Pennsylvania bear season slated to open today

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) -- The three-day bear hunting season opened today with wildlife experts expecting another strong harvest of 2,500 to 3,000 bears.
The state Game Commission estimates there are almost 15,000 bears in Pennsylvania, about the same number as last year and triple the number two decades ago.
"The population for the last probably 10 years has been very well-managed through seasons and bag limits," said Gary San Julian, professor of wildlife resources at Penn State University.
"We have a lot of agricultural land, and a large chunk of Pennsylvania is still forested, so there's a good habitat for bears."
Since 1980, hunters have killed about 20 percent of the state's black bear population each season, according to the Game Commission.
The 2004 hunting season follows the state's four largest harvests ever. In 2000, hunters felled 3,075 bears, marking Pennsylvania's first 3,000-plus harvest. The following three years brought harvests of 3,063, 2,686 and 3,000 bears, respectively.
Bears were taken in 52 of the state's 67 counties in 2003, a three-county increase from the previous year.
This year, bear season will be expanded into the first week of rifle deer season -- Nov. 29 to Dec. 4 -- in parts of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties.
There is a flip side to the expanding bear population: more contacts with humans.
In June 2003, a bear nicked a 12-year-old Boy Scout at a campground in Paupack Township, Wayne County. This year, a Hallstead woman suffered severe injuries in a bear attack, and Scranton residents reported seeing a bear wandering through sections of the city.