Bear hunting season opened with far more favorable conditions than previous years — 17 degrees last year at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Fredon, one of the five check stations. Watch video
FREDON -- Bear hunting season kicks off before sunrise Monday in New Jersey's northern counties and hunters have weather conditions in their favor this December unlike the past couple of years.
Last year's chilly temperatures -- 17 degrees at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Fredon, one of the five check stations -- were an improvement over 2013's snowy conditions due to clearer skies. Temperatures in Fredon were in the high 20s just before sunrise Monday.
The forecast, however, hadn't ramped up bear hunting permit sales last week. Only 6,400 of the 11,000 hunting permits allocated by the state had been purchased at that time, the state Department of Environmental Protection said in a news release Thursday. By the beginning of bear hunting season last year, more than 7,700 bear hunting permits had been grabbed up.
Black bears have been reported in all 21 counties of the Garden State but the densest population resides in northern New Jersey, according to the DEP. The hunt typically takes place in zones set up in Morris, Passaic, Hunterdon, Somerset, Sussex and Warren counties, along with a small area of western Bergen County.
But under the DEP's expanded black bear management policy, the 2015 bear hunt has been expanded to all of Hunterdon and Morris counties, a small additional portion of Passaic County, and, for the first time, a small portion of Mercer County. Bear hunting has also been extended to all of Somerset County, with the exception of Franklin Township.
Bear wanders into Morristown Green, hangs out in tree (PHOTOS)
The increased territory open to hunters coincides with the DEP's announcement that the estimated black bear population of 3,500 has remained relatively flat since the hunt started in 2010.
"The population has not decreased significantly because reproduction rates, known as recruitment, have exceeded mortality from hunting and natural causes," the DEP said in a news release. " Last year, 272 bears were harvested during the annual black bear hunt, up slightly from the 251 taken in 2013, but a large drop from the 592 harvested in 2010. The drop-off has been attributed, in part, to poor weather."
The hunt will continue each day until 7 p.m., when the five check stations where hunters weigh their kills -- also known as "harvests" -- will close.
Critics of the hunt are also expected to be on hand this week. Animal-rights groups such as Save NJ Bears have protests planned near the check stations for both the opening and close of the season.
The 2015 bear hunting season, which runs concurrently with six-day firearm deer hunting season, is scheduled to end 30 minutes before sunset on Saturday, Dec. 12j. It may, however, be extended up to four days if poor weather or other conditions result in a reduced "harvest."
An additional six-day October hunting season will begin in 2016 -- three days for bow hunting only and three days for bow hunting and hunting with muzzle-loading guns. The allowable per-hunter "harvest" will also increase from one bear to two bears next year -- as long as the first bear is killed during the October season and the second bear in December.
More information on the 2015 bear hunt including permit availability is available on the DEP's website.
Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.