It always amazes me how in 21st Century America, the bulk of reporting on Wildlife populations always starts and ends with the "recoil of a rifle shot"................The article beow on the Arkansas Black Bear population that has recovered in the Southern portion of the State over the past 100 years reflects State biologists who by their comments seem to reflect their allegiance(their job security) to THE ARKANSAS BLACK BEAR ASSOCIATION...........This Group wants Bears in the State to shoot.............but ecosystem science seemingly has no "seat at the table" in deciding on how many bears should be hunted annually in the State............Are there really 4000 Bruins in Arkansas justifying a 10% annual removal each year(400 Bears killed)?????????? Is that a sustainable kill rate????? By their own admission, the State could handle a higher density of Black Bears................Always starts and ends based on what hunters and Game Commissions claim is "human tolerance" of Bears................This is exactly what George Wuerthner, Chris Spatz, Helen Mcginnis and others have been raising as a concern...............Do Wildlife Commisions own State biologists and make them issue aberrant hunting guidelines?..............Do Sportsmens Groups own the Game Commisions???????? Are the people really being heard and represented as Democracy intended as it relates to the health of our wildlands and wild creature populations?

Tracking Arkansas' Bears, Part 3: Hunting Arkansas' Bears

OZARK NATIONAL FOREST, Ark. -- 40/29's Ross Ellet has taken a close look at the bear population and the history of bears in Arkansas in this three-part series, and here is the final chapter: hunting bears in Arkansas.

"Bear hunting, bear sightings, everything related to bears in Arkansas is a huge novelty," said state bear biologist Myron Means. Means is in charge of tracking the health and stability of Arkansas's bear population. "Hunters play a key role in our bear management program in Arkansas," Means said.

"In any place where you have a wildlife population that overlaps a human population, especially with a large carnivore, hunting is a necessity," said Clay Newcomb, founder of the Arkansas Black Bear Association "The Arkansas Black Bear Association is a hunting conservation organization and our icon species is the black bear," Newcomb said.

Most members are hunters, and every fall their goal to bag one of roughly 400 bears harvested each season in the state. "In black bear management, we need to take out 10% of the black bear population yearly in Arkansas," Newcomb said.

"We could probably stand more bears in Arkansas. The land could carry them, but the public acceptance wouldn't be as good if every time someone walked outside a bear is standing in their yard," Means said.

If the bear population did get out of control and their was a shortage of food, more bears would likely wonder into cities and towns, and that would drastically increase the risk for bear attacks.

"We have had three documented bear attacks that I know of in Arkansas during the past 30 to 40 years," Means said. Nearly every bear that does attack no longer fears humans.

"Don't feed bears. The old adage that a fed bear is a dead bear is actually very accurate," Means said. Wildlife officers kill any bear that attacks.

 Despite a few recorded attacks, the public's fear of bears outweighs the statistics. "Bears have received a lot of bad publicity, so to speak, over the years and generations. There are rumors of a lot of bad folklore," Means said. Out of the three recorded bear attacks in Arkansas, none of them were fatal, Means said. And despite all of the fear, only one person per year is killed in the U.S. on average by black bears. By comparison, the National Weather Service says 58 people are killed each year from lightning, and according to the Centers for Disease Control, you are 20 times more likely to be killed by a dog than a black bear.

Still, bear hunting helps keep nuisance bear reports even lower, and this is one of many reasons why the Arkansas Black Bear Association is becoming a huge hit.

"Right now, after 7 months of building, we have 250 members over seven states, and we produce a magazine called the 'Arkansas Bear & Buck Journal,'" Newcomb said.

The lure of Arkansas black bears is catching on across the central and southern portion of the U.S.

"There is not very many southern states with a huntable bear population, so we stand in a very unique situation here in Arkansas," Newcomb said.

Some Arkansas black bears are moving over state lines as the population has increased. Both southern Missouri and southeast Oklahoma have at least a couple hundred bears living in those areas, Means said.

And with the bear population stable in Arkansas after 100 years, with enough bears to hunt every year, Arkansas can now reclaim its famous nickname, "The Bear State."

Read more: http://www.4029tv.com/news/27857865/detail.html#ixzz1M5hGGV8w