PPike County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs

Oldest Bear in Pennsylvania

Harvested in 2007

story and photos by Teresa Crerand

            The oldest documented bear in Pennsylvania was harvested in Pike County on Nov. 21, 2007, and the PA Game Commission determined it to be just two months shy of 35 years in age, breaking the record of a 30 year old bear previously recorded in Pike, and another estimated to be 31 years old but not documented.

            Hunter Wayne McCue, Jr. of Greeley checked it in at the Shohola Falls check station on Route 6 north of Milford. She had gray hairs on her face, severely worn teeth, no pre-molars, was missing her lower canines and some other teeth, had noticeably longer hair on her feet extending beyond the claws, and presumably had not bred for a number of years.

 

            PGC Wildlife Biologist Scott Klinger of Selinsgrove believed it to break the state’s previous record. According to PGC records, a female bear found dead of natural causes in Pike County during the summer of 2001 had been ear tagged, and records indicated that research aged her at 15 years old in 1986, making her 30 years old in 2001 when found by a resident. A tooth collected from a bear during the 2001 hunting season and later analyzed showed it was 31 years old, but accuracy was uncertain since the bear had not been trapped for earlier research like the 30-year-old bear had been.

 

            McCue was hunting with his father, two brothers, uncles, cousins and some friends, 23 altogether in the hunting party. He came across the bear in Spider Swamp in game lands 316 in Lackawaxen Township. McCue said he found her sitting and leaning against a tree, and walked within 15 yards of her before getting a shot. When field dressing the bear, he noticed an insulating fat layer of 3 to 4 inches thick and said her stomach was “full” of acorns.

 

            She weighed in at 178 dressed and was estimated at 210 pounds live weight. Regardless of the condition of her worn and missing teeth, she maintained her body weight over the years. An ear tag remaining in one ear provided the research number, which was logged in to access the bear’s data previously collected by a PGC Wildlife Conservation Officer. The history record showed the bear was 30 years and 8 months old when trapped Sept. 10, 2003 as a damage and nuisance bear in Pike’s Lackawaxen Township. She was estimated weighing 225 pounds at that time and released in Blooming Grove Township, but found her way back into Lackawaxen.

 

 

Wayne McCue, Jr. with the bear

© Teresa Crerand

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Close-up of the worn teeth

©  Teresa Crerand