Kansas is one of the "bread basket" States that has been missing its historic assembly of large, trophic carnivores, including Gray Wolves, Grizzlies, Black Bears and Pumas...............This hopefully is about to change, as over the past few years some transient Black Bears from neighboring Colorado and Missouri have been prospecting their way into the "jayhawk state", with biologists feeling that a breeding Black Bear population is on the verge of re-establishment............Note, that In the mid-19th century, Kansas still had significant herds of Bison, whitetailed deer, elk, Pronghorns, Pumas, Black Bears, Gray wolves and perhaps a few Grizzly Bears................. By the end of the 19th century, indiscriminate hunting and changes in the natural habitat had resulted in the near extinction of all the large mammals except for deer...............

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2017/aug/17/wild-black-bear-population-grows-kansas/&ct=ga&cd=CAEYByoUMTA0NjMyNTUzNDMzMjk5NzkwMzYyGjAzMWJmZmM1MjYxMzc1ZGE6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNHrdf4Xk_pSUiApjLKHIJHoqS_qUw

Wild black bear population grows in Kansas

August 17, 2017

WICHITA — Wildlife experts say black bears wandering into Kansas from Missouri and Oklahoma will likely become established residents of the state within the next decade.

Two bears in southeast Kansas and one along the Colorado border were documented as recently as two summers ago. For most of the past 15 years, bears only have been seen in extreme southwest Kansas, the Wichita Eagle reported .

"We have reproducing populations getting closer and closer," said Matt Peek, furbearer biologist at the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. "If the habitat is right when they come into Kansas, I think we have the opportunity for black bears to become established."

Experts said the possibility of Kansas having a permanent population of bears could cause safety problems. Neither Oklahoma nor Missouri have reported bear attacks recently, but experts are advising residents in those states on how to protect pets and livestock from the wild animal.

"They're kind of like really big raccoons," Peek said. "They have a way of getting into all kinds of things, but especially trash and crops."

Peek said that grizzly and black bears called Kansas home before civilization. He said most of the state's black bears were limited to areas alongside water and were gone from most of Kansas by the late 1870s after being hunted out.

Wildlife officials said bears still deserve respect and that most people appreciate having them around because they're native animals returning after being gone for the majority of the 20th century.

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Doomed for Extinction?

The last wild buffalo in Kansas was believed to have been killed at Point-of-the-Rocks, west of Dodge
 City, in 1879.

When Dr. Brewster Higley wrote his well-known song, "Home On The Range," near Smith Center, Kansas, in 1873, he included the words "...where the deer and the antelope play..." These words were true for the early days of our state, but the plowing of the land, introduction of great herds of cattle, and excessive hunting resulted in the disappearance of deer and antelope from the boundaries of the state. Both were considered to be extinct, or nearly extinct, in Kansas at the start of the century. 

At one time the antelope ranged over western Kansas as far east as the west edge of the Flint Hills


The mighty grizzly bear once ranged over the western two-thirds of what is now Kansas

The black bear was reported to have lived throughout the state until 1880, and there are accurate accounts of its living in the gypsum caves of Comanche County

Only one hundred years ago several thousand elk, or wapiti, could be seen in a single herd in Kansas. This huge deer, which once roamed throughout the state, was still reported as being common in western Kansas as late as 1875

Pioneer legends abound with stories of the wolf packs that followed the migrating herds of buffalo across the prairies. The howling of the wolf sent chills up the spine of many a lonely traveler of the early 1800's

At one time the mountain lion, also known as the puma or cougar, occurred throughout what is now Kansas. Because its principal food was the deer, and, because it was hunted intensively, the mountain lion, like the wolf, disappeared from anong our native fauna