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Bear Populations on the Rise in Pennsylvania

As many PA hunters lament what is happening with our deer population, no one argues that the PA black bear population is a great success story.  In the 1970s, PA had about 2500 bear.  Today, we are up to about 15,000.  That’s a pretty impressive number.

The problem is that these bear are starting to become more and more of a nuisance and arguably even a danger to people.  It will be interesting to see how PA deals with this new issue.

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Posted: June 3rd, 2008 under PA Hunting.
Comments: 4

Comments

Comment from Fair Winds
Time: June 5, 2008, 8:44 pm

True! My family just saw a mother bear and two cubs a few weeks ago in the game lands just north of Cook Forest State Park. We just bought some cabins last fall in the Jefferson County portion of Cook Forest and we had a bear walk through just about every night checking out our dumpster. We didn’t have many cabins available for hunting season last year, but this year we are open and it looks like the bear population is definately on the rise!!

Comment from Kris
Time: June 7, 2008, 10:15 pm

I think it is great that populations are growing in our states, and that more hunting opportunities are opening up. I am sure there will be issues that arise when limits start being expanded and anti-hunters start trying to stop hunting (like in NJ). However, when bears become a nuisance, most people will agree to thinning the numbers…

Pingback from Woman killed by black bear; Proper fish handling on a tournament fishing show; Stripers and not strippers; Plus More in Odds and Ends for June 10, 2008 | Penn’s Outdoors
Time: June 10, 2008, 6:38 am

[…] attacked.  No one knows the details of the attack as she was alone.  While we welcome the surge in black bear population in Pennsylvania, everyone must remember that black bears can be dangerous.  Mauling-deaths by black bears are […]

Comment from Fair Winds
Time: June 16, 2008, 8:11 am

The problem is the tourists think the bears are cute rather than a nuisance. We spotted the same mother bear and cubs a few days ago … people were crazy enough to be out of their cars taking pictures when the mother was on one side of the road and the cubs on the other. Guess where the people were? Yes, on the road, in between the mother and th cubs …. problem waiting to happen. It is one thing for them to get into our dumpster - it is another for people to be disturbing them. Too many people in a bear habitat is a bad combination. Our state parks are beautiful places but can be dangerous places if people don’t understand how bears think.

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