here's a feature article from the 2005 Pennsylvania Game News...
Game News - 2005 Featured Article Archive
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Bear Season
IF I WERE TO ASK hunters when bear season opens, most - if not all - would say the Monday before Thanksgiving. Their answer would be correct. If you were to ask the same question to WCOs in bear country, you might be surprised by the responses. It would vary from WCO to WCO, depending on district. My answer would be early March. And I think it's safe to say that for a growing number of WCOs, "Bear season" begins when bears come out of hibernation in the early spring.
I've lived and worked in eastern McKean County since graduating from the training school in 1996. The people here are friendly and very independent. Most have lived here all of their lives and are used to wildlife and problems associated with living in the "big woods." In the last 10 years or so, however, the number of bear sightings and nuisance calls have risen dramatically. The harvest data supports this. In 1975, 16 bears were harvested in McKean County. In 1985, 26; and by 1995 there were 102. In 2004 there were 114. A record 154 bears were taken in 2000. I haven't recorded the number of nuisance calls I've received, but I know they've risen every year since I've been here.
Further, for some people the mere sighting of a bear is a concern, while others tolerate bears as part of life here. The two most common calls involve birdfeeders and trash. I tell people that bears think with their stomachs, especially in the spring, when natural foods are not as abundant. Often people place their trash out the night before pickup only to find the next morning that it has been scattered by a bear. Placing the trash out in the morning of pickup normally solves that problem.
Birdfeeders by far are the most controversial cause of nuisance bear problems. Whether they know it or not, people who feed birds feed all wildlife. Birds are sloppy eaters and seed litters the ground beneath feeders, which attracts other wildlife. The problem is that when a bear visits a birdfeeder, it has the tendency to destroy it. Birds have lived for millions of years without people feeding them, but if you must feed birds, simply place a handful of seed out on a platform or on the ground. Place enough for the birds to eat in one day, leaving nothing for bears to eat at night, and do not place suet out when bears are active. Taking in feeders at night reduces the chances that bears will find them.
The 2004 "bear season" for me began in January, when I received several calls about a bear in a tree about 100 yards from a roadway. When I arrived, I noticed the bear in the tree, apparently sleeping, snow piling up on its back. The tree was near an old orchard, and I could see that it had been coming down out of the tree and feeding on apples. I told the one caller that there was nothing unusual about a bear hibernating in a tree, and I explained that when the apples were gone the bear would be, too. I told him that the best thing he could do for the bear was to leave it alone.
The bear stayed in that tree for several weeks, and I received a lot of calls about it. One woman was in tears when she called demanding that I capture it and hold it in a warm place until spring. I checked on the bear regularly, to ensure that no one was bothering it, and when the apples were gone the bear left.
Throughout the late winter and early spring of 2004 I received a lot of calls about bears getting into birdfeeders or garbage. In late April, Deputy Dale Thielges reported that several camps had been broken into by a bear. Due to rough road conditions, it was several weeks before I could check the camps. When I finally got there I could see that the camps (old travel trailers) had indeed been broken into. The bear had just reached under the doors and bent them up. I was told that nine trailers had been broken into. I inspected four, and every one had some sort of food or garbage in it. Several had large piles of trash stored inside, and most had not been used for several months, so it was apparent that the food or trash had been there a while. I located one camp nearby whose owners had been placing corn and other foodstuffs for bears and placed my culvert trap near the food. Within days I captured a 461-pound male and another weighing 220. Several people whose camps had been broken into demanded that the bears be killed. I informed them that no bears would be killed, and that the camp owners who stored food and trash were partly to blame.
Throughout May and early June a steady stream of bear incidents came to my attention. On June 8 a 140-pound male that had been raiding feeders was captured near Port Allegany. I told the people to take in the feeders and relocated the bear. Deputy Gordon Liezert then informed me of an area in Potter County where bears were causing problems. Potter County WCO Mark Fair was on vacation, so Gordon and I went to investigate. We borrowed a trap from WCO Len Groshek and set it on June 10. Over the next week nine bears -with several weighing more than 400 pounds - were trapped and relocated. And by the end of summer, WCO Fair had captured several more from the area.
Every time I receive a bear call I visit the person who made it. This way I can assure the person that the bear is not a threat, and I can point out what he or she can do to minimize the chances of the bear returning. Oftentimes, I have to tell the person that they need to clean up and properly dispose of their garbage, that they're creating a problem not just for themselves, but for the entire neighborhood.
Late July found me preparing for two weeks of vacation. In nearly 20 years of service I had never taken two weeks off, and I really needed it; I put a new roof on my house. Even as I worked on the roof, though, people came over to tell me about nuisance bears. Deputy Liezert and I set traps in various places to try and help. Gordon placed the trap near the Superette in Duke Center and the owners reported that a bear had been caught during the evening. The next morning Gordon and I went to process it, only to find that someone had released it the night before. We could see human footprints on the top of the trap next to the door. Despite this, we reset the trap and several days later captured a 400-pound male. A crowd of about 40 people showed up, so while processing the bear we educated the crowd on how to live with bears. I logged 30 hours on nuisance bear calls during my vacation, and we captured five bears, and, surprisingly, I completed my roofing project.
In mid-August oats planted by local farmers ripened, and the bears hit them hard. I captured several bears in oat fields and two more in blueberry patches. Two more were caught near residences and another two were caught in local cornfields. With fewer farms still operating, I try to help these farmers as much as I can. Despite this, farmers sometimes suffer more damage by bears then they can tolerate. On September 12 I received a call from a local dairy farmer reporting that he had shot a large bear damaging his corn crop. Farmers have the right to kill wildlife damaging their crops, but they must report it. Deputy Dale Thielges and I went to the farm and met with the farmer.
We learned that the bear had not been killed outright, and we discovered a blood trail leading into the corn. Dale and I loaded our shotguns with 00 buckshot and followed the trail. Let me tell you, tracking a wounded bear through a corn field is pretty unnerving. I had to get on my hands and knees to look down the rows, and even then couldn't see very far. After about 30 minutes I heard several shots coming from Dale's direction, and then heard him say he got bear. The bear was circling him when he shot it at 15 feet. It weighed 461 pounds. When tracking the bear through the corn I noted large areas where bears had devastated the crop. The bear had tags in his ears, and I learned that he had been trapped previously in Potter County.
I thought that my hectic day was over, but around 6 p.m. I got a call from the same farmer telling me that he had just shot a bigger bear in the same field, this time the bear was dead. I arrived and was surprised to find the second bear weighed around 650 pounds, and it was less than 100 yards from where the first had been shot. Another bear weighing around 200 pounds was shot the following day in the same field. Later the same day a 130-pound bear was hit and killed on Route 155, about a mile from where the others had been shot. The farmer told me that he lost at least one month's feed for his dairy herd from bear damage. He also told me that he saw a female with three cubs in the field, but he did not wish to shoot them. For me, shortly after that week I visited my local chiropractor.
I continued to respond to bear calls right through bear season. We also handled five bears that had been killed by vehicles. In all, in my district more than 25 bears were captured and relocated, at least 12 were killed and 40 or more were legally harvested during bear season. Despite these numbers, deer hunters reported bear sightings all over my district, and one local hunter told me he saw eight different bears during deer season.
My bear trap had been in continual use from early March until November 15th. The trap was visited daily, including weekends and days off. I'm not alone in the effort to help the public with bear conflicts, as my deputies put in many hours. My neighboring officers help whenever called upon, and I certainly appreciate it. I enjoy working with bears and take every opportunity to educate the public on how to live with and enjoy them. Bear hunters should definitely consider McKean and Potter counties. There are some great opportunities here in the "big woods" and the people and businesses will welcome you with a great big bear hug.
- Thomas M. Sabolcik, McKean County WCO
