New Jersey Real Time News: New Jersey’s black bear population has soared to nearly 3,500, a level that can no longer be controlled solely by non-lethal methods, a wildlife biologist said today as the state Fish and Game Council adopted a management policy recommending a six-day hunt in December. The biologist, Patrick Carr, said the main reason for the growing population is the abundance of food state residents willingly and unwillingly provide. The result, he said, is that the bruins are living longer and giving birth to more cubs than bears in other parts of the country.
Carr said that in New Jersey, black bears start to breed when they are 2 or 3 years old. In other parts of the country, the age is 4 or 5, he said. Litters are larger, too, with bears in New Jersey averaging three cubs per litter compared to two cubs per litter for bears living in national parks elsewhere.
And bears in New Jersey are living longer; the oldest female tracked in New Jersey is 26 years old. Because of their favorable living conditions, adult survival rate is “extremely high,” with 86 percent of adult bears surviving each year and 70 percent of cubs surviving their first year, Carr said.
“They’re not food-stressed because we have such a diverse habitat so the cubs are getting tremendous resources, which is increasing their survival rate,” he said.
Though bears have been sited in all 21 counties in New Jersey, the highest concentration is in the northwestern corner of the state, north of Route 80 and west of Route 287, said David Chanda, director of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.