season; that would
be the six-week early archery season
that's only available in select WMUs.
Nor is it the one that adds the most to
the harvest; that would be the general
season. Hunters took 1,086 bears then
last year. The statewide archery season,
by comparison, accounted for another
695 bears harvested, the extended season
591, the muzzleloader season 424,
the special firearms season 117 and the
early archery bear season 7.
" But you can't compare season to
season just by the total number of bears
harvested, " Carrollo said. " Some seasons
are longer than others. Some seasons
are offered only in certain parts of
the state. Some seasons use tactics like
drives more frequently. So we have to
come up with a singular variable so we
can compare these seasons. "
In this case, that's harvest efficiency.
The muzzleloader bear season, Carrollo
said, is the one where hunters are
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2024

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