Oct. 17 marked the start of open season on black bears across Missouri as the state’s 13-day annual hunting season kicked off.
Bear hunting permits for this year’s season were available to apply for starting in May and are distributed by random drawing.
While 2,000 permits were available this season, a quota of only 60 bears is available to be culled across Missouri’s three bear hunting zones combined, according to a Missouri Department of Conservation black bear hunting guide. Most hunters will go home empty-handed.
There are, of course, restrictions on this year’s hunting season. For example, there are restrictions on when bears can be hunted, what type of bears can be hunted, even down to the firearms used in the process. Hunting bears from vehicles like a “motor-driven land conveyance or aircraft” are also restricted.
There is also a requirement to call a hotline prior to hunting each day to determine if the season’s harvest quota has been met.
Missouri’s bear hunting season first opened in October 2021 when the population of bears across the state was robust enough to sustain a limited hunting season.
That hasn’t always been the case.
Black bears were once abundant across most of the United States, but decades of habitat destruction and overhunting in the 1800s and 1900s threatened to wipe out the population.
“We believe the population is at about 1,100 animals right now and growing at about 9% per year,” said Alan Leary, wildlife management coordinator at the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Bears can be highly mobile creatures, traveling long distances to look for food of both the natural and man-made variety. It’s partially that mobility that has allowed them to so rapidly expand across the Mississippi River basin over the past few decades.
In Tennessee, the animals’ range shrunk to just 10 secluded, mountainous counties along the state’s eastern border by the early 1970s. In Mississippi, protections for the bears were only put in place in 1932 once the population in the state dropped to a single dozen. In Missouri, the population was thought to be lost entirely until genetic testing revealed a few remained.
But recently, that population has seen a resurgence. “You can’t stop it … they’re going to be in northern Mississippi, they’re going to be in eastern Arkansas, eastern Missouri and western Kentucky,” said Dan Gibbs, black bear coordinator at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “That’s just their historical range, and they’re going to reclaim it.”
Following 1950s-era programs that resurrected the bear populations in northern Arkansas through importing bears from Minnesota and Canada, black bears have been slowly migrating northward into the Ozark Plateau.
While hunting was reintroduced in 2021, it has not yet been needed to control the population.
“We will likely hit a phase in the coming years where we will definitely want to utilize the hunting season as a management tool,” said Nate Bowersock, black bear and furbearer biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation. “Most folks have a positive outlook on having bears here in Missouri and think the way we are managing and maintaining a population is good. We want to keep that.”
Navigating human-bear conflicts
“BLACK BEAR SITED” read the title of one post on the Columbia subreddit last June, as various sightings were reported of the animal wandering through parking lots and abandoned surface streets.
“They can travel long distances, so it’s not unusual to see one moving through areas like Columbia,” Curt Wohleber, a representative of the University of Missouri Extension, said in a news release.
While cities are not part of black bears’ usually heavily wooded habitats, Leary explained how natural causes, such as a lack of food, can drive bears into urban areas.
“People may perceive a given year where they see more or hear more reports or something and think that the population has exploded, but that’s not necessarily the case,” Leary said.
The organization BearWise, an education and outreach program operated by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, advises that if people encounter a bear, they should not approach it.
Instead, they should keep their distance and back away slowly if noticed by the bear. BearWise advises people not to allow bears to get into anything that smells or tastes like food, for example, birdseed, garbage or pet food.
“I just encourage people to not be afraid but to be aware,” Leary said. “Be aware of how to respond if you see one or, you know, if you bump into one.”
Cassandra Stephenson of the Tennessee Lookout contributed to this story. This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent environmental reporting network covering America’s largest watershed. Sign up for the Desk’s newsletter here.
