Bear harvest in Pittsburgh region slips 24%, also declines across Pa.

Pennsylvania had the sixth best black bear harvest in 2020, taking 3,608 bears. However, last year’s harvest was 20% lower from 2019 statewide and 24% lower in the southwestern part of the state.

In 2019, hunters set a record in harvesting 4,653 bears.

The annual average has been running 3,675 bears during the past five years, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

A big year of bear harvests is usually followed by a not-so-big year the next season, according to the commission. After a then-record harvest of 4,311 in 2011, bear kills declined to 3,632 in 2012. Following 2005’s then-record harvest of 4,164, the harvest slipped to 3,124 the next year.

“This ebb and flow has appeared in Pennsylvania bear harvests for the past century,” said Emily Carrollo, Game Commission bear biologist in a press release. “It’s the nature and reality of bear hunting.”

Bear harvests can change dramatically from year to year because of food availability, weather and “hunter actions,” the agency added.

For the southwest region there were really no surprises last year, said Patrick Snickles, spokesman for the commission’s southwest region. There were typically harvests spaced out over a variety of bear seasons including a longer archery season, a new muzzleloader and special firearms season, as well as the regular firearms season.

“Now having a Sunday during the regular firearms season was also new, but a little surprising here,” Snickles said. “Pressure was noticeably light on a region level that day and very few bears were checked that day.”

Most of region’s bear harvests are in Armstrong, Somerset, Fayette and the eastern half of Westmoreland County, he said.

Although there isn’t much of an established bear population in Allegheny County, hunters continue to harvest a couple of bears each fall, Snickles said.

“These are usually younger bears seeking to establish their own home ranges without interference from older, more dominant bears.”

Bear harvests in Southwestern Pennsylvania by county, listed by last year’s harvest, followed by the 2019 harvest in parenthesis:

Total Southwest Region: 258 (347) decline of 24%

Somerset: 69, (124), decline of 44%

Armstrong: 56, (58), decline of 3%

Fayette: 43, (62), decline of 30%

Indiana: 29, (42), decline of 30%

Cambria: 24, (29), decline of 17%

Westmoreland: 32, (29), increase of 10% increase

Allegheny: 3, (2), increase of 50%

Greene: 2, (1), increase of 100%

Potter County had the highest number of bears taken at 188, followed by Lycoming County with 185. Other top counties for bear harvests in 2020 were: Tioga, 184; Clearfield, 157; Monroe, 152; Clinton, 149; Elk, 140; Luzerne, 125; and Carbon, 117, according to the commission.

The largest bear through all 2020 seasons was the 719-pound male taken with a crossbow on Nov. 7 in Ayr Township, Fulton County. The heaviest bear ever taken in Pennsylvania was an 875-pounder harvested in 2010 in Middle Smithfield Township, Pike County, according to the commission.