Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

It’s a hog! It’s a dog! No! It’s a black bear?

[Bear calling]

Black bears are slowly coming back to East Texas from Louisiana, but Texas Parks and Wildlife Regional Director Nathan Garner says they might not be as easy to spot as you think.

We have so many things in East Texas that look exactly like black bears. For example black feral hogs at a distance can be easily misidentified as a black bear. We have black angus cattle, we have black dogs…

Well, you get the point. People may be so excited about the bears that they think they see them everywhere. In reality, there are only a handful of bears in East Texas forests at any given time. But Texas wildlife biologists investigate every sighting.

We go through a very rigorous process of following up those investigations with interviews and sight inspections.

Biologists can then collect physical evidence such as bear tracks, a piece of fur, or a picture taken by a motion-sensitive camera.

So even if you aren’t 100 percent certain you saw a bear, call Texas Parks and Wildlife, because, your call gives biologists a better idea of where the bears might exist. And, after all, you might just be right.

You can find more information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… we had research and writing help from Gretchen Mahan…the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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