Good News for Hunters, Bad News for Bears in New Hampshire

I love to read about bear stories, and I understand the importance of culling the herd.  That and the fact that I hope to never run into one on any of my hikes.  It still makes me kinda sad though.

According to foxnews.com, this was a record year for bear hunting in New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game posted on its website that 1,183 bears were shot in the 2020 bear season per the news outlet.

That is a significant increase of 33 percent over lasts year's hunt in 2019.

Andrew Timmins, New Hampshire Fish and Game’s bear project leader tells New Hampshire NPR, “People were recreating a little more.  There was more interest in hunting just because people weren’t at work as much, and they were at home,” per foxnews.com.

That was not the only reason for a successful bear hunt.

The most plentiful food for the bears this year was acorns.  The smart hunters were scouting out where the acorns were the most plentiful and that made the bear scouting easier.  Other states are recording record numbers for deer hunting so maybe the pandemic has not been so good for wildlife in an unusual way.

More people have had the time to go out and hunt. I guess my wife was right in making me return the bear mace I bought for hiking this year.  Looks like the chances of me running into one are much slimmer thanks to a record bear hunt in New Hampshire this year.