Hunter Gets Bear In Allegheny County, Near Bull Creek Club Grounds

By Valley News Dispatch 
Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A Butler County hunter killed the first bear harvested in Allegheny County since at least 1949 in Fawn Township on Monday, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said.

Alvin Anthony of Buffalo with the black bear
he shot in Fawn, the first bear killed in
Allegheny County since at least 1949. 

The commission said Alvin Anthony of Buffalo Township shot the 157-pound adult female. The specific location in Fawn, which has seen a great increase in bear activitiy in recent years, was not available.

Tom Fazi, the information and education supervisor in the game commission`s southwest region office, said it was only a matter of time before a hunter scored a bear in Allegheny.

"Dan Puhala (the wildlife conservation officer whose area includes Fawn Township) actually predicted it. He told me before the season that this might be the year that someone took a black bear in Allegheny County," Fazi said. "Beth Fife (the conservation officer whose district takes in southeastern Allegheny) said the same thing. They both told me they knew of people specifically targeting black bears in Allegheny County this year."

Fazi said exactlty when the last Allegheny bear was taken isn`t known since the commission has only kept records of bear harvests since 1949.

"It could have been much longer since anyone`s actually killed a bear there. We`ve got more bears now -- especially in (Fawn) -- than we did years ago, so I would doubt there were many black bears in Allegheny County in the 1940s," he said. "But I would bet it`s been a lot longer ago than 1940 since anyone shot a bear there. (There) might still have been (an actual) fort around there the last time it happened."

Initial attempts to reach Anthony were not successful.