{"id":656378,"date":"2026-01-26T11:24:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/?p=656378"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:24:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:24:55","slug":"bear-harvest-in-2025-almost-identical-to-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/01\/26\/bear-harvest-in-2025-almost-identical-to-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear harvest in 2025 almost identical to 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

DNR PRESS RELEASE<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

CHARLESTON, W.Va. \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) today announced that hunters harvested 2,469 black bears during the combined 2025 archery and firearms seasons.<\/p>\n

The preliminary harvest for the combined 2025 seasons mirrors that of the 2024 seasons, coming in 10 bears short of last year\u2019s total of 2,479 harvests. As predicted in the\u00a02025 Mast Survey and Hunting Outlook<\/a>, hunters harvest fewer bears during the archery and crossbow season and more bears during the firearms season.<\/p>\n

Click here to download 2025 black bear harvest numbers.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

During the first segment of the 2025 archery and crossbow seasons (Sept. 27 to Nov. 23), hunters harvested 543 bears. Of these harvests, 252 were taken with vertical bows, and 291 were taken with crossbows. The top five counties for archery\/crossbow harvests were Fayette (47), Raleigh (35), Greenbrier (29), Logan (28) and Boone (27).<\/p>\n

During the firearms season, hunters harvested 1,925 bears, a 22 percent increase over last year\u2019s harvest of 1,580 bears. This included 506 bears taken during the September and October seasons, 152 bears during the September youth, Class Q, XS season, five bears during the October youth, Class Q, XS season, 33 bears during the concurrent antlerless deer\/bear season and 316 during the three early firearms seasons.<\/p>\n

Additionally, hunters harvested 290 bears during the concurrent buck-gun bear season and 1,129 bears during the traditional December season. One bear was harvested with a muzzleloader during the Mountaineer Heritage Season. The top five counties for firearms harvests were Boone (169), Kanawha (136), Randolph (124), Webster (122), and Pocahontas (102).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only 10 bears difference in the 2024 and 2025 harvest figures in West Virginia <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":656381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoors"],"yoast_head":"\nBear harvest in 2025 almost identical to 2024 - WV MetroNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/01\/26\/bear-harvest-in-2025-almost-identical-to-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bear harvest in 2025 almost identical to 2024 - WV MetroNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Only 10 bears difference in the 2024 and 2025 harvest figures in West Virginia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/01\/26\/bear-harvest-in-2025-almost-identical-to-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WV MetroNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"WVMetroNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-26T16:24:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2026\/01\/Black-Bear-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MetroNews Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wvmetronews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MetroNews Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/01\/26\/bear-harvest-in-2025-almost-identical-to-2024\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/01\/26\/bear-harvest-in-2025-almost-identical-to-2024\/\",\"name\":\"Bear harvest in 2025 almost identical to 2024 - 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