Black bears with mange have been showing up with increased frequency across Pennsylvania.
Most of the news with Pennsylvania’s black bear population is good. Real good, in fact.
The population continues to grow and expand geographically, to the point that there are more bears in more places now across the state than at any time in a century or more.
That’s coming with a cost, though.
Incidents of mange continue to increase statewide as well. The Pennsylvania Game Commission treats those it can, but in many cases, bears with the parasite die.
Look at the numbers in the norhtcentral region of the state.
According to the commission, 153 bears died from something other than legal harvest in 2014. That includes roadkills, bears shot for crop damage, poaching and the like.
Of those, 69 – 45 percent – died as a result of mange. They either died naturally or were so bad off when found that they had to be euthanized.
In 2015, 129 bears died, 49 of them with mange. That’s 38 percent. And so far in 2016 – through mid-November – 203 had died, with 101, or about 50 percent, killed by mange.
Most of those bears died in summer, with the months of May, June, July and August typically the most dangerous.
Two factors may account for the mange.
One, said commission bear biologist Mark Ternent, is bear numbers.
“It might be that simply having more bears means having more mange. We’re not sure,” he said.
The other could be people.
Doty McDowell, information and education supervisor in the commission’s northcentral region office, said the highest concentrations of mange continue to occur in areas where people are feeding bears. What happens, he said, is that a sick bear comes in looking for an easy meal and in the process transmits the mites carrying the disease to other bears, which in turn get sick.
The commission has been trying to get that message across to people, he said. It’s gone so far as to produce a brochure that it hands out to the public urging them to not feed bears.
There’s hope that will produce results, McDowell said.
The commission once had a problem with people feeding elk. That’s been alleviated to a degree, he added. He’s hoping the situation with bears will play out the same way.
“Most people like to see bears. And who wouldn’t? They’re a charismatic animal,” McDowell said.
“But people don’t always realizing what they’re doing, the impact they’re having. We’re trying to explain that. Everything comes down to education.”
In the meantime, bear hunters heading to the woods starting Saturday are being reminded of a few changes in regards to bear check stations.
Two previously open bear check stations are no longer operational. Closed are ones in Clearfield County (the Dague maintenance headquarters building off old Route 153 near S.B. Elliot State Park) and Union County (the Laurelton Bald Eagle State Forest headquarters, on Route 45).
Two new check stations replace them.
One is located in Jefferson County, at Friendship Hose Company #1, off exit 97 of I-80 at Slab Run Road/First Street. The other is located in Snyder County, at Beavertown Hose Co., at 222 S. Sassafras St. in Beavertown.
Statewide, check station hours are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-noon Sunday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday.
