Bear hunters had a record-breaking season, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation announced this week.

Since the state started keeping track in 1955, the 1,759 black bears killed this season is second only to the toll in 2003.

In the 1950s, bears lived in only the most remote and mountainous regions of New York, such as the Adirondack, Catskill, and Allegheny mountains. Over the past 70 years, bears gradually expanded their range in the state, and the DEC began opening new areas for bear hunting.

Bears now live in most areas of the state except Long Island and New York City, and all areas of the state are open to bear hunting except Long Island and areas closed to big-game hunting.

The expansion of bear range was particularly notable in the Southern Zone. The Southern Zone bear harvest exceeded the Northern Zone for the first time in 1998 and accounted for most of New York’s bear harvest for the past 20 years. This year, the Southern Zone set a new record.

The dressed weight of the heaviest 2025 reported bear was 562 pounds; that bear was killed in the town of Olive in Ulster County.

The oldest bear harvested in 2024 (the most recent year for which age data are available) was killed in the town Mooers in Clinton County, and was 26 years old.

Northern Zone bears typically grow slower in the wilderness ecosystems of the Adirondacks but tend to survive to older ages than their Southern Zone counterparts. All but one of the oldest bears on DEC record were taken in the Northern Zone.

Black bear harvest data are gathered from two main sources: reports required of all successful bear hunters, and the physical examination of bears by DEC staff, cooperating taxidermists, and meat processors. Harvest estimates are made by cross-referencing these two data sources and determining the rate at which hunters report their bear harvests in each zone.

In fall 2026, the DEC will send a commemorative 2025 Black Bear Management Cooperator Patch and a letter confirming each bear’s age to all hunters who reported the bears they killed and submitted a tooth for age analysis.