Sow and cubs raise restoration hopes
Black bears along the lower Mississippi River carry the promise of environmental restoration. Where there are bears, there are bottomland forests to support birds and other wildlife.
A female bear and her two cubs have given new hope to biologists and others working to restore woodlands of the Mississippi valley. The animals represent the first documentation of bear reproduction in Mississippi in about 20 years. "It's the piece we've been looking for for quite some time," said Bo Sloan, chairman of the Mississippi Black Bear Restoration Task Force. Sloan is district supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Division. The adult bear was to be trapped and fitted with a radio transmitter for tracking. The sow weighs an estimated 175 pounds. Her cubs were born in the spring. The bears have been seen on private land in western Bolivar County, north of Rosedale. The area is across the river from the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, home to an unusually dense bear population.
Male bears have been known to swim the Mississippi, but females have never been recorded swimming the river in the area. A 296-pound male bear was killed by a car in Bolivar County a few days before the female and her cubs were photographed Oct. 1. Sloan said no one knows whether the male sired the cubs. Mississippi is thought to have about 50 black bears living along the Mississippi River and in the southern regions.
Sloan and others monitoring the female said they plan to work with landowners in the area to provide more habitat for the animals. The presence of a bear can boost the acceptance of government-supported reforestation work under the Wetlands Reserve Program.
News of the Mississippi bears comes as the Black Bear Conservation Committee, the cooperative effort to restore bears in the region, celebrates its 10th anniversary.
As part of the committee's restoration work, Louisiana and Arkansas are experimenting with moving bears from larger populations to areas where the animals have been extirpated. The process, known as repatriation, sparked the return of Arkansas' healthy bear population, estimated at 3,000 animals. Repatriation also has been discussed in Mississippi.