COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina hunters are killing more black bears than ever as restrictions are eased on stalking and shooting the animals, a trend that concerns animal welfare groups but one that reflects state efforts to preserve the sport and keep the bear population in check.

Since 2000, sportsmen have killed more than 2,200 bears in South Carolina during hunts in the mountains and on the northern coast, according to state Department of Natural Resources statistics.

About 80% of the animals have been harvested since the state first began expanding hunting for bears fourteen years ago, DNR data show. This year’s bear harvest was an all-time high, with 237 kills, only the second time in state history hunters have recorded harvesting more than 200 bears. The largest bears taken this year exceeded 500 pounds.

That should not be surprising to black bear hunters in South Carolina. While the state has allowed bear hunting in the mountains since the 1970s, since 2011 it has added areas on the coast and Piedmont.

The state also has authorized the use of bait to attract bears in coastal counties and it most recently increased the amount of time hunters in the mountains can use radio-collared tracking dogs to find bears. Hunters can now run dogs for two weeks to locate bears, as opposed to the previous one-week season. The number of hunters using dogs to stalk bears rose from fewer than 1,000 in 2015 to more than 1,600 last year, DNR data show.

Bear hunting is a hotly disputed practice and plenty of people say it should be curtailed in South Carolina. They say it is a cruel trophy hunt that threatens healthy populations of the state’s largest mammal.

But South Carolina wildlife officials say they have no evidence the rising harvests have lowered the bear population. In fact, hunting has kept the population stable, they say. It’s possible that the rising number of bears being killed shows the bear population is even growing, one top DNR official said.

“That’s indicative, in my mind, of an increase in the bear numbers,’’ said Charles Ruth, the agency’s big game coordinator, noting that otherwise “the harvest would either level out or go down. This is rudimentary methodology, but you have got to have the bears there to sustain and even increase the harvest. To me .... bears are increasing in numbers.’’

No one knows for sure how many bears live in South Carolina. The World Population Review, which compiled the number of black bears in each state, says South Carolina has about 1,125 black bears. Ruth’s agency estimates the number is closer to 2,000 bears, mostly in the mountains, with 400 to 500 on the coast.

A detailed scientific census of bears, now underway in collaboration with Clemson University, is to be completed in the next two years, he said.

South Carolina’s black bear population and harvest, while growing, is still small compared to some other states, including North Carolina.

In 2022, for instance, North Carolina hunters harvested 4,056 black bears, according to a wildlife commission release from that state. North Carolina is one of the leading states for bear harvesting nationally, with 65,000 bears killed since 2000, according to the Humane World for Animals. Overall, North Carolina has about 20,000 black bears, many in the eastern part of the state.

Nationally, the Humane World for Animals says more than 1 million black bears have been killed during what it described as trophy hunts since 2000. The organization, formerly the Humane Society of the United States, issued a report last month decrying the practice

For now, South Carolina’s wildlife agency continues to get reports of nuisance bears that saunter up to backyard bird feeders and trash cans. Bears are sometimes struck and killed by cars while crossing highways. The DNR has documented black bears in virtually all of the state’s 46 counties, including Richland in central South Carolina. For years, bears were seen almost entirely in the mountains northwest of Greenville and on the northern coast west of Myrtle Beach.

The only areas in the state where bear hunting is allowed are the three mountain counties of Pickens, Oconee and Greenville, as well as nearby Spartanburg and Anderson counties; and Horry, Georgetown, Florence, Williamsburg and Marion counties on and near the coast. The Piedmont and coastal counties have been more recently added.

“There are more and more nuisance calls,’’ Ruth said. “So why not try to address this during the hunting season.’’

The DNR’s assurances that black bear populations are growing don’t impress those who are working to curtail or end bear hunting in parts of the United States. The Human World for Animals questions whether South Carolina’s bear population, which is comparatively small to surrounding states, can sustain increased hunting, particularly if females are being taken.

And unlike hunters who shoot birds or deer, relatively few people eat bear meat or need the parts for anything practical, one anti-bear hunting activist said.

