Passport to Texas

Mexican researcher preparing to shoot tranquilizer at bear. Image courtesy the Government of Mexico.

Conservation/Safety: When Face-to-Face with a Black Bear Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Black bears are returning to Texas after a long absence. No need for concern, though. While they aren’t cuddly teddy bears, they aren’t ferocious 800 pound grizzlies, either.

07—Black bears are much smaller animals. A very, very big black bear in Texas is 400 pounds.

They’re still big wild animals –emphasis on wild. Black bears keep a low profile, but Texas Parks and Wildlife mammalogist, Jonah Evans, says it is possible to come into contact with one because—well—they’re a lot like us.

13—Bears are a masterful generalist; this is where they can end up causing a problem with people, because they love human food. You know, humans are generalists, too. We can eat nuts and berries and meat and bears do as well.

Bears follow the food, making it wise when camping to keep your food at least 100 feet away from your sleeping area. However, if you do come face-to-face with one of these mammals…

24—What you want to watch out for is any kind of predatory behaviors, which are extremely rare. Most often what people think is threatening is a bear might stand up on its hind legs, growl, slam its feet down on the ground, pop its jaw – what we call ritualistic behaviors. And what that bear is doing is trying to communicate in as clear a way as it can that we are invading its territory, and just to back away.

Jonah Evans says attacks on people are rare, and primarily by solitary males, not females with cubs.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Black Bear Mother and cub enjoying a cool dip in a Hill Country water trough.

Wildlife: Drought and the Black Bear's Return Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By the 1960s, the Mexican black bear disappeared from its historic range in Texas because of shooting, trapping and habitat loss. Over the past few years, though, we’ve seen its gradual return from across the border in Mexico.

16—You know, Mexico sustained some huge wildfires during the drought, and it destroyed a lot of habitat for bears, and sent a lot of the young ones and a lot of the – any of the hungry ones – on long walkabouts looking for food. And a certain number of those ended up in Texas.

When I asked Texas Parks and Wildlife mammalogist, Jonah Evans, whether the bears were here to stay, he said “it depends.”

33—Whether or not they’re here to stay depends on how good an area they’re able to find for food. So, if they find suitable habitat, they find good food resources, if they find a female – or if there is a female here for reproduction – then we could end up with potentially a couple of little pocket populations of bears in some remote ranches and stuff out in the Western Hill Country. And, you know, I suspect we have a few stragglers out in the Hill Country right now. Although, we haven’t had nearly the number of sightings in the last year that we had previously.

Do we need to be concerned for our safety with the return of black bears to Texas? We answer that question tomorrow.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Mother Black Bear and cub in Big Bend National Park.

Wildlife: Black Bears Back in Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The American Black bear is returning to parts of its native range in Texas after a long absence.

13—When Europeