The first day of Pennsylvania’s statewide bear season resulted in a harvest of 1,297 black bears, according to preliminary totals released Monday by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Archery and other early bear season harvest data still is being entered into the game commission’s database, and is not available at this time.Bears have been harvested in 51 counties during the statewide season so far.The top 10 bears processed at check stations by Monday were either estimated or confirmed to have live weights of 550 pounds or more.The largest of those bears — a male estimated at 700 pounds — was taken in Barrett Township, Monroe County, by Chad D. Nauman of Cresco. He took it with a rifle at about 7 a.m. Saturday, the season’s opening day.The 2016 first-day preliminary harvest is a decrease compared with 1,508 bears taken during the 2015 opener. Hunters in 2014 harvested 1,623 bears on the opening day.The overall 2015 bear harvest was 3,748, the third-largest in state history. In 2014, hunters took a total of 3,366 bears — the seventh-largest harvest all time. The largest harvest — 4,350 bears — happened in 2011, when preliminary first-day totals numbered 1,936.The preliminary first-day bear harvest by Wildlife Management Unit was as follows: WMU 1A, 9 (10 in 2016); WMU 1B, 24 (35); WMU 2A, 1, (0); WMU 2B, 0 (2); WMU 2C, 90 (133); WMU 2D, 37 (99); WMU 2E, 27 (20); WMU 2F, 145 (208); WMU 2G, 303 (275); WMU 2H, 45 (31); WMU 3A, 70 (27); WMU 3B, 95 (133); WMU 3C, 39 (41); WMU 3D, 105 (160); WMU 4A, 83 (76); WMU 4B, 51 (60); WMU 4C, 44 (46); WMU 4D, 102 (130); WMU 4E, 25 (17); WMU 5A, 1 (0); and WMU 5C, 1 (0).The top bear hunting county in the state on the first day of the season was Lycoming County, with 106.Opening-day harvests by county and region are:Northeast (241): Luzerne, 37 (44); Pike, 34 (77); Bradford, 28 (20); Monroe, 27 (33); Wayne, 27 (32); Susquehanna, 20 (14); Sullivan, 19 (29); Lackawanna, 16 (13); Carbon, 12 (18); Columbia, 12 (11); Wyoming, 8 (20); Northumberland, 1 (2); and Montour, 0 (1).Southeast (35): Dauphin, 16 (12); Schuylkill, 12 (11); Lebanon, 5 (3); Berks, 1 (0); Northampton, 1 (0); and Lehigh, 0 (2).