Information on Black Bear in Missouri

[IrishEyes]

I attended a seminar on the rise of sightings, and why, of the Black Bear in Missouri.
They also talked about the life cycle (which is fascinating) and how different these are from other types of bears.

Here is a link if you may be interested especially if sightings are growing in your area.
Be sure to click the link on the right to the map of where bear population is the largest and showing where
they are migrating to.
American Black Bear

 

[Lawrence00]

I was surprised when visiting Gatlinburg Tennessee at the instructions posted concerning bears. Sometimes they walk down Main Street by all the tourist shops.

 

[IrishEyes]

I was surprised when visiting Gatlinburg Tennessee at the instructions posted concerning bears. Sometimes they walk down Main Street by all the tourist shops.

I hope it does not get that bad here, it surprised me how many are around the outskirts of St Louis. Mostly
areas where homes have small acreage so less congestion. I wonder if they will get into Illinois and see how sparse the lower half is in woods and turn around and come back, if they can cross the river that is.

 

[IrishEyes]

I was surprised when visiting Gatlinburg Tennessee at the instructions posted concerning bears. Sometimes they walk down Main Street by all the tourist shops.

They have a lottery ticket hunting season for them, the Conservation Agent said the last season there were
45 permits given for the state but at that time was in the southern area near Arkansas. They don't want them
eradicated again.

 

[Lawrence00]

There are 5-10 Mountain Lion sightings in Missouri each year. Sometimes people are alarmed and hunt them down.

 

[IrishEyes]

There are 5-10 Mountain Lion sightings in Missouri each year. Sometimes people are alarmed and hunt them down.

Is that in lower Mo.? The area has steeper hills and mountain base area. I could see them being there
for sure, maybe even in the Ozark Mountain range too maybe. That is interesting I hadn't heard that since
moving back here but I don't doubt it.

 

[Imogene]

I was surprised when visiting Gatlinburg Tennessee at the instructions posted concerning bears. Sometimes they walk down Main Street by all the tourist shops.

We can thank our own human species for that

1. Stupid people feed the bears, then wonder why they stroll down Main St like they own it.

2. just as when the Europeans stole all this land from the Native Americans, they are stealing land from wildlife. That means wildlife are encroaching more and more on human property, which was theirs to begin with.

3. The coyotes in my area recently lost 40 acres of good hunting to new home building. The only good thing was the homes were built on 5 to 10 acre plots instead of crammed on half acre lots.

nonetheless, the coyotes lost good hunting land, which is why I suspect the neighbor lost a couple sheep and a llama to the coyotes. Coyote are not prone to come up to the barn areas. They never have in the 20 some odd years I have lived here, until they took the neighbors, sheep and llama several months back.

4. I’m sure I will hear the counter attack on this, but don’t even get me started on what we are doing to this land and to the wildlife.

I am not on my own species side where the wildlife are concerned, that’s for sure.

 

[IrishEyes]

We can thank our own human species for that

1. Stupid people feed the bears, then wonder why they stroll down Main St like they own it.

2. just as when the Europeans stole all this land from the Native Americans, they are stealing land from wildlife. That means wildlife are encroaching more and more on human property, which was theirs to begin with.

3. The coyotes in my area recently lost 40 acres of good hunting to new home building. The only good thing was the homes were built on 5 to 10 acre plots instead of crammed on half acre lots.

nonetheless, the coyotes lost good hunting land, which is why I suspect the neighbor lost a couple sheep and a llama to the coyotes. Coyote are not prone to come up to the barn areas. They never have in the 20 some odd years I have lived here, until they took the neighbors, sheep and llama several months back.

4. I’m sure I will hear the counter attack on this, but don’t even get me started on what we are doing to this land and to the wildlife.

I am not on my own species side where the wildlife are concerned, that’s for sure.

I agree with you on that and Conservation will tell you right off the bat..... do NOT feed them nor any wildlife,
especially fur bearing wildlife. You give a cute bear a PB sandwich and the bear keeps coming round, he sees another human and expects a PB sandwich and that human doesn't have one, it is not a good scenario in
most cases. Also it disrupts their natural diet for a healthy life.

 

[Paco Dennis]

We live up near Columbia, just north of I-70. We have about 20 acres of woods. I take walks whenever the weather permits, and lately I have walked around quite a bit. It is sychronistic that you mention bears in Missouri, because I just mentioned to Misa yesterday while we were working on the bamboo to watch out for bears as a joke...kinda...because it just felt like they could be here, or will be soon.

 

[Lawrence00]

 

[IrishEyes]

We live up near Columbia, just north of I-70. We have about 20 acres of woods. I take walks whenever the weather permits, and lately I have walked around quite a bit. It is sychronistic that you mention bears in Missouri, because I just mentioned to Misa yesterday while we were working on the bamboo to watch out for bears as a joke...kinda...because it just felt like they could be here, or will be soon.

They had some scat to show us, resembles black/dark charcoal briquettes so don't use them to BBQ with.

 

[Sunkist]

I was surprised when visiting Gatlinburg Tennessee at the instructions posted concerning bears. Sometimes they walk down Main Street by all the tourist shops.

Well, as long as they're not shoplifting..

 

[hearlady]

I was surprised when visiting Gatlinburg Tennessee at the instructions posted concerning bears. Sometimes they walk down Main Street by all the tourist shops.

I visited Gatlinburg. We were in a Airbnb on the side of a mountain. There were bears! They came right up on the patio and common to see them walking around.

 

[Imogene]

They had some scat to show us, resembles black/dark charcoal briquettes so don't use them to BBQ with.

back in the early 1980’s, a handful of us gals were trail riding up in a section of the Allegheny National Forest off The Three Sixes.

Thanks to the sisters two aunts, we ended up ”temporarily misplaced”, aka lost. We came across bear dung that was still steaming at an older (and illegal) dump site.

Our horses were well seasoned/savvy trail horses, but their natural “fight or flight” kicked in and we had a hard time keeping them all focused until we were well out of smelling range of that fresh bear dung.

A short way down that unfamiliar logging trail, we ran into a mountain man who gave us directions to the road. It was the correct road but ten miles further down the pike from camp than intended.

We never saw the bear, made it safely back to camp, and it was a lot of years before the two aunts heard the end of their earlier proclamation that “ we hunt these woods and know where we are”

 

[Sunkist]

Two guys were being chased by a huge bear.
One guy said to the other "I hope you can run faster than that bear!"
The other replied "I don't need to run faster than the bear.. I only need to run faster than you!"

 

[IrishEyes]

Two guys were being chased by a huge bear.
One guy said to the other "I hope you can run faster than that bear!"
The other replied "I don't need to run faster than the bear.. I only need to run faster than you!"

If it's a black one, don't run or climb a tree, they are the fastest tree climbers of all the bears