Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 21

Number or Bears

2012

200

WMU 1B
Minimum Populaaon Esamate

100

Harvest

2002

2006

2010

To do this, we ear-tag bears during
the summer, then measure the number of
untagged bears for every tagged bear in
the fall harvest.
When multiplied by the number of
bears tagged that year, this produces an
estimate of the number of untagged bears
in the WMU, ultimately leading to an
estimate of total bear abundance.
This method of monitoring, called
mark-recapture population estimation,
works great if there are enough bears
tagged and recovered. But estimates
become unreliable when our tagging
decreases, and might not work at all in
areas with no tagging or limited harvest.
Thus, population reconstruction provides a validation for mark-recapture
monitoring, and may be the only way to
monitor trend in peripheral parts of the
bear range where few bears are tagged.
For example, in WMU 1B, encompassing Erie and parts of Crawford, Venango
and western Warren counties, bears historically had been limited to the WMU's
eastern edge.
Then, the harvest steadily increased
in number and distribution for 15 years.
However, only four to eight bears are
captured and ear-tagged in this WMU
annually, and almost none are recovered in
FEBRUARY 2018

2014

Knowing the exact number of
bears in the harvest and their
ages is helpful in monitoring
populations. In WMU 3D,
a drop of the average ages
of male and female bears
led to closing the extended
season in 2008. The season
was reopened in 2011, after
a rebound. Meanwhile, age
reconstruction data confirmed
the bear population grew
by about 6 percent annually
in WMU 1B - a conclusion
that couldn't be reached by
harvest data alone.

the harvest. Without better tag data, markrecapture monitoring is not possible.
But age reconstruction from harvest
data is.
Age reconstruction confirmed there
were at least 100 bears in WMU 1B in
2000, and that the population had grown
about 6 percent annually despite removal
by hunter harvest.
That growth was a strong reason why
an extended season was added in 2016.
None of this information, or its use in
deciding if extended hunting was justified,
would have been possible without age
data from harvested bears.

CHECKING VALUE
The next time you see a freshly-pulled
tooth dropped into an envelope at a bearcheck station, give some thought to the
journey that tooth will make and the role
it plays in Pennsylvania's bear program.
Check stations might sometimes seem
like an inconvenience, but they do provide
valuable data about Pennsylvania bears.
And, hunters do enjoy learning about
the age of their bears. I wouldn't be surprised if many a bet has been won or lost
by age data between hunting companions
who both thought they shot the oldest
bear.
21



Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018

Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - Intro
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 2
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 3
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 8
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 16
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 24
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 29
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 31
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 32
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 33
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 38
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 43
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 44
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 45
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 46
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 47
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 48
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 49
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 50
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 51
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 52
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 53
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 54
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 55
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 56
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 57
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 58
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 59
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 60
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - 64
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2018 - Cover4
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