Empire State black bear numbers continue to rise. According to Jeremy Hurst, big game biologist with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, there are somewhere between 7,500 and 8,000 bruins roaming the state. It is not easy to say just where the largest bears are being harvested. While most bears taken in the Allegany and Catskill ranges are checked and good data is available, there aren't enough DEC biologists available to check every bear taken in the vast Adirondack region.

Hunters obtaining a New York big-game license are automatically issued a bear tag. The bag limit is one bear per hunter. In the Southern Zone, hunters may not take a cub, shoot any bear from a group of bears or take bears from their dens.

In the Northern Zone, hunters are asked to submit part of the lower jaw or a tooth of the bear for data collection. Many taxidermists are willing to remove and submit teeth.

In the Southern Zone, DEC wildlife staff would like to examine each bear before it is skinned or butchered, but the agency does not expect hunters to sacrifice the quality of meat or hides by holding the animal over-long for examination.

The Northern Zone's 2009 early bear season runs from Sept. 19 to Oct. 16. The archery season runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 23. The regular season is from Oct. 24 to Dec. 6. The muzzleloader season runs from Oct. 17-23. Unfilled prior year big-game tags may be used before Oct. 1.

The Southern Zone's 2009 split archery season is from Oct. 17 to Nov. 20 and Dec. 14-22. The regular season in the Catskills runs from Nov. 21 to Dec. 13. The regular season in the Allegany range runs from Nov. 28 to Dec. 13, and the muzzleloader season is Dec. 14-22.

In general, New York's bear harvest numbers have increased steadily over the past two decades. Last year, Empire State hunters took 1,295 black bears, up from the 1,117 animals taken in 2007.

In the Allegany range, hunters set a new record of 193 bears. In the Catskills, hunters topped the 2007 harvest of 453 bears by bagging 520 animals. In the Adirondacks, harvest numbers were well above the 10-year average of 515 bears, with hunters harvesting 582 animals.

MORE OPPORTUNITIES
Biologist Hurst said that 13 new wildlife management units had been opened up to bear hunting in time for the 2008 season, primarily to stabilize bear numbers in areas where growth might result in agricultural damage and increased human-bear conflicts.

The additional WMUs include parts of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie, Wyoming, Genesee, Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Ontario, Seneca, Yates, Steuben, Schuyler, Tompkins, Tioga, Cortland, Broome, Chenango, Madison, Onondaga, Oneida and Ostego counties.

The new regulations allow for bowhunting, regular season and muzzleloader season bear hunting in the Southern Zone. Specifically, WMUs 7M, 7R, 7S, 8H, 8N, 8P, 8R, 8S, 9G and 9H were opened for the taking of bears during bowhunting, regular and muzzleloader seasons. Season dates are the same as for adjacent units traditionally open to bear hunting in the Allegany region.

An updated map of New York's bear hunting seasons is available at www.dec.ny.gov. A map and boundary descriptions of the DEC's Wildlife Management Units may be found at the same site.

"We want to be proactive to limit growth and range expansion," Hurst said. "Those new areas are low density areas. They do not have a high number of bears now, but if we did not allow hunting, bear numbers could continue to grow. It's our intent to provide a buffer that will help keep the bear population in check."