Over 100 bears killed in the first day of New Jersey's hunt

Bruce A. Scruton, Newton New Jersey Herald
Updated ·4 min read
19

FREDON - A total of 105 black bears were reported killed on opening day of the archery bear hunt season Monday. The numbers were reported at 9 a.m. Tuesday by the state.

Hunters are required to report their harvest as soon as possible to one of the check stations where wildlife technicians take a hair and tooth sample, dressed weight, sex and location where the bear was killed.

The state is divided into five bear hunting zones covering all of Sussex and Warren counties and parts of Passaic, Morris, Bergen, Hunterdon, Somerset and Mercer.

According to figures posted by the Division of Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday morning, there were 45 bears killed by archers in Sussex County on opening day, followed by 37 in Warren, 15 in Morris, six in Passaic and two in Hunterdon. No bears were reported in the other three counties.

Of the 105 bears harvested, nine had a special ear tag, which represents a 5.5% harvest rate. The goal is for at least a 20% harvest rate by the end of this year's hunt, which includes the archery season this week and the shotgun season the first week in December.

Assistant Commissioner Dave Golden, who heads the Division of Fish and Wildlife watches as Kaitlyn Barone, a DFW senior wildlife worker, takes samples from a bear killed on the opening day of the black bear archery season Oct. 9, 2023.
Assistant Commissioner Dave Golden, who heads the Division of Fish and Wildlife watches as Kaitlyn Barone, a DFW senior wildlife worker, takes samples from a bear killed on the opening day of the black bear archery season Oct. 9, 2023.

Among the successful hunters who showed up at the Whittingham check station, none would provide their names to the media, offering as a reason stories of past hunters who had unpleasant experiences with anti-bear hunt protesters.

This year, there was just one protestor at Whittingham, former state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, who tried unsuccessfully last week to get the state courts to stop the hunt. He left the Whittingham location about noon Monday.

Among the hunters who brought in a bear was an Andover hunter whose harvest was a 263-pound, dressed weight, male bear. He said he shot the bear with a compound bow “on private land in Andover and, "That’s all I’m going to say.”

And just before noon was a Hardyston resident who owns an 18-acre farm, "I'm just starting out," he said of his farm, as he watched wildlife technicians take samples of the young bear he brought in.

"I lost a lot of livestock and crops," he said, then explained there was one bear that attacked his pigeon coop and ate "a thousand dollars of pigeon food."

The bear, which biologists determined was a yearling female, weighed 80 pounds dressed weight, 5 pounds above the minimum weight established as a new rule for this year's hunt. The other new regulations are no killing of an adult bear in the company of one under 75 pounds, and no hunting within 300 feet of bait.

Bear hunters also need to purchase one or two permits for select areas. In the Oct. 9-14 segment, only archery - longbow, compound bow, crossbow - is allowed. In Segment B, scheduled for the first week of December, shotguns and muzzleloaders are permitted weapons.

A hunter successful in October may also take one bear in December, but no more than one per season.

Wildlife worker Kaitlyn Barone attaches an official ear tag to a bear brought to the Whittingham check station on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023 the opening day of the archery black bear season in New Jersey. The bear was taken on private property in Andover Township.
Wildlife worker Kaitlyn Barone attaches an official ear tag to a bear brought to the Whittingham check station on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023 the opening day of the archery black bear season in New Jersey. The bear was taken on private property in Andover Township.

Assistant Commissioner Dave Golden, who heads the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said bear experts in the division estimate more than 3,100 bears live in the "study area" of northwestern New Jersey.

A total of 4,950 permits had been sold by opening day.

Golden said the bears in northwestern New Jersey are one of the most closely studied populations in the country, and northwestern New Jersey has the densest concentration of bears in areas which support black bear populations.

Segment B of the hunt, which coincides with the annual "shotgun buck" deer season, could be extended depending on the harvest number.

The season total is updated by 9 a.m. each day and based on the number of bears brought to a check station, or legally reported to the division during the season.

Golden defended the hunt and public education regarding bears and avoiding human-bear conflicts, as chief reasons that the number of black bear complaints have declined by 30% from 2022 to 2023-to-date.

The black bear unit received 1,119 bear calls from Jan. 1 to Sept. 21, compared with 1,736 calls in the same time period last year. That equates to a 35% decrease in calls, he said.

The bear complaints recorded are those received by the DEP dispatch center and do not include calls made to local police departments, many of which have training from wildlife officials on handling bear complaints.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: NJ bear hunt totals over 100 bears killed on first day