The Missouri Conservation Commission has approved a limited black bear hunting season, to start next year.
Under a plan approved Friday, only Missouri residents will be allowed to hunt the bears, and only in three “Bear Management Zones” in southern Missouri. Permit and quota regulations will be determined next spring, with the hunt scheduled for October. It will be the first sanctioned bear hunt in the state since the conservation department was founded in the 1930s.
The department said in a news release that the state has between 540 and 840 bears, and the population is growing 9% a year.
