Black bears have spread through West Texas for several years now. But recently, bear sightings in East Texas have earned headlines too.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department confirmed that a black bear had been seen in Cherokee, Anderson, Panola and Rusk counties in August. The department is cautioning all Texans in bear country to take steps to avoid human-bear interactions.
Dana Karelus, state mammal specialist at Texas Parks and Wildlife, spoke to the Texas Standard about the bears’ spread.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: This is not the first time bears have been seen in East Texas, for sure, but this area certainly isn’t known as a bear hotspot. Is this probably just a critter that wandered over from Louisiana, or could there be something bigger going on? What do you think?
Dana Karelus: Just based on the data that we have, yeah, we believe that this bear has come in over from Louisiana most likely. We don’t get very many confirmable sightings from East Texas.
Lots of things can be mistaken for black bears if you just see a black thing, you know, off in the distance or whatever. So we depend on some sort of evidence to prove that it was a bear, whether it’s a photo where you can clearly tell or a track or something like that.
When I heard that some people were guessing that it might have come from Louisiana, which is what you’re saying is the most probable explanation, I didn’t know black bears were really that populous in Louisiana. Are they?
Yeah, so they actually have a growing population over there. You know, they’ve been successful in recolonizing parts of the state there, so they’re more in the eastern part of Louisiana.
However, they do have some bears moving westward and sporadically going that way in the state, so that really seems like the most likely place that it came from.
If you look back in history, Texas is bear country, but practically speaking, there are a lot of people who’ve lived in West Texas for years without really even thinking about bears, much less seeing one.
So now that the bears are returning, how’s it going between bears and people? Have there been any conflicts, or are both groups adapting smoothly?
Well, pretty much wherever there are bears and people, conflict is almost inevitable. So there have been some.
People like to feed deer or, you know, put out food for their animals, or they might feed their pets outside – all sorts of things like that, that a bear will smell and naturally come in to come and check that out and eat that food as well, just like any other wild animal would.
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What’s the danger? You end up with a homeowner who sees a bear in their backyard; I think maybe someone might run for a shotgun or something, right? Is that sort of thing happening?
Some people are scared. For the most part it’s more a concern of just general damage to things, or getting into chicken coops and things like that. Bears are kind of like giant raccoons.
So we have our six at home bearwise basics, which are great for everybody to follow if you’re in bear country, if you’re visiting bear country. You know, these practices are great not only for bears, but again, to keep out other wildlife.
You’d never want to feed or approach bears.
You want to secure all your food, garbage and recycling that’s outside; bring it indoors or put it in something they can’t get into.
Bird feeders are a big attractant that a lot of people don’t realize. So you know, that’s something, if you’re in bear country, you want to bring in or or make sure the bear can’t get to – which, if it’s just in a tree, the bear can climb the tree.
Pet food outdoors is number four: You never want to leave that pet food out there. Those bowls, even if they’re empty, need to get brought in and washed
Grills: You clean and store your grills
And then lastly, tell TPWD about your sighting. And tell your neighbors so that everybody knows to do all of these bear wise basics.
Do you envision a time in the future when most of Texas is inhabited by bears?
That’s an interesting question. That’s hard to say. Bears are generalists, so they can take advantage of a lot of different food sources and a lot different habitats.
Obviously, with them living out in the Trans-Pecos, it still just is super shocking to everybody else around the country, my fellow bear biologists in other states; the kind of habitat they live in out there is not something we normally think of as bear habitat. So they can take advantage of a lot of different things
However recolonization events by bears, it’s a really slow process because the females typically don’t move very far from where they’re born. So it’s usually a pretty gradual and slow process.
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