The Louisiana black bear once roamed all over east Texas. Indiscriminate killing and habitat destruction and degradation had driven them all out by the 1950s, but there may still be room for a few, according to Nathan Garner, Director of Wildlife Operations for East Texas at Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPW).

Courtesy of Louisiana Secretary of State

The most promising areas include the lower Neches River corridor in the Big Thicket and the Sulfur River basin, where large tracts of untouched wooded land still exist. Garner estimates that there might be space for up to 100 bears.

East Texans report a handful of bear sightings in border counties each year. Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana all have stable or expanding bear populations, partially due to successful reintroduction efforts.

“By and large, the animals sighted in east Texas are solitary, sub-adult males, because they’re the ones that range and move the farthest,” says Garner. “That’s what you would expect to show up first in any expanding bear area, because the young males are the ones that move out first.”

Garner emphasizes that the TPW has not and does not currently plan to move any bears into Texas. “We wouldn’t instigate a reintroduction plan without political and public support,” he explains. “But, Mother Nature may beat us to the punch. We haven’t seen females with cubs in east Texas, and we have no evidence that bears are reproducing on their own in east Texas, but that could very well happen if we continue to see the expansion of bear populations in neighboring states.”

As in other states, the return of the bears brings about mixed emotions. “A lot of people like the idea of seeing a bear again in east Texas,” says Garner. “Others have concerns about the problems they present, like they have in other states where bears live around folks.”

For more information on efforts to conserve and reintroduce black bears, visit the Black Bear Conservation Committee at http://bbcc.org.