First Kentucky Bear Hunt in 100 Years This Weekend

Between expected snow and well-hidden hibernation, at least it's going to be a fair fight.

Bears have become so populous over the past 10 years in southeast Kentucky that the state's first bear hunt in 100 years has been scheduled for this weekend.

As bears have become a sight-seeing attraction and sometimes a nuisance for state parks in Harlan, Letcher and Pike counties, local hunters have been eager to add black bears as a big game animal, said Steven Dobey, bear program manager for the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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Dobey estimated that there are about 300 black bears in the core region of Letcher, Harlan and Pike counties, the only three open to bear hunting this year. The population is large enough to withstand hunting, he said.

The animals are a nuisance in some state parks and small towns. Kingdom Come State Park in Cumberland installed additional bear-proof trash cans in June, and four bears have had to be euthanized this year, an unusually high number. Park Manager Rick Fuller said he knows some city housing projects have installed bear-proof dumpsters and cans, too.

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Three of the four bears euthanized this year were killed because they had become so used to people they were a danger, Dobey said.

"They're really interesting to watch and observe, however when people begin to use the food to lure them in ... it usually ends in the death of the bear," he said.

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Twenty years ago, no bears were visible in Kentucky, he said, but in the late 1990s, they started reappearing, having been reintroduced in neighboring states. Now they occasionally wander through towns in some Kentucky counties.

The hunt is exciting because of the healthy, booming bear population, Allen said.

"The bears have repopulated on their own in Kentucky," without human intervention, he said, "and that's a big deal right there."