5 bears taken on Day 1 of the extension

[Black Bear Bowhunter]

Another 5 bears down.

Get after them!

[Jcol6268]

Wish I was out there! Good luck to those hitting the woods. Thought I would be out yesterday but got the sick kid home. Bears have been super active post 6-Day of course on my cameras lol. One even knocked my camera down. Got this infamous last pics: 

 

 

[Bucksnbows]

I’m done myself and haven’t baited since the Saturday before 6 Day, but I’m still getting lots of pix. 

[TroutandBucks]

Does fish & game  know what the actual bear population for the state is or a good estimate

[Bucksnbows]

26 minutes ago, TroutandBucks said:

Does fish & game  know what the actual bear population for the state is or a good estimate

Yes, too many. 
 

The COs are sick and tired of bear nuisance calls. Takes away from their real duties. You (speaking to all) now live in bear territory, so learn to deal as we have here in the northwest part of the state for decades now. 
 

The correct answer to your question is yes for the main population up north and a fair amount as they move south over time. Statewide?  Probably not, but they do have ample data in areas where they need controlled hunting. 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Bucksnbows

[mazzgolf]

54 minutes ago, TroutandBucks said:

Does fish & game  know what the actual bear population for the state is or a good estimate

If you ask the antis and bear hugger groups, they would say "no, the state's estimates are too high. They don't know how many bears we have". They harp on this point over and over and over again when they argue against the hunt.

Of course they ignore the fact that the state does all this tagging of bears, and track nuisance calls, etc. in addition to having all the hunter data (when we have the hunt!). I bet they are closer to the bear estimate than they are for things like coyote!

[Black Bear Bowhunter]

You can do simple math with the tagged and harvested bears. Looks to me around 3000 if my math is correct…

[Rusty]

1 hour ago, TroutandBucks said:

Does fish & game  know what the actual bear population for the state is or a good estimate

If you use the standard Mark Recapture formula and this year’s harvest you get a little under 2,700.

I believe that F&W uses a modified version of the formula so their number might be a little different.    

[TroutandBucks]

So I get the simple math with the 30% around ~3K bears but I feel like that number has to be really low. I have we havent hit 30% harvest in a few years and more bears get tagged and alot arent. I would have to say the population is ~5K bears

[Rusty]

Nuisance permits and cars kill a lot of bears too.  So that adds to the percentage killed each year.   

[mike033089]

1 hour ago, Rusty said:

Nuisance permits and cars kill a lot of bears too.  So that adds to the percentage killed each year.   

Couple weeks ago in blairstown on  route 94 2 bears got hit by a car. Laying there side by side.  One smaller than the other. I assume a mom and last years cub. But I bet it had more than one cub with it. 

[Black Bear Bowhunter]

At the check station I asked a couple of questions and the answers I got were something like:

Yes we do get the road killed bears and also count them and nuisance bears killed by farmers are somewhat reported especially if they are tagged. But those numbers are not published to my knowledge so I would agree the population is definitely higher then 3k