Bear Hunters Post Sixth-Best Harvest in State

Pennsylvania’s hunters took 3,608 black bears in the 2020 seasons, the state’s sixth-best bear harvest ever.

While the harvest is about 20 percent lower than last year’s record harvest of 4,653 bears, it aligns with the annual average of 3,675 bears taken over the past five seasons, and it’s the second-highest harvest in that period.

In the bear archery season, which benefited from a one-week-longer season, bowhunters set a new harvest record of 948, breaking the former record of 561 set in 2019. Harvest numbers in the other bear seasons fell, which is not uncommon. The two-year-old muzzleload...