Hunter's tattooed bear aids game agency's study
On Tuesday, Bradley Everetts shot a tattooed bear.
Sitting in a tree stand on the third of the four-day gun hunting season for bears, the 50-year-old Forkston native heard a rustling in the underbrush and had to wait patiently for 20 minutes before he could get a clear shot.
When he brought the black bear to the check-in station at the game commission in Dallas, biologist Kevin Wenner noticed a faded five-digit tattoo on the inside of the bear's white lip.
Mr. Everetts hadn't shot a member of some sort of ursine gang, but rather the sow had been previously captured for research or for being a nuisance, Mr. Wenner explained. Because bears often tear out an ear tag, they also get a tattoo.
Tagged bears shot by hunters can give an idea of the health of the population, Mr. Wenner said. And conservation officers pull a tooth from each carcass to be analyzed. Like a tree, the tooth has rings that can be used to age the animal.
In 2011, hunters harvested 4,350 bears, the highest total in state history. After the first two days of the season this year, the number stood at 2,086. One of those kills was by an 86-year-old man, Mr. Wenner said, his first in 40 years of hunting. The season ended Wednesday. More than 160,000 hunters bought the $16.70 bear permit last year. In the best year, that's a success rate of less than 3 percent.
The largest animal brought down in the state so far this year was a 652-pound male taken in Middle Smithfield Twp., Monroe County.
Mr. Wenner, looking the part of a biologist perfectly in a bushy beard and dark green coveralls, said the animals can be difficult to hunt because of their acute sense of smell and preference to stick to dense cover.
"Bears are out there," Mr. Wenner said. "Guys just have to be at the right spot at the right time."
Charles Pantano certainly was. The 29-year-old Courtdale native only had to sit up in his Larksville tree stand for about two hours, a pittance of time by hunting standards, before his trophy presented itself.
"I didn't even have time to finish my coffee," said Mr. Pantano, who dropped the bear Tuesday morning with one well-placed shot.
Contact the writer: pcameron@citizensvoice.com