US black bear hunting season opens
US hunters take to the woods today for a controversial season aimed at reducing the population of black bears, whose hungry foraging has frightened suburban residents.
Up to 5,000 hunters are expected to take advantage of the six-day hunt - only the second in New Jersey in 35 years, which begins at sunrise.
Black bears have rebounded from near extinction but the loss of habitat to development is forcing many of the animals to seek food in populated areas of New Jersey.
The hunt, restricted to an area of about 1,600 square miles in the state’s north west corner, is expected to draw thousands of hunters armed with shotguns or old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifles.
The hunt has been sharply criticised by animal rights advocates, who call it inhumane and went to court on Friday in an unsuccessful bid to stop it.
“This hunt is not rooted in public safety,” said Janine Motta, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, which sued to stop the hunt. “It’s rooted in providing a hunting opportunity, getting trophies for walls and rugs for floors.”
But hunters and the state say the hunt, which coincides with the deer hunting season, is a necessary evil, given the bears’ increasing incursions into backyards and rubbish bins.
“Most guys will just go deer hunting, but if they see a bear and there’s an opportunity, they’ll take it,” said Frank Dara, chairman of the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs. “It’s basically a conservation thing. It’s something that has to be done to control the number of bears.”
The state’s last bear hunt was in 2003, when 328 were killed. That was the first bear season since 1970, when hunts were suspended because the black bear population had dropped to about 100 animals.
Today, the population is estimated at 1,600 to 3,200 and complaints and sightings are up sharply all over the state.
Last July, a 142lb female bear bit the leg of a sleeping camper at High Point State Park. The camper's injuries were minor. The bear was shot by a state biologist.
A month earlier in Egg Harbour City, near Atlantic City in southern New Jersey, a 150lb bear rummaged through bins, ate from bird feeders and jumped a fence a block from a junior school during a week-long stay.
Opponents of the bear hunt plan to gather at a weigh station in Wawayanda State Park, with teams also fanning out into the woods looking for bears that have been shot but not killed.
“It’ll be volunteers looking to help any injured or wounded bears they come across, or fielding calls from the public for any wounded bears they find on their property,” Motta said.
