Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Bill Cochran's Outdoors

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• Less freedom at Hatteras for surf casters
• Here’s the scoop on hunting shed antlers
• Want more grouse? Get used to hearing chainsaws
• Sunday hunting bills aplenty, but some hunters hold out
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• Hunting for a book on rabbit hunting
• More comments on Sunday hunting
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• Winterize your boat? Heck no! Keep on fishing
• Senator gets attention of DGIF
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BILL: I read your article on the big increase in bear kills in Virginia -- up to 2,200 last year. I remember 15 to 20 years ago when you were at The Roanoke Times and it was 700-800 per year. What is the reason behind the increase?

KIM: I attempted to run this by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries but received no answer, so let me tell you what I think has happened.

I believe bear have been benefiting from hunting regulations that protect females. In recent seasons, the female kill has been about 37 percent of the total, which leaves plenty of room for growth. That growth has occurred at the rate of about 9 percent annually, resulting in a bear population that is about twice what it was 10 years ago -- and growing.

The growth isn’t in numbers alone, but also range. While bear once were limited to the western sections of the state and the Dismal Swamp, now they are found in nearly every section of Virginia. I can recall in the 1970s protectionists were saying bear could not survive apart from large stretches of roadless, wilderness habitat. But that isn’t the case. Just this past Sunday I was talking to a man who was telling me about all the bears he sees in his yard. Bears are cunning enough to adapt.

The face of bear hunting also has change. Hound hunters are much more likely to let a treed bear go than they were in earlier years. Many stress preservation and ethics.

Helping to increase the annual kill are bowhunters and muzzleloaders. About 25 percent of the bear now are taken by bowhunters.

DGIF officials say the population continues to expanding, even to the point of concern in some areas. Yet it is difficult for the agency to convince some hunters that even more bears need to be killed in order to avoid problems of overpopulation.