“To us, it’s a trophy hunt,’’ said Adam Sugalski, a Florida resident who heads the organization Bear Defenders. “Nobody is living off bear meat. No one needs a bear rug to survive. No one needs the bone parts to make weapons or sell for trinkets. It’s completely trophy hunting.’’

Animal welfare organizations say a better way to reduce human-bear conflicts is for people to secure garbage cans, pet food and compost piles at their homes so that bears are not attracted to the food.

“The root cause of bear conflicts comes from food attractants,’’ the Humane World for Animals report said.

Sugalski said like South Carolina, a detailed bear population study is needed in Florida, so estimates of the number of bears — about 4,000 animals in Florida — are questionable. Florida wildlife officials in 2025 legalized black bear hunting for the first time in a decade, with hunters being allowed to use bait traps and dog packs to kill the animals, the Guardian reported in August.

Some of the biggest concerns critics have with bear hunting are the uses of bait to lure bears and dogs to stalk the animals. Many canines are equipped with radio tracking collars that make finding bears easier for hunters. Once the dogs locate the bear, hunters fire away.

“It should be fair chase,’’ Sugalski said. “You want to get a bear, get off your a—, go walk through the woods and go hunt one down’’ without tracking dogs. Sugalski said that while bears can be dangerous, they are typically bashful creatures that avoid people.

“These are highly intelligent animals.’’

In South Carolina, the state has a short season where hunters aren’t allowed to use dogs to stalk bears, in addition to the two-week season when they can use dogs to track the animals.

Black bears in South Carolina, on average, range in size from 100 to 350 pounds, but they can grow larger, sometimes reaching 500 to 600 pounds, the DNR says. The largest bear ever recorded in the state topped 600 pounds.

Black bears are much smaller than their western cousins, grizzly bears. They are generally shy animals and while they can be dangerous in certain situations, they are rarely aggressive toward people. They thrive in woodlands filled with berries and nut-filled hardwood trees, as well as in coastal wetlands. Black bears are omnivores and adaptable to their surroundings.

Bears are important to the environment in a variety of ways, from dispersing berry seeds in droppings to crushing underbrush that allows more sunlight to grow plants on the forest floor, the Humane World for Animals says. They’re economically important because outdoor enthusiasts spend money trying to spot bears while hiking, the group says.

Bear hunting in South Carolina is more than just people shooting the animals for sport and population control efforts. It’s considered a tradition in the mountains, where most of the black bears live.

Dalton Hudson, a Cleveland, S.C., resident who said he shot his first bear at age 14, said black bear hunting is an important part of many hunters’ lives.

“It’s a way of life for us,’’ he said. “There are so many bears now.’’

Hunters in the southern Appalachians spend time every October making camps, socializing and stalking bears. South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina are among the mountain states that allow bear hunting. Hunters say they’re doing the same thing their grandparents did long ago — and many hunters don’t want that taken away from them.

The State newspaper chronicled the bear hunting culture in a 2016 investigative story that focused on sportsmen in Pickens and Oconee counties. The State’s story followed hunters as they used dogs to find black bears in the mountains.

In one instance, a group of hunters displayed a bruin they had shot in the Eastatoee Valley of Pickens County, its carcass spread on the ground for photo opportunities. In another, hunters shot a bear on the shores of Lake Tugaloo, then brought it across the lake to be weighed by a state Department of Natural Resources officer.

Hudson, 24, said he was first indoctrinated into the black bear hunting culture at age 5. He learned from his elders how to find and harvest the animals, and through the years, has killed several black bears, he said. Hudson was hunting in the Gowensville area north of Greenville when he bagged a more than 500-pound bear recently.

The bear was the biggest one confirmed by the DNR during this year’s hunting season. Hudson said seven dogs found the bear in a woody area, next to an oak tree. The dogs surrounded it before Hudson fired a single shot, dropping the bear. Two smaller bears were also spotted in the area, he said. He said he plans to keep the skull.

“I never really knew it was that big, and he was backed up against the chestnut oak on a rock bluff, and in a bunch of laurel,’’ he said. “He give me a good shot and I took it. And it was all over.’’

©2025 The State. Visit thestate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.