University RelationsNews Bureau (662) 325-3442Contact: Bob Ratliff[email protected]
Wildlife biologists complete decade of black bear research
STARKVILLE, Miss.--After 11 years of research, Mississippi State scientists now can speak with authority about the two black bear subspecies native to the state.
The university's Forest and Wildlife Research Center recently concluded an intensive study begun in 1990 to learn as much as possible about the American and Louisiana black bears. Both are on the state's list of endangered species.
"The number of black bears currently in Mississippi is anyone's guess, but most biologists tend to agree that it ranges between 20 and 50, mostly young males," said project leader Bruce Leopold. "The goal of our research was to learn enough about them to help increase the population."
Leopold, a wildlife biologist in MSU's wildlife and fisheries department, said black bears were quite abundant throughout the Mississippi Delta until the early 1900s. Primarily, they inhabited the region's wide expanses of hardwood bottomlands, he added.
Their numbers were such that President Theodore Roosevelt traveled to Mississippi in 1902 for what became probably America's most famous bear hunt. For his widely reported refusal to shoot a captured cub, Roosevelt, a renowned sportsman and conservationist, inadvertently lent his nickname to the stuffed toy bear that was popular in the late Victorian era.
A few years after Teddy Roosevelt's visit, however, conversion of the fertile Delta to cropland, coupled with over-hunting, caused the state's black bear population to almost disappear.
Though largely gone from sight, native bears continued to hibernate, figuratively, in the minds of many Mississippians. When MSU conducted public opinion surveys in 1998 and 1999 to find out what residents knew and thought about native bears, more than 70 percent said they favored increasing the black bear population.
Leopold's team recently completed a habitat study that involved capturing, radio-collaring and tracking more than 30 bears in neighboring Arkansas. Several important facts surfaced, among them the role of the Mississippi River as a physical barrier for mobile bears.
"Young male bears routinely swim the Mississippi River from Arkansas to Mississippi, but most females refuse to make the swim," Leopold said. "This indicates Mississippi's bear population is unlikely to increase through dispersal from the high numbers in Arkansas without help from wildlife biologists."
Another part of the research focusing on habitat evaluation found MSU scientists sampling plots of land in all of Mississippi's national forests and national wildlife refuges. As a result, suitable habitats are determined to exist in the DeSoto National Forest in Southeast Mississippi and the Homochitto National Forest, which centers a triangle linking the cities of Brookhaven, Port Gibson and Woodville.
Leopold said a pilot study involving the introduction of bears into one of these forest lands may have to be delayed because Louisiana and Arkansas--the two sources for acquiring the animals--recently began their own multi-year re-introduction of the species.
"When the introduction study does begin, four-six females will be placed in one of the forests with suitable habitat," Leopold said. "Following the study, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will review the data and conduct public hearings to learn the concerns of Mississippians about the re-introduction of bears to the state."
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Some bear facts:
--The black bear is a herbivore (feeds on plants, not meat).--Humans are more likely to be injured in the woods by a deer than a bear.--Black bears are aggressive only when their cubs are present.--Cubs stay with their mother for 18 months.--Bears are so unassertive that they breed only once every three years.--In Mississippi, it is illegal to hunt bears.
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For additional information, contact Leopold at (662) 325-2615 or [email protected].
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