oklahoma's expanding black bear population

Black bear population focus of new study

 

BY ED GODFREY Oklahoman    0

Published: July 11, 2010

Black bears appear to be expanding their range in Oklahoma.

State wildlife officials will begin another study this month on the black bear population, only this time they will focus their research on counties in east-central Oklahoma.

"We've had (bears) in Muskogee. We've had them in Webbers Falls," said Alan Peoples, head of the wildlife division for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

"There seems to be a concentration of them in an around Sequoyah County."

The Wildlife Department previously partnered with Oklahoma State University to study the black bear population in southeastern Oklahoma.

That study in part led to the opening of Oklahoma's first black bear hunting season last year in four southeastern Oklahoma counties (McCurtain, Pushmataha, Latimer and Le Flore).

Nineteen bears were taken by Oklahoma hunters.

OSU is partnering with the Wildlife Department again for a similar study, only this time the research area will be Sequoyah and surrounding counties, Peoples said.

Wildlife officials want to know if the increased sightings are young males on the roam or a signal that there is a breeding population of bears in counties other than southeastern Oklahoma.

The study likely will take 3 to 5 years to complete, Peoples said.

Both Missouri and Texas wildlife officials recently reported an increase in black bears moving across its borders from Arkansas.

Read more: http://newsok.com/black-bear-population-focus-of-new-study/article/3475096#ixzz0tOwQx3RM