Number Of Bears Killed During Hunting Season Tops 600

Eighteen more black bears were killed Tuesday during the second phase of the annual state-sanctioned hunt, bringing the total number harvested this year to 607, a new record, information from the state shows.

Of the 18 bears killed, nine were shot in Sussex County and four in Passaic County. Three were killed in Warren County and two in Morris.

Forty-eight of the bears killed, or 24 percent of the total, had been tagged by the state Division of Fish and Wildlife this year. The state must stop the hunt once 30 percent of the bears killed are ones that were tagged.

The state held the first bow and muzzle-loaded gun hunt in October, its first in more than 30 years; 562 bears were killed during that six-day long hunt. This year's hunt is scheduled to end Saturday.

The 607 bears killed is nearly 100 more than the 510 bears that were killed in 2015 during that 10-day long season, but that year hunters could only use firearms and not bows and muzzle-loaded guns. That year was the first 10-day long hunt instituted since black bear hunting returned to New Jersey in 2003.

Six-day long hunts were held from 2014 to 2011 and in 2005 and 2003. The number of bears killed in those hunts ranged from 469 to 251.

The hunt is part of a strategy used to control the state's black bear population. The northwestern part of the state has one of the densest populations and highest reproduction rates of black bears in the United States.

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