While Tennessee has successfully brought back it's Black Bear population over the last 35 years, the 2014 hunting season saw the smallest kill levels of the last 7 years with 342 bruins being killed by hunters............The state has been trying to reign in the bear population based on their feeling that a cultural carrying capacity of some 3500-5000 animals will keep human/bear conflicts from taking place..............................Wildlife officials believe their bear population is higher today than at any time in the past 150 years............. The establishment of the Cherokee National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1930s began the black bear recovery in Tennessee............... Creating that massive block of protected land halted large-scale logging operations and habitat destruction through farming and human development................ And then, in 1973, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency created specific sanctuary areas protected from hunting............... Along with the no hunting areas, hunting seasons were set specifically to protect breeding females in by starting the hunt in December after females had "denned up"............... This simple change in hunting schedule reduced the percentage of females in the harvest from nearly 60% before 1981 to about 35-40% today................While Managers claim that the reduced number of bears killed this year was due to an excellent mast season, allowing bears to stay put and not wander into the sights of hunters, I wonder if the last 5 years of "knocking dead" 431 bears is starting to drive the population too far down............Any Naturalists, hunters or biologists from the "Volunteer State" have any thoughts that they would like to share with us on this???

: http://on.wbir.com/1bjiVzH

Black bear harvest

 numbers down 

despite expanded hunting season

Becca Habegger,9:46 p.m. EDT March 19, 2015

(Photo: Courtesy: TWRA)

Numbers from the
Tennessee Wildlife
 Resources
 Agency show hunters
 harvested fewer black
bears in 2014 compared
 to recent years.

The 2014 bear harvest
 count stands at 342,
which is 89 fewer than
the five-year average
 of 431 bears

.

TWRA wildlife population biologist Joy Sweaney
 said that drop doesn't surprise her, because bears
 natural food sources, such as nuts and berries,
 were plentiful in 2014. When that's the case, she
said, "bears tend not to roam and are therefore
 much less vulnerable."

2014 marked the first year of an expanded bea
r hunting zone, aimed at lowering the bea
r population in parts of East Tennessee.

TWRA Region 4 information and education
coordinator Matthew Cameron said 17 bears
 were harvested in that new zone along the
 Cumberland Plateau, which "is about what
 was expected."

He added the plentiful natural food sources
 in 2014 may also have contributed to a
 decrease in reported bear nuisance activity.

Still, Cameron reminds people to be proactive
 instead of reactive when it comes to black bears.

"Although bears are not commonly found in
 Knox County, they do show up on occasion
," he said. "Residents need to be mindful that
if there is bear activity they need to remove
bird feeders, secure trash, do not feed pets
 outside, and secure smokers and grills. All
these attract bears to the surrounding
 properties."

Bears are responsible for the deaths o
f two people since 2000 in Tennessee.

In 2006, a bear killed a child in Polk County.
In 2000, one of the animals killed a female
 hiker in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, about 2.5 miles from the
Little River trailhead.

Below are 2014 black bear harvest
 numbers, by county:

Blount: 8 bears

Carter: 48 bears

Cocke: 69 bears

Fentress: 7 bears

Greene: 24 bears

Hawkins: 2 bears

Johnson: 15 bears

Monroe: 41 bears

Morgan: 1 bear

Pickett: 1 bear

Polk: 50 bears

Scott: 6 bears

Sevier: 26 bears

Sullivan: 12 bears

Unicoi: 17 bears

Washington: 15 bears

TOTAL: 342 bears