The firearm-only season started on Monday. Watch video
NEWTON -- Hunters killed 27 bears on the first day of the second section of the 2016 bear hunt, bringing the total number of bears killed by hunters this year to 589.
The 2016 bear hunt could set the mark on Tuesday for the highest number of bears killed since the annual hunt reopened in 2010, during which 592 bears were killed.
The DEP has set a target threshold for the bear hunt based on the total number of bears tagged by state wildlife officials in the current year of about 30 percent of the 197 bear tagged in 2016.
Of the 562 bears killed during the bow-and-arrow and muzzleloader season in October, 46 tagged bears were killed -- about 23 percent of bears tagged in 2016. No tagged bears were killed by hunters during the first day of the firearm-only season.
DEP has said the bear hunt will end early if hunters hit the 30-percent threshold, a total of 59 tagged bears.
State officials said the firearm-only season started sluggishly on Monday. Robert Geist, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, speculated the numbers could be reduced due to the October hunt as well as cold weather prompting bears to hibernate.
The slow start to the hunt provided little solace to animal rights activists opposed to the hunt, though no arrests were reported.
The county-by-county totals through Monday:
- Sussex County - 319
- Morris County - 100
- Warren County - 97
- Passaic County - 57
- Hunterdon County - 13
- Bergen County - 3
- Somerset County - 0
- Mercer County - 0
Five bear hunting zones were open to hunting in Bergen, Hunterdon, Mercer, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex and Warren counties.
More information on the bear hunt is available on the DEP's bear hunting season website.
Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.