Kentucky black bear hunt approved for the 2009 season
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:06 pm
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Kentucky black bear hunt approved for the 2009 season
by Steven Dobey
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 11:17 AM CST
In half a century, Kentucky’s white-tailed deer herd grew from 1,000 animals to a million today. Wild turkeys increased from about 800 birds to a quarter-million, and we are now home to 10,000 free-ranging elk, the largest elk population east of the Rocky Mountains. All are now hunted in Kentucky.
A new big game species came closer to joining that list this week when legislators approved a pending regulatory amendment that will create Kentucky’s first black bear season in more than 100 years.
“Sportsmen and sportswomen of Kentucky should be very excited,” said Steven Dobey, black bear biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Bears are now well established in eastern Kentucky and research shows that population growth has risen steadily over the last 20 years.”
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