Bear Season

Michael Cockill of Pine Grovewas one of the successful hunters who checked their bear at the new PGC check station near Karthaus. He shot this adult male bruin, estimated to have weighed close to 400 pounds (live weight). The bear was taken near Mill Run Rd. in Clinton County.

Final figures from this week's three-day bear season will likely show a much smaller harvest.

The Pa. Game Commission reported that the kill for the first two days of the 2006 season was 2,185, down from the harvest of 2,875 bruins on the season's first two days last year. Hunters reported

shooting 158 bears in

Potter County on Monday and Tuesday, down from the 2005 mark of 180. Cameron County's bear kill

for the first two

days fell off to 60

this year. It was 153 in 2005. This year's two-day figure of 2,185 was in line with the twoday harvests from

2004 (2,261) and 2003 (2,299). Mark Ternent, Game Commission bear biologist, said, "It is what we would consider an average year. The two-day bear harvest is below last year's mark, but then 2005 was a record year."

The heaviest bear reported so far was a 693-pound male taken by John D. Eppinette of Adamstown, in West Branch Township, Potter County. A 621-pound male was killed by Jonathan E. Kio of Ulysses, in Potter County's Allegany Township. Two other bears topping 600 pounds were killed in Greene Township, Clinton County.

The top bear harvest county in the state after the first two days of the season was Clinton with 177, followed by Lycoming, 161; Potter, 158; Tioga, 123; and McKean, 117.

These harvest numbers do not include the results of the state's first-ever archery bear hunt, which was held on Nov. 15 and 16.