AUGUSTA – Thanks in large part to the dry weather, hunters should find plenty of black bears around when the 2001 season opens Monday in Maine, biologists say.

The lack of rain this summer has limited the berry crop which bears depend upon for nourishment. Nuts, another bear staple, also are in short supply.

“Due to these factors, bears will be very active, and we expect hunters to have excellent success during the first weeks of this year’s three-month season,” said the game department’s bear-studies leader, Craig McLaughlin.

The shortage of food is likely to have another effect: Bears will re-enter their dens by mid-October, so bear hunters won’t see many bruins in northern Maine in November, McLaughlin said.

Maine has the highest black bear population in the eastern United States, estimated at about 23,000, an increase from about 18,500 in 1990. Densities are highest in northern Aroostook County, the mountains of western Maine and Down East. Densities average about one bear per square mile in those regions.

Record bear kills were posted in 1999 and 2000, when 3,483 and 3,951 bears were registered respectively. McLaughlin predicted that this year’s harvest will be in the same range.

The number of bear-hunting permits has also increased, from as many as 11,000 through most of the 1990s, to 12,790 last year.

Several bills that would have placed new restrictions on the bear hunt, including bans on the use of dogs and baiting, were killed by the Legislature earlier this year.

A proposal that could increase bear hunting fees was set aside while the state Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department’s entire fee structure is being analyzed. Recommendations for possible changes could result.