https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/virginia-second-best-bear-hunting-season-ever-recordedIn the 2020-2021 season, 3,464 bears were harvested in the state of Virginia
By Michael Hollan | Fox News
That’s a lot of bears.
Hunters in Virginia have had two good years in a row when it comes to the bear hunt. This previous year’s bear hunt was one of the state’s best years, bested only by the previous year.
The 2020-21 bear hunting season in Virginia was the second-best year ever recorded in the state of Virginia. (iStock)
The 2020-21 bear hunting season in Virginia was the second-best year ever recorded in the state of Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources website. The season saw a harvest that was 24% higher than the previous five-year average (going back to 2015).
The 2020-2021 harvest was, however, about 2% lower than the previous year’s harvest. According to the Virginia DWR, however, the 2019-2020 season was the highest harvest ever recorded in the state.
"These robust harvests are not surprising given diverse hunting opportunities and healthy game populations," Dr. Gray Anderson, Wildlife Division chief, said. "Possibly the most interesting aspect of this year’s harvest totals are how similar they were to last year’s numbers. Normally, we would anticipate factors such as the weather and distribution of food resources to result in greater annual variation in the harvest figures."
In the 2020-2021 season, 3,464 bears were harvested in the state of Virginia. While the harvests from the youth/apprentice weekend hunts, archery season and muzzleloader season were down from the previous year, there were significant increases in the number of bears harvested during the three-day early firearms season and the regular firearms season.
This past season was also only the second season that hunters could report their kills electronically through the DWR’s website or app, Rappahannock News reports.
