Are black bears here????????????

My land is in Hopkins county, near Delta county. Our land is bordered by TPWD land on three sides. I noticed a new sign at the only public drop in point near us. I know a black bear was run over by a semi a few years back, but this sign was alarming/strange.

There are a few but why alarming?

Just thought the new signs were strange. I love black bear, I hunt them in Idaho every two years. Just would love to know some statistics on whats near us.

My thread a while back on that skull I found next to my dead hog is what peaks my interest. Alot of people thought it could of been bear.

They are in West Texas in the Trans Pecos I know and have been seen as far as Menard. East Texas should have a few now I would guess.

I dont know about Delta County but I know I have seen some pics of bears here in Texas on this very forum. If I remember right one thread had several pics of one in Red River county and another thread had several pics of one somewhere in the hill country area.

I have heard there are a few up around the Oklahoma border north of Clarksville which makes sense since there is a lake right there in Oklahoma with signs about bears in area.

That is area I am referring to my brother owns 140 acres in red river county he has never seen one and I have shot a few yotes and pigs there but the ole man down the road a piece claims he has seen them. He has few deer and turkey as well but we never shoot them.

There was a Black Bear shot in Menard about 2 or 3 yrs ago now illegally. Just northwest of town about a mile or so. I heard about it thru a friend.

Yes there are black bears in Texas and they are moving in to new areas. It is doubtful if there will ever be a huntable population here, but they are here.

For the person that said that they hunted bears in Idaho, where do you hunt?

I hunt in the Bitteroot Mountain range, near the Selway. We land in the famous Moose Creek landing strip. Thats where the smoke jumpers got started. I love it up there, its on the continental divide so its steep and ruggend. Lewis and Clark called this region the most dangerous of there whole trip. They lost alot of mules/horses in these mountains. I use Richie Outfitters.

I hunted out of Elk City this past September and plan on going back in 2012, it is one of the 2 bear units.

Why don't you google Black Bear and find all the pictures you want. Some topics don't require pictures, especially for people with experience.

He is posting that mess everywhere now about the dresses. Just another spamer!

Just saw that. LOL. I was about to make a bet with him. Was gonna need money to get me off my butt to upload the pics to photobucket tonite.

Just do it from your iPhone you don't have to move

Only one I have on this computer is flying in. My others are on my laptop. Good idea though!



My dad

I rarely use the computer for ThF to easy to use iPhone and photobucket ap

since all the border states have them,I would say so? AR has a season,LA will soon have one in a few years,OK has some so,seems reasonable..

Does THF have an app? When I use my iphone I am always scrolling it seems.

My dad's neighbor has seen one walking down the fence line. And I am pretty damn sure I got growled at by one out hog hunting one night.

only place i've seen them in texas was in big bend national park.

They're crossing into Texas from Oklahoma and Louisiana and coming up from Mexico. The one shot out of Menard was from Mexico. Okla has a state bear hunt, I think a 10 or 15 bear total take.

would be cool to see one

considering the close proximity to state land it wouldn't suprise me if there were some transplanted.

pic's

With all of the flap over transplanting wolves by the feds, no state game department is going to undertake moving a major predator anywhere.

Someone posted one from a gamecam in Nacogdoches county this past fall. I cannot find it using the search function here. Oh well.

They are here though. When they get a stable population it will be fun having them around because of all the fun stuff like dumpsters they can get into!

There are several colonies of them out here in Val Verde County. Last year or the year before one was found in Del Rio and transplanted out to the Big Bend.

If you think coons and hogs are hard on corn feeders, wait until you have a bear in the area.

I had set of odd looking tracks that seemed to follow the tracks of a sounder of hogs. TPWD looked at them and said without a doubt, they were Black Bear tracks. The gentleman told me " Its a small bear, but a bear non the less. They are venturing south of the red river now, but its only been small ones.." That was about 2 years ago, 5 miles south of Bonham in Fannin county.

i am in east texas around hughes springs, i work for us steel in lone star some folks i work with has kin that works for bowie county and says they get reports all the time of bears north of new boston,i have hunted bears in arkansas, around mena and have a hunt booked for internatonal falls minnissota in september

have the same signs up on my lease in nacogdoches county

they've been spotted in real county as well.

they hit one on hwy 90 a few years ago just west of brackettville.....smaller one, weighed 185 lbs but still a bear.

i'm not too savvy on bears but i think the desert versions don't get to be huge, 200ish pounds is average from what i've been told

I know of confirmed sightings in Bowie, Red River, Morris, and Lamar counties this past season.

