New bear harvest record set: But are we taking too many?

In the northeast region of the state, there is a shared sentiment among hunters and non-hunters alike that the bear population is too high.

Game wardens lament how their days are filled dealing with bear complaints, farmers routinely deal with crop damage and, in many areas, suburban homeowners have grown accustomed to cleaning up spilled garbage cans and the remnants of backyard birdfeeders.

Dumpster-diving bears behind restaurants are a frequent occurrence, and the sight of a bruin walking through a neighborhood isn’t big news anymore.

That’s why I was surprised when, after the early bear season resulted in a harvest of 1,335, a few people in the northeast questioned if we were on the verge of taking too many bruins. It’s a valid question. Think about it: Hunters already harvested more than 1,300 bears in the early season and rifle season hasn’t even started yet!

Not surprisingly, the extra opportunities afforded this season resulted in a record bear harvest of 4,596, surpassing the previous high mark of 4,350 set in 2011.

Still, I wondered if it’s even possible to have a bear harvest that’s too high or too much. When it comes to managing wildlife, it’s imperative to be cognizant of how the harvest impacts the population of any species. However, I think the concern about an over-harvest, when it comes to bears, is premature and it’s impossible to arrive at such a conclusion based on the early season numbers alone.

The early bear season consisted of a muzzleloader and special firearms seasons – both of which were new. While a harvest of 1,335 bears in the early season sounds like a lot, we have no idea if that’s high or low because there’s nothing to compare it to. This season never occurred before so there is no past data.

But when it comes to taking too many bears over the course of an entire hunting season, I don’t think that’s an easy thing to do.

Here’s why:

While a female bear gives birth every other year, the average litter size is three. Pennsylvania’s bear population is estimated at 20,000, and acting on the assumption that half are females, and most don’t produce their first litter until the age of 3, let’s assume that 5,000 give birth to cubs each year. That means roughly 15,000 cubs, based on the average litter size of three. If that sounds a bit high, let’s say there are 1,000 sows giving birth each year, producing 3,000 cubs. That low-end estimate nearly replaces what is taken through the annual harvest. I’m not a biologist and perhaps my numbers are way off the mark, but it’s still something to consider.

Bears aren’t easy to hunt. If they were, we wouldn’t have bruins reaching weights in excess of 700 or even 800 pounds and living into their teens or beyond. If bears were easy to hunt, or if they were being over-harvested, there wouldn’t be so many growing extremely large or having lifespans of 10 or 20 years. They accomplish this by avoiding hunters.

Bears have an advantage over many other species because they aren’t really impacted by a harsh winter. While deer and turkeys, for example, can perish during a hard winter, bears weather it out in the confines of their dens. Really, the only mortality factors facing bears in Pennsylvania are limited to hunting, roadkills and, to a lesser degree, mange.

Finally, it appears that this year’s bear harvest will fall into the yearly average of 3,000 to 4,000. As I write this, the rifle season harvest after the fourth and final day was 1,601 – just 267 more than the number taken in the early season. I don’t know what the extended season number will be, but it appears that this year’s harvest will be similar to previous years – just spread out over several segments instead of lumped into the rifle season.

While it’s prudent to err on the side of caution when it comes to over-harvesting anything, I think we need to give Pennsylvania black bears a little credit for their resiliency.

And abundance.

One biologist I spoke to during the opening day of the rifle season said he was shocked to have not seen a tagged bear come into the check station. Considering all of the bears that have been tagged over the last few years, to not have one appear at the check station on opening day is a sign that the population is robust.

Which leads to perhaps the more important question when it comes to bear hunting: Are we harvesting enough?