Black bears are wandering into Kansas from neighboring states
A remote trail camera caught a photo of a bear in southeast Kansas last month preparing to munch on some corn from a wildlife feeder.
The photo caught the landowner by surprise, but not wildlife biologist Matt Peek.
“We’re not really far from populations in Oklahoma and Missouri so we’re getting some of their bears,” said Peek, Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism furbearer biologist “This is the time of year when bears are dispersing. Since 2015 I have at least eight different bears documented in Kansas.”
On June 10 the photographed bear was in Chautauqua County, about 80 miles southeast of Wichita as a black bear rambles and near the Oklahoma border. A different bear was seen, and its tracks verified, in extreme southwest Kansas on June 25.
Return of the black bear
The chance to someday maybe see a bear track, or the animal that made it, along a hiking trail or fishing hole is exciting news to many Kansans. But bears can also bring bad news as populations increase across the Midwest.
“They can create a substantial amount of work for an agency, trying to keep peace between bears and people,” Peek said. “Bears bring wildlife issues we don’t currently have to deal with.”
Jeff Ford, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife senior biologist, said they’ve had to train staff to handle problematic bears, such as those becoming brazen to get food. Black bears being aggressive towards humans is rare, but the chance has to be respected.
“If you have bears and people, you can have problems,” Ford said. “Most of the time if we have a problem bear, it’s because of food. No matter how much natural food bears have, sometimes they think they can find better food inside people’s houses, their trash or maybe in their barns.”
Historically, black bears ranged from coast to coast and northern Alaska to central Mexico. Peek believes black bears historically lived in Kansas’ rugged country like eastern Kansas or the Gypsum Hills region southwest of Wichita. They lived along rivers and streams statewide.
Kansas’ historic black bear population was extirpated by the 1880s. It was the same across most of America.
In the 1950s and ‘60s biologists live-trapped bears from Minnesota and Manitoba and released them in the Arkansas mountains. Those 250 bears have done well.
Ford said in the late 1970s bears began to inhabit the west side of the rugged Ouachita Mountains on the southern Oklahoma/Arkansas border. He estimates the Oklahoma’s population to be around 2,000 bears with most located in the southeast part of the state. Even with a regulated hunting season it grows at six percent annually. A smaller population of about 100 bears roam the Cookson Hills in northeast Oklahoma.
Joe Jerek, a Missouri Department of Conservation spokesman, said the department estimates Missouri has between 540 and 840 bears, thanks mostly to Arkansas bears expanding their range.
The number of bears are increasing in rugged parts of the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri. A range map has their population stretching to southeast Kansas.
Arkansas’s bear range extends to that state’s northwest corner, less than 40 miles from southeast Kansas.
Bears have occasionally visited southwest Kansas over about the past 30 years, especially in years of drought as they wander in from New Mexico and Colorado looking for water and food.
It’s just been within the past decade that bears have been reported in southeast Kansas. Most have been near the Missouri border. In 2018 a small bear was seen repeatedly around Pittsburg. In September of 2018 what appeared to be an adult black bear was videod in Cherokee County, near the Missouri and Oklahoma borders.
Ford and Peek said most bears found outside their primary range are young and primarily males, forced from a sow during breeding season. Some wander far.
“We’ve seen bears in studies go 100 to 150 miles from where you’d typically see them,” Ford said. “They’re ranging out, looking for territory. When they get old enough to be sexually mature, they’ll come back to the main areas. We’ve seen that in our studies several times.”
Peek said the day may come when a Kansas bear population begins.
“They exist in other places with similar habitat so I don’t see why they couldn’t make it in parts of Kansas,” said Peek. “They’re very omnivorous, they’ll eat a lot of different stuff, so food wouldn’t be a problem.”
But a bear’s willingness and abilities to get unnatural foods often leads to problems.
Don’t feed the bears
With growing bear populations in Oklahoma and Missouri, Ford and Jerek said, came bear problems. Bears can live a good life eating crops like soybeans and corn. They’ll raid gardens and Winnie the Pooh isn’t the only bear that’s crazy about honey. Busted hives are common in bear country.
Pet and livestock food can be bear food. Things like latched doors aren’t much of a deterrent to animals literally as strong as a horse, with long and sharp claws. Several bears weighing more than 500 pounds have been killed in Oklahoma.
Backyard wildlife and bird feeders, trash receptacles and barbecue grills can bring problems in bear country.
So far there have been no serious reports in Oklahoma or Missouri of bears preying on large livestock. But a bear will sometimes get blamed for an injured animal, such as a frightened horse that gets cut up by a fence.
“They’re usually not after the livestock,” Ford said. “The bear is after their food, whatever the horse is eating.”
Missouri and Oklahoma have educational programs aimed at helping the public make their property and possessions bear proof, or as bear proof as possible. Once bears have gotten into human-related food, options decrease quickly.
Kansas had such a bear problem during the drought of 2011.
The small bear showed up at a rural home near Elkhart and found a horse’s water and feed too good to leave. Since Wildlife and Parks lacked the needed gear, an Oklahoma biologist tranquilized the bear, fitted it with an ear tag and released it near the Colorado border.
It promptly started causing problems at a rural Colorado home. Colorado biologists saw the ear tag, knew the bear was a repeat offender and destroyed it.
“We have a saying that ‘a fed bear is a dead bear,’” Jerek said. “They’re so incredibly intelligent. They’ll remember where it can find food. Once they associate humans with food they’re going to keep going back. We’ve really got no choice but to put them down. We can’t take a chance on somebody eventually getting hurt.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2020 at 5:01 AM.