Morris County Hunter Sets World Record With Black Bear Harvest

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — A Morris County hunter brought down the largest bow-harvested black bear in North American history last year, hunting organization Pope and Young Club announced Thursday. The bear weighed 700 pounds.

Jeff Melillo, the hunter, was declared a record-winner after a special panel of judges for the Pope and Young Club gathered Feb. 8 to discuss the potentially record-breaking bear.

In a press release, P&Y announced the massive bear scored 23 5/16, making it the largest bow-harvested black bear in North America.

The bear was shot Oct. 14, 2019, in Morris County and surpasses the previous record-holding bear shot in 1993 in Mendocino County, California, by Robert J. Shuttleworth Jr.

Rick Mowery, director of communications and marketing for P&Y, told Patch by phone that the bears are scored by skull measurement alone, meaning that the Morris County bear's skull measured 23 and five-sixteenths inches.

Mowery said the reason bears and other hunted animals are measured and scored is to ensure that only adult animals are being hunted, thereby protecting young and adolescent animals.

Further, Mowery said, "weight means nothing." Because a bear's weight fluctuates throughout the year based on hibernation cycles, weight is not an indicator of a bear's overall size.

In a statement, Melillo said his victory has been an inspiring journey.

"New Jersey, my home state, has its first-ever world record animal," Melillo said in part. "I'm very grateful that I get to be a part of all this. Pursuing bears with bow and arrow is a passion of mine."

P&Y said the bear has been preserved by taxidermy and will be displayed in March at the P&Y Annual Convention in Virginia.

Black bear hunting was reinstated in New Jersey in 2003 after New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife studies showed the bear population could support a regulated hunting season. However, the state's black bear hunt hasn't come without controversy.

In 2018, Gov. Phil Murphy banned hunting black bears on state lands, USA Today reports. The New Jersey Sierra Club is still working to enact an outright ban on the hunt.

Last year, 315 bears were killed in New Jersey, the outlet reports.

"The size of the New Jersey bear is a testament to good wildlife management by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife," Mowery said. "However, species should be managed by sound, scientific practices, not emotional ballot initiatives. Recent hunting bans are unhealthy for residents, bear populations, and are counter to the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation."