Maryland’s 2026 Black Bear Hunt Ends With 89 Bears, Close to Five-Year Average
Maryland hunters harvested 89 black bears during the state’s 23rd annual black bear hunt, held October 26 to 31 in Allegany, Frederick, Garrett and Washington counties, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported on November 2. I read the department’s season notice and compared the figure with the five-year average of 95 bears that the same notice cites.
What the Harvest Numbers Show
Of the 89 bears, 28 were male and 61 were female. The department breaks the total down by county and puts Garrett County at the top with 61 bears from the six-day season. That concentration follows decades of the state’s bear population building in western Maryland’s Garrett and Allegany counties, and a season that has stayed within a narrow range for the past five years suggests the hunt has been tracking a stable population.
The season length has held at six days in recent years, and the department sets the hunt window each year based on population and nuisance data from the four western counties where bears are established. Anyone living in those counties knows the season marks the point in fall when bears are most active and most likely to be moving through yards.
What This Means for a Maryland Homeowner
The takeaway for a homeowner in Allegany, Frederick, Garrett or Washington County is that the season has just closed and bears are still on the move before denning. The county-level totals tell you where the animals are concentrated, and in Garrett County that is most of the state’s harvest. If a bear is in your yard, leave it an escape route and keep garbage and bird feeders secured until the first hard freeze. The approach I describe in 5 Steps to Safely Remove a Snake From Your Garden Shed applies to the same principle: create an exit and let the animal take it rather than cornering it.
The same goes for the animals that share the same woodland edges, like raccoons that find a way into a chimney, and any encounter with a bear should go to the state wildlife agency rather than a private removal.
The harvest total was confirmed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which publishes county breakdowns and season dates each year.
