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DEC Announces 2017 Bear Harvest Results;
Sharp Decrease in Lewis County from 2016 Numbers
03/07/18 05:30pm
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    Press Release from NYS DEC:

    DEC Announces 2017 Bear Harvest Results

    New York State bear hunters took 1,420 black bears during the 2017 hunting
    seasons, state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner
    Basil Seggos announced today.

    "New York has excellent bear habitat and vast, accessible public lands that offer
    exciting opportunities for bear hunting," said DEC Commissioner Seggos. "With
    abundant natural food sources this past year, bears were in great condition, and
    several hunters took bears weighing in excess of 500 pounds."

    Hunters took an estimated 1,037 black bears in New York's Southern Zone,
    nearly the same number as in 2016, but slightly more than the recent five-year
    average. Bowhunters took 330 bears, on par with the recent average, but less
    than the 537 bears taken during the regular season. The early season, which
    DEC initiated in 2014 to reduce bear populations in a handful of management
    units in the Catskill region, resulted in 150 bears.

    In the Northern Zone, hunters took an estimated 383 bears, about 25 percent
    fewer than 2016 and below the historical average. Bear take in the Northern
    Zone tends to alternate between strong harvests during the early season one
    year, followed by strong harvests during the regular season the next year, based
    primarily on cycles of food availability. This year, the early season accounted for
    82 bears, similar to the early seasons of 2011 and 2013. However, hunters fared
    much better during the regular season, taking 242 bears.

    For the second year, junior hunters were allowed to take black bears during the
    Youth Firearms Big Game Hunt over Columbus Day weekend. That hunt
    overlapped with the early bear season in most of the Northern Zone, but one
    junior hunter in the Northern Zone and eight in the Southern Zone took
    advantage of the opportunity to harvest a bear.

    Black Bear Harvest & Recent Trend Comparison
                       2017 Total    2016 Total    Recent 5-year Average  Historical Average
                                                                                            (2012-2016)                (1991-2000)
    Northern Zone        383        514                         520                               515
    Southern Zone       1,037     1,025                      995                                207
    Statewide               1,420     1,539                   1,515                                722

    Notable Numbers

  • 1 bear per 4.2 square miles - by DEC Wildlife Management Unit (WMU), the
    greatest bear harvest density occurred in WMU 3C, which is predominantly
    in Ulster County but includes slivers of Sullivan and Greene counties.
    However, the town of Olive in Ulster County (WMUs 3A and 3C) yielded
    one bear for every 2.4 square miles.

  • 163 - the greatest number of bears reported taken on any one day, Nov. 18,
    the opening day of the regular firearms season in the Southern Zone.

  • 550 pounds - the heaviest dressed weight bear reported to DEC in 2017,
    taken in the town of Lexington, Greene County. A 520-pound dressed
    weight bear was reported taken in Wayland in Steuben County, and seven
    bears were reported with dressed weights between 400-500 pounds.
    Scaled weights of dressed bears were submitted for 23 percent of bears
    taken in 2017.

  • 15 - the number of tagged bears reported in the 2017 harvest. These
    included three bears originally tagged in Pennsylvania and one from New
    Jersey. The remainder were originally tagged in New York for a variety of
    reasons, including research, nuisance response, relocated urban bears, or
    released rehabilitated bears.

  • 872 - the number of hunter-killed bears from which DEC collected teeth for
    age analysis in 2017. Hunters who reported their harvest and submitted a
    tooth for age analysis will receive a 2017 Black Bear Management
    Cooperator Patch. Results of the age analysis should be available by
    September 2018.

  • 11 percent - the proportion of bears taken by non-resident hunters.
    Successful non-resident bear hunters hailed from 13 states, the farthest
    being Florida, Louisiana, and California.

    2017 Bear Take Summary Report

    A complete summary of the 2017 bear harvest with results and maps by county,
    town, and WMU is available on DEC's website.

    Below is a chart showing the bear take by town and county. We have
    outlined Lewis County in red. A total of 38 bears were harvested in Lewis
    County in 2017, a sharp decrease from the 90 reported in 2016. You can
    see last year's Bear Harvest Report here, for comparison.