As promised, the final bear harvest report is in and the season saw a decline of 250 bears when compared to the 2022 season.

In the 2023 seasons, hunters harvested 2,023 bears compared to the 2022 seasons when 3,170 were taken. According to Pennsylvania Game Commission’s bear program specialist Emily Carrollo, fifty-eight of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties produced bears and at least one bear was taken in 20 of 22 WMUs. Additionally, hunters took bears in all the seasons.

The decline, according to Carrollo, was due to the elimination of bear season in WMUs 1B, 2C, 4A, 4B and 4D that produced an average of 375 bears on average from 2019 to 2022.

Regarding the multiple seasons, the traditional statewide firearms season contributed 1,086 bears while the archery season had 695, the extended season saw 591, the muzzleloader season 424, the special firearms season 117 and the early archery season added seven.

Of those totals, the largest bear harvested was a 691-pounder taken in the extended rifle season in Porter Township, Pike County by Mitchell Jonathan of Quakertown. Following that was a 645-pounder taken in the archery season in Foster Township, Schuylkill County; a 636-pounder in the firearms season in Roaring Brook Township, Lackawanna County; a 630-pounder in the firearms season in Hamilton Township Monroe County; a 616-pounder in archery season in Nesquehoning Borough, Carbon County; a 605-pounder taken in the firearms season in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County; a 589-pounder in the firearms season in Washington Township, Jefferson County; a 581-pounder, in the firearms season in Watson Township, Lycoming County; another 581-pounder in the firearms season in Cherry Township, Sullivan County; and a 576-pounder in the firearms season in Cherry Township, Sullivan County.

Among the top producing counties were Tioga that gave up 176 bears followed by Lycoming with 170, Potter with 155, Pike with 142, Bradford with 138, Luzerne with 135, Monroe with 127, Wayne accounted for 124, Clinton with 108 and Carbon with 101.

Final county harvests by region closest to the Lehigh Valley are (with 2022 figures in parentheses):

NORTHEAST: 1,067 (901): Pike, 142 (84); Bradford, 138 (126); Luzerne, 135 (126); Monroe 127 (114); Wayne, 124 (81); Carbon, 101 (78); Sullivan, 75 (84); Susquehanna, 67 (47); Wyoming, 62 (50); Lackawanna, 57 (51); Columbia, 27 (46); Northumberland, 10 (10) and Montour, 2 (4).

SOUTHEAST: 159 (131): Schuylkill, 65 (65); Dauphin, 42 (27); Northampton, 21 (12); Berks, 16 (11); Lebanon 10 (14); and Lehigh, 5 (2).

The final bear harvest by the nearest Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) were WMU 3D, 451 (344); WMU 4C, 220 (190); WMU 5C, 15 (8); and WMU 5D, 0 (0).

Carrollo pointed out that in 2023, Pennsylvania had 206,124 hunters Ð the fourth-highest ever Ð which marked the fifth year in a row that bear license sales topped 200,000. Considering the recent total harvest, it’s obvious that only a tiny fraction of bear hunters score.

As these harvest numbers reflect, it’s a published fact that Pennsylvania has a lot of large bears and the largest number of 600 pound-plus bears of any state.