HARRISBURG — Recent years have been some of the best on record for Pennsylvania bear hunting, and the annual statewide bear seasons again are about to kick off.

Leading the way is the statewide archery season, which opens Monday. And after that five-day season comes to a close Friday, licensed hunters who still are in pursuit of a bear can participate in the four-day general season from Nov. 23-27.

There’s been plenty of reason for hunters to get excited about bear hunting in recent years.

The 2012 harvest of 3,632 bears statewide was the third-largest in state history. That follows an record harvest of 4,350 bears in 2011.

A growing bear population, which now numbers 16,000 to 18,000, and expanded hunting opportunities in recent years have contributed to the large harvests.

Mark Ternent, bear biologist for the Game Commission, said, “Nowadays it’s getting increasingly harder to identify our so-called best bear hunting counties, because opportunities are becoming increasingly better throughout so much of the state.”

In 2012, for example, hunters killed bears in 56 of the state’s 67 counties, and Pennsylvania routinely has been seeing harvests in 50 counties or more. Bear-hunting success across the state is something Ternent said simply wasn’t possible 30 years ago, when bear populations were more concentrated in core areas of north-central and northeastern Pennsylvania.

For those taking part in the bear seasons, the opportunity exists to harvest a large bear.

Last year’s harvest included 45 bears weighing 500 pounds or more, five that surpassed the 600-pound mark, and the heaviest bear overall, killed in Monroe County, weighed 709 pounds.