The hunting season quietly is coming to a close with one exception, the noise that was created with New Jersey’s bear hunt.
The opponents were out in force once again and vow to continue next year if the hunt goes on, and it very well could.
David Chanda, director of the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, suggested the bear hunt could return next year and maybe annually if state biologists determine there still is an oversaturation of bears in the northwest corner of New Jersey and nuisance complaints from residents continue.
“Last year was a great start to stabilize the population,” Chanda said. “Over the next few hunts, we’re going to want to see the population come down. If necessary, we’re going to make adjustments based on what we’re seeing.”
In New York, about the only big-game hunting left is the muzzleloader and late bow seasons for deer and bear in the Southern Zone, which will close on Tuesday. There is also the gun season for deer in January on the eastern end of Long Island.
According to New York’s wildlife experts it was an interesting season with generally mild conditions all around. As it stands now, the state says deer harvest reports seem to be on par with last year at this time. They started out with a reported deer take through mid-November running about 5 percent less than last year. Then reports during the first week of the Southern Zone regular season were slow, nearly 20 percent less than the opening week in 2010. But hunters did well Thanksgiving week, and currently reports are tracking very close to reported take in 2010.
For bears, the DEC says the season has shaped up to be quite different from last year, with preliminary harvests down in the Northern Zone but at record levels in the Southern Zone. Bear hunting was expanded into eastern New York this year, with the newly opened area spanning from Westchester County to Washington County. Hunters in the new areas have taken over 40 bears so far. Even without these additional bears, the preliminary take in southeastern New York (DEC Regions 3 and 4) looks like it could be one of the top harvests. In central and western New York (DEC Regions 7, 8, and 9), we’re on track to top 300 bears, which will shatter the previous record of 189 bears taken in 2008.
ken.moran@nypost.com