Donnie Nichols
County Reporter
Black bears were once abundant in Missouri. Many county histories contain notes and reports of the remarkable number of bears in all areas of the state. Bear was a staple item for early settlers. They used it for food as well as the fat and skins. Bears were more widely killed by pioneers than any other larger mammal in Missouri other than deer.
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s notes of his travels in the Missouri Ozarks during 1818-19 has many accounts of settlers dependence on bear meat and fat and income from hides, illustrating the abundance of bears in Missouri. However, by the 1830s and 1840s, bears were rare in north Missouri and by 1894 were reported to be almost extinct in the Ozarks. Schwartz (1920) reported bears were still present in southeast Missouri and “occasionally seen in the bootheel until the flood of 1927.” One of the last verified records of a wild bear killed in Missouri was 1931.
There were rumors of bear sightings in the Ozarks in the 1940s and two incidents of bears killed in Dent County in the 1950s.
In 1959, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (whose bear population was also depleted) quietly initiated a black bear restoration program. Between 1959-1967, 254 black bears captured in Minnesota and Manitoba, Canada were released in the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. The program was so successful that black bears became a legal game animal and have had a conservation fall season annually since 1980. As the Arkansas bear population increased, bears seeking new territories traveled into Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Conservation collaborated with the Carnivore Ecology Laboratory at Mississippi State University and the University of Missouri to form a Missouri black bear project which began in 2010. It began with an initial population research to measure reproduction and survival rates of females in Missouri. Other objections included measuring black bear habitat use and bear movements and patterns; also identify suitable but unoccupied bear habitat and to delineate travel corridors. Since 2010, MDC has radio collared over 100 bears and also using hair snares have collected hundreds of hair samples. Through DNA genotyping, individual bears can be identified and their lineage traced. This testing revealed that a true remnant native population considered extinct in Missouri since the 1940s was found to still exist.
Over the years, researchers have been able to monitor and assess cub production, cub sex ratios and cub survival, habitat use, movements and breeding range. A female’s home range covers about a thirty mile radius. A male’s territory may cover hundreds of miles. Dominant older males push young males out of their home range forcing them to establish new territories (lateral dispersal). Feeding patterns are also monitored. Bears are omnivores but 80-85% of their diet comes from plant material.
Today, Missouri’s bear population is approximately 1,000 with about a 9% increase each year.
This year, Missouri’s third bear season ran from October 16-25 and was open only to Missouri residents. More than 5,370 hunters applied during May for 400 permits with a maximum total harvest being 40 bears. Of the 400 selected through a random drawing of all applicants, 342 purchased tags for the season.
There are three bear management zones all south of the Missouri River. Each zone has an allotted number of hunters and strict quotas of numbers of bears harvested: Zone 1: There were 9 bears harvested out of a maximum of 20 bears allowed with 173 hunters purchasing permits for that zone, Zone 2: there were 3 bears harvested out of a maximum of 15 allowed and 125 hunters purchasing permits, Zone 3: (the zone in which Benton County is included ) No bears harvested with a maximum of five allowed and 44 hunters purchasing permits. Hunters had to call each morning before hunting to see if the quota for that zone had been filled. If a harvest quota is reached in a zone, the season closes in that zone. All twelve bears, three boars and nine sows, were harvested using firearms.
“Wilderness without wildlife is just scenery.” -Lois Crisler
