New state record bear kill at 4653 total for 2019 with 561 killed with a bow. They are adding another week in 2020 with a possible Sun. thrown in ,plus a possible chance to carry a bow & a gun during the over-lapping early bear & bow seasons.   sam

Hopefully they have succeeded in lowering the numbers a bit. 

I wonder if the PGC was keeping track of the # of females that were taken in that early season compared with years past. It was thought that the pregnant females were denned-up by the time of the reg. season thus being protected from over-kill.I am sure that if they o.k. carrying a gun & a bow during the overlapping season that they will kill more Bear also.  There was more interest than usual this year from what I saw.A friend of mine that lives near Bolivar reported that there were 5 bear taken in a 1 mile radius from his home. He was happy because he couldn't keep a bird feeder up around his house with-out them tearing it down.     sam

mr.crappie
I wonder if the PGC was keeping track of the # of females that were taken in that early season compared with years past. It was thought that the pregnant females were denned-up by the time of the reg. season thus being protected from over-kill.

 
Yes. The bear biologist did say at the last meeting that the percentage of sows in the harvest did increase this year. He went on to say that was to be expected with the new season structure. The harvesting of pregnant sows is the best way to lower populations, which was the goal of the new season structure. 

dpms, Did he say if this increased kill met their deesires ?  sam