New Jersey continues to breed record size Black Bears with their controversial(court challenged) week long hunt just concluded...........460 Bruins killed of the State Game Commision population estimate of 3400..........Northwestern Jersey has one of the highest densities of Black Bears in the USA,,,,,,the founding stock having wandered in from NY and Pennsylvania over the last 50 years...........Bears are found throughout the State but at smaller densities............Record setting 829 and 776 pound Bears killed this year, almost Grizzly sized in the highest human density State in the USA!..........Florida also seems to have a growing Bear population but no recommendations for a hunt at this time.............And Kentucky with a just recovering population allowed 4 Bears killed in its two day hunt...................Welcome the return of the Black Bear to Eastern USA!

Big bruins in bear hunt--The Garden State has "big guys"

 By J.B. Kasper

Schweitzer, wildlife technician for the NJ Dept. of Fish and Wildlife; examines a bear's teeth brought in by a hunter at the site of the DEP bear hunt weigh station in Franklin.

The 2011 bear hunt is in the history books. Hunters took to the forests in the northern portion of the state during the six-day firearms season and downed over 460 black bears. Hunters fell short of the Division of Fish and Wildlife's goal, which was to take over 500 bears out of the bear population.
Population estimates show there are approximately 3,400 black bears in a 1,000 square-mile hunting area north of Route 78 and west of Route 287, with the population highest in the northwest corner of the state, which has one of the highest black-bear densities in the nation. There is also a smaller but uncounted number of bears in the rest of New Jersey's 21 counties, with reports of bear sightings occurring in the past few years in more eastern and central portions of the state.

Bear hunting zones included large sections of Morris, Sussex, Warren, and northern Passaic counties, plus smaller areas of Hunterdon, Somerset and Bergen counties, where a one-bear-per-licensed-and-registered hunter was permitted.

The hunt was cleared to take place after a court challenge from anti-hunting groups was dismissed by the Appellate Division of the State Superior Court on Dec. 5. The three-judge panel rejected arguments made by the New Jersey Animal Protection League and the Bear Education and Resource Group contending the DEP and State Fish and Game Council acted arbitrarily and/or in bad faith in creating the Comprehensive Black Bear Management Plan (CBBMP), which includes an annual bear hunt as part of the integrated plan to deal with the state's black bear population.

DEP Commissioner Bob Martin stated, "This ruling affirms the science- and fact-based policy that we have adopted as part of the comprehensive approach to managing black bears in New Jersey." He further stated, "The plan is a legitimate response to deal with the large back bear population and a resultant increase in public complaints about bear/human encounters. This is a public-safety issue that requires responsible action by the state."

This year's bear hunt produced some interesting insights into the bear population in the Garden State. Take, for instance, the 776-pound bear which was shot by John Noon while hunting in the woods in Montague. The bear was a state record and took 11 people six hours to bring it out of the woods. The state record lasted a mere 24 hours when another hunter downed an 829-pound black bear. Both bears are huge, not only in New Jersey, but anywhere in the country. Both are close in weight to a small grizzly. Earlier in the week, bears of 466, 465 and 650 pounds were taken.

While most of the bigger bears were taken from the northwestern portion, which is the least densely populated part of the state, just think about what could happen if one of those big bruins went berserk and went after a human. Or say a hiker with children happened to cross paths with the bear at the wrong time and made the wrong moves.

The results could be disastrous. We have been lucky so far. With over 3,000 bears concentrated in a limited amount of space (one of the largest bear density per square mile in the country), no one has gotten seriously hurt. While the bears have killed pets and livestock, injuries to humans have been minor, so far.

No matter what anyone tells you, bears can be dangerous animals especially when they grow to the size of the ones we mentioned. A lot of people who live in the northern portion of the state have legitimate fears when it comes to bears. In the majority of cases, no amount of education will enable people who live in the suburbs to deal with a face-to-face bear-human contact.

In other states where hunting has been used to bring a population under control, wildlife managers have used hunting to maintain a population at a safe, healthy level. Once the bear population is at a level that wildlife managers feel the environment can support, successive hunts could be used to cull out a specific number of bears each year to keep the population stable. This is what is needed in New Jersey and what the Division is tying to accomplish with the CBBMP, and the bear hunts are a major part of this plan.
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Sightings of Florida black bears on uptick; plan debated

GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. -- Wildlife officials are trying to figure out how to deal with a burgeoning population of bears in Florida. The Florida Times-Union reports  sightings of bears have been on an uptick. The state received more than 4,000 calls reporting bears last year, up nearly fourfold from a decade earlier.

A rebound in the American black bear population has been recorded since the animal was listed as threatened in the 1970s. The state is now proposing a new plan to manage the bear population. The Fish and Wildlife Commission is accepting online suggestions on its proposal through Jan. 10.
In a series of public meetings on the plan, some have called for allowing the hunting of black bears, but the proposal does not include such language.
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Hunters take four black bears during Kentucky's 2011 season FRANKFORT, Ky. - Hunters took four black bears during Kentucky's third season for the bruins, held during the weekend of Dec. 10-11.

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