Records usually are bro- ken by small percentages in the world of wildlife manage- ment. Bear hunters in Arkan- sas broke the record harvest of 577 black bears set during the 2018 season by taking 665 bears in 2020, a jump of 15%.
“The increase of almost 100 bears was largely due to two factors. The fact that there was a sparse mast crop across the state and the fact that we increased the bear zone quota from 345 bears to 500 bears,” said Myron Means, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission large car- nivore program coordinator. Means presented a report to Game and Fish commission- ers in January.
Archers took 536 bears (80% of the total), hunters using muzzle-loaders took 77 (12%) and modern gun users took 52 (8%).
“Archery is prominent to bear hunting in general, as shown by the fact that 80% of the bears are harvested with archery equipment,” Means said. “Not to say that muzzle-loaders and modern guns do not make an impact in the harvest, but they’re not as near significant methods as archery.
“The simple reason be- hind that is most people bait and most people bear hunt early in the season, as soon as the season opens, and re- ally kind of do the damage, as far as harvesting bears, most of the time within the first couple of weeks of archery season.”
Bear season began with archery Sept. 26-Nov. 30. Muzzle-loader bear season was Oct. 17-25 and modern gun season stretched from Nov. 14 until Dec. 6 across four zones.
The Ozark Mountains had the lion’s share of the harvest with 458 (242 males, 215 females). The Ouachita Mountains total was 200 (105 males, 95 females). Zones in southeastern Arkansas ac- counted for seven bears. Of the 665 total, 348 were males and 317 were females.
“The sex ratios lined out really well, as they have in the past,” Means said. “You always want to harvest more males than females across the state and, we had 52% males and 48% females, which is about where you need to be.”