Nearly 400 bears killed as weeklong hunt enters its final days Watch video
FREDON -- Two dozen additional animals were killed Thursday, the fourth day of New Jersey's annual bear hunt, according to preliminary figures reported by the state Department of Environmental Protection Thursday night.
The tally as of Thursday now stood at 390 animals, most killed in Sussex, Warren, Morris and Passaic counties. Another seven animals were killed in Hunterdon, and none had yet been killed in the remaining three counties where the firearms hunt was authorized: Bergen, Mercer and Somerset.
The hunt, first reintroduced in 2010, is meant to reduce large black bear populations, although environmental groups and animal-rights activists have said killing the animals is neither effective in the long term nor humane. The last day of this year's cull is Saturday.
For the first time during the 2015 hunt, the state also released figures showing the daily "harvest rate," based on the number of tagged bears killed. On Monday, when the greatest number of animals by far was taken, the harvest rate stood at 8.3 percent. On Thursday, when the smallest number of animals was killed, the harvest rate was at 15 percent.