Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Black Bears In Arkansas.

I’m in northern LA, just below the AR line. Bears suck for us deer hunters. Overgrown raccoons that live to tear up stuff. Constant nuisance.

have them here in South Texas, been migrating north out of Mexico for years.

Having a big black bear population isn't a good thing. New Jersey has the highest population density of bears of any state. They are a problem here. Our commie governor has cancelled the annual bear hunt this year. Last year it was allowed on private property. I live 20 miles from NYC and we have them in my town. In 2016 a buddy shot a big boar - 679.5 lbs. field dressed - a few miles from where I sit. I remember reading an article in a local newspaper about a bear breaking into a parked pickup truck which had groceries inside. A hiker was killed in a state park up-county from my town a couple of years ago.

We also have plenty of coyotes and verified cougar sightings. However, the worst animal invasion of all is New Yorkers escaping NYC to the NJ suburbs.

I can guarantee there are currently at 2 Mountain Lions in Greene County Ark., our family has been on Crowley Ridge since the early 1930’s. We don’t see them often, but once or twice a decade we see them. I suppose we could actually spend dedicated time to dig deeper into the subject and gain more insight on them however the only interaction we’ve had was a screaming fit by an adult lion as we walked past a multiple sighting area at the mouth of a densely vegetated draw. It definitely gets your attention, both color variations have been observed and photographed. No predation we are aware of, we have the livestock found on most family farms. Absolutely beautiful animals and for the most part understand their hiarchy on the food chain, no bears to mention at least from our place in Greene county.

Color variations?

The Arkies have been migrating north into Missouri too. Missouri had its first season last year, 5 or 10 tags issued. The state killed one a few miles west of my house last year that had became a nuisance. See more media reports of sightings with pictures. Buddy saw one get hit and killed on the south edge of Springfield, MO last year on the highway.

Missouris population is 800 and growing at 9% a year they believe. Any Facebook post the conservation department puts up about hunting them brings out the Karen’s in full force.

Here in Louisiana, they a PITA they tear up everything our deer herd is shrinking didn't see many young yearlings last season they probably killing the fawns. I wish they would disappear.

JPro, they are not many up here where I live, but they tell me the Ouachita River bottom and around the Union Game Reserve, there are plenty. I guess hunting around Pace Brown, you have got a problem. I got a friend that lives about 2 miles, as a crow flies, and he got a pic of one on a game camera last fall.

MS game and fish has been turning them out.


i haven’t seen one in person, but have seen game cam pic sof them in the area.

Folks call them “honey bears”. Small’ish. Black bears??

There is a place for bears....but it is not MY place.

If they stay in the Mark Twain or Caney Mountain Refuge, no problem.

We don't like them tearing up stuff and killing/scattering livestock.

Yup...giant 'coons.

I saw a black bear run over on I-20 east of Monroe, LA four or five years ago. Waze even said “dead animal on road” as I got closer I though it was a big dog like a pitbull and then realized that it was a young black bear as we passed.

Black bears are prevalent all over WA state. Never hear of too many problems with them. They’ll tear schit up on occasion but seemingly far less then elk.

They can be hard on fawns and calves. Still tons of deer and elk though.

They cancelled the spring bear season this year. It’ll be interesting to see if it has any impact on bear and other wildlife populations. I have my doubts.

I did a quick search to see what the latest bear numbers are in AR. I didn't come up with much. The largest estimate I found was 4000 but it wasn't dated. I really wish all articles were dated but the majority aren't so they're meaningless. I did find one interesting number on the AR Fish and Game site - in 2021 hunters killed 577 bears in AR. That's an increase of 100 over 2020.

I did find some other interesting numbers. In the lower 48, there are 5 states with populations in the 20 to 30k range. In the east, the only state with those numbers is ME. In the west, it's close to a tie between WA, OR, CA, and ID. Of course AK has a lot more, around 100k but it's a lot larger. For bears/sq mile, in the west WA, OR, and ID lead the way, exceeding both CA and AK. All 3 of the leading states have huge treeless areas with no bears at all so they're concentrated in the forested areas.

Didn't know bears were scarce in Missouri - I saw one on Fort Leonard Wood, summer of 1973.
Didn't think much of it, at the time.

I think they’ve been here all along, just very few though. The last 10 or 15 years though the numbers are increasing and sightings increasing. Primarily all in the southern 1/3 of the state, The Mark Twain Forest.

I have seen several around the Mt.Hersey .

We had pics of one 4 or 5 years ago that had an ear tag. Our game warden did some research for us and it was a female that was trapped near Springfield, MO and had been released in Mark Twain just North of us.

Haven't seen one on the property yet, but the neighbors have seen them in the area. West of Little Rock out in the country.

There are plenty of bears on the white river refuge in SE Arkansas. I’ve seen several while squirrel hunting.

Many squirrels in the old growth stuff? If so, fox or cat squirrels?