For the second consecutive year, South Carolina sportsmen killed a record number of black bears during the state’s often-criticized bear hunting season, a two-week period when the shy bruins are stalked in the mountains and on parts of the coast.
Hunters killed 174 bears in 2022, eclipsing last year’s state record of 169 bears harvested, according to data from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. The vast majority were killed in the mountains of Pickens, Oconee and Greenville counties, an area of the state where bear-hunting is a long-standing tradition.
“It was a big season for the bear harvest,’’ said Tammy Waldrop, a DNR biologist who keeps track of bear hunting in the mountains.
