A hunter has illegally killed what was “likely” the first black bear documented at New York’s Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.
The hunter was located after Department of Environmental Conservation officers responded to a Nov. 18 report that a K-9 unit had tracked a bear that had been shot earlier in the day.
The K-9 unit had been part of a nighttime spotlighting detail involving officers trying to catch hunters illegally using lights to locate and shoot deer.
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The DEC reported that after an investigation, officers interviewed the hunter at his home and he confessed to shooting the bear with a compound bow.
The refuge does not allow bear hunting and the hunter failed to turn in a harvest report that helps the state keep track of legal bear kills.
The man was cited and ordered to appear in federal court on charges related to the illegal harvest of a bear on a national wildlife refuge.
–Image showing officers with the poached bear is courtesy of the DEC
