PA: Enormous bear taken by bowhunter in Pike

Post date: Dec 6, 2010 5:00:07 PM

Posted: Thursday, December 2, 2010 12:00 pm | Updated: 9:44 am, Thu Dec 2, 2010.

OutdoorNews.com

By Jeff Mulhollem Editor | 0 comments

Harrisburg - A bowhunter killed an enormous black bear Nov. 15 in Pike County near the border with Monroe County that will likely change the state's record book.

David Price, 46 of Cresco, Monroe County, took the male bear with a crossbow on the first day of the commonwealth's week-long, statewide archery bear-hunting season on Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area land just north of Fernwood Resort.

The huge bruin's estimated live weight was 875 pounds (dressed weight of 742 pounds), according to a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

That makes it the largest bear ever recorded in the state, more than 10 pounds heavier than a 864-pound (estimated live weight) bear taken by Douglas Kristiansen, then a resident of Milford, in 2003.

That bruin was killed in Dingman Township, Pike County.

Some are even claiming that it is the second heaviest black bear ever taken by a hunter in the world.

But it is too soon to declare the just-harvested heavyweight a new state record, according to a spokesman for the Game Commission.

"The official Pennsylvania big-game records are based on skull measurements following Boone and Crockett methods, so weight is not something we consider as part of our records," said Jerry Feaser, agency press secretary.

And huge body size doesn't always equate with immense skull size. For example, the bear taken by Kristiansen in 2003 ranks as fourth in the state records, even though it was the heaviest. The state-record bear was considerably lighter.

"In fact, the Pennsylvania state- record bear, taken in 2005 by Andrew Seaman, was actually eighth on the estimated live-weight listing," Feaser explained. "It weighed an estimated live weight of 733 pounds. But it had the largest skull."

A bear's weight can fluctuate considerably from season to season, Feaser pointed out. "A bear can lose a considerable amount of weight while in the den over the winter," Feaser said.

"If food sources are not as plentiful when the bear comes out of the den, it may not recover the weight lost. The skull will remain the same size."

"Still I would presume, based on the sheer size of the bear, that it would be a record," Steve Schweitzer, northeast region director of the Game Commission, told a newspaper reporter. "But that's just a guess."

Game Commission bear biologist Mark Ternent said recently that he believed the state currently has more bears than at any time in modern history, and he noted that he would not be surprised if hunters recorded a record harvest if weather conditions were favorable.

Two changes in bear-hunting regulations this year may affect harvest numbers. First, the archery season was changed to a week and made statewide, and the traditional firearms season opened on a Saturday rather than a Monday.

No matter what, it seems the biggest bears come from the Poconos and the northeast region. "The Poconos was one of the last holdout areas for traditional bear range when bear numbers were very low decades ago," Feaser said.

"It has swampy areas that bears can get down into and hunters have trouble getting accessing.

"The habitat there is excellent for bears because it offers lots of berries and other foods they need. So you have bears that are able to get the kind of nutrition as well as age needed to attain trophy size."