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NY: Hunter illegally kills bear in Central New York wildlife refuge

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https://www.newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/2022/12/hunter-illegally-kills-bear-in-montezuma-national-wildlife-refuge.html

12/13/2022

A hunter killed a black bear last month in the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in Seneca County. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, refuge biologists say it is the first confirmed sighting of a black bear within the refuge’s boundaries.

DEC conservation officers working a spotlight detail on the night of Nov. 18 received a report that a K-9 trained in wildlife recovery had tracked a bear shot earlier in the day. Officers later interviewed the hunter at home, where he admitted to shooting the bear with a compound bow. The hunter also failed to turn in a harvest report card indicating he had taken the bear, DEC said.

The hunter has pending tickets in New York for improperly tagging an antlered deer. He also received citations to appear in federal court for the illegal harvest of a black bear on a national wildlife refuge.The bear is being donated to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center.

Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.