Yea we lost 4 feeders to this bigun? Brewster County

x2 on Real county,My neighbor says he has seen a sow and two cubs on 2 separate occasions ,property is on Camp Wood creek about 5 miles east of the Nueces.Supposedly they follow the major drainages up from Mexico.

The small Mexican black bears have been here a long time. They are migrating eastward. Long enough for the Texas legislature to have passed laws where you cannot shoot 'em.

Well, well, well, what do we have here? A possible Big Orn in disguise sighting?

I have seen other pics of them around Sanderson also. Had a friend get a timered trough style protein feeder ripped open and destroyed by bear in around 2000 or 2001 just south of Sanderson. Hunted on a Mule Deer lease just north of Sanderson in 1994 and one hunter saw one at that time at his corn feeder.

Had a guy order 8 of the 1200 lb. Bossbuck protein feeders from me a couple of years back because the bears had ripped his metal feeders up.

Apparently they didn't wreck those feeders because I still see them when I go deliver corn to some other guys in the same area.

The same guy has a sow that dens up under the old ranch house and delivers babies there.

That bear isn't a small bear. Bottom of the feeder is 8'

Oh yea, my dad's place is north of Paris. I think that's Red River county.

We have pics of bear at the lease my dad runs in Red River Co

I lease in Red River county. We've had pictures of black bears on our game cameras the last three years. I just had the motor torn off of a drum feeder last week. There are claw marks on the motor housing.

They come and go. We usually get a pic or two during the season and don't see it again. It seems they have a pretty big home range and don't get into regular travel patterns.

100% yes there are bears in Texas. Specifically Red River county.

I've never seen a bear on the refuge but if you drop by the Tira office and talked to Howard Crenshaw; our biologist, he could probably tell you if they are here or not.
I been hearing people talk about seeing mountain lions around here for several years and I was always kind of skeptical of that, this past summer all my skepticism went away when I was driving home from work one evening and had one run across the road in front of me in a fairly populated area. I think the "big kitties" are here to stay, at least as long as there is plenty of pork to go around.....

The Tira office is litterally 2 minutes from our land. Thats cool, I may do that. We have seen mountain lions several times now. Most recently dad, and grandpa saw one chasing 3-4 piglets. The chase was on the oil road for a few seconds before they went West back into TPWD land.

When we went hunting in Pacos County last year my nephew and his grandfather were in a stand and swear they saw one.

When my Dad was alive in the early 90's in Marion county, he called me one Sunday to tell me about the Black Bear that had come into the yard trying to get into the trash barrel. Dogs ran it off.

I saw that sign you posted the last time I was over there. The last time my son did the youth deer hunt for the refuge they spoke to us about those signs. It's a pretty steep fine for shooting a bear from what I understand....

I've got pics I'll have to dig them up.

Time to think about "bear" management. Let the population grow and spread a little. I'd enjoy telling the anti-hunters that hunter's fees helped re-introduce the black bear into Texas. Maybe in 7-10 years Texas can have a bear season. Obviously if they become a cattle nuisance then the cattle owners can protect their property. Just imagine our kids being able to hunt bear in the Honey Grove area!

SFA has done two research projects looking for bears in East Texas. One in Northeast Texas Cypress River North to the Red River got one genetic sample of a bear in Red River County near Negley in 2 years covering about 250,000 acres of good land. Pics were taken at 3 other locations in Negley, and there has been a pic along the Sulphur River east of Talco since then.

The other study is in Southeast TX Sabine River south/Neches river east/ down to Big Thicket area and is still in progress

Articles: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6565798.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20100614-Bears-make-return-to-East-Texas-2890.ece

TPWD doesn't plan on reintroducing bears. They are coming in on their own anyway. Population isn't known but source right now is probably Oklahoma for Red River County. According to Oklahoma officials they know of breeding females with in 20 miles of TX border which isn't that far for bears to travel.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/news_images/?g=black_bears

bottom 4 pics are from bear genetic sample taken of

Most bears are probably juvenile males that disperse widely from source populations. Females rarely stray far from where they were born unless food resources are scarce. There won't be a population till the females start moving in. So right now it will probably be immature males and young mature males. Bears can live to be up to 20+ years old. In the wild 10-15 is an old bear, and it's estimated most of the bears coming in though few are less than 5 years of age so most should be less than 250 lbs.

Here is TPWD's management plan for black bears and their management.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_pl_w7000_1046.pdf

I worked on the SFA bear project in NE TX that is why I know so much about this it was alot of fun.