State game wardens last year prosecuted 1,154 incidents of unlawful taking of game or wildlife, commonly known as poaching. According to the annual report of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, that was the top violation prosecuted last year.

Hunting without required licenses, with 484 prosecutions, was No. 2, followed by operating a motor vehicle on state game lands, 390; hunting over bait, 347; loaded firearm in a vehicle, 313; failure to wear required fluorescent orange, 258; spotlighting unlawfully, 216; failure to tag harvested big game properly, 213; safety zone violations, 179; and failure to have a permit while using state game lands shooting ranges, 123.

Game wardens initiated 6,824 prosecutions, of which 5,895 were successful, and issued 9,543 warnings.

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Operation Game Thief, the commission’s system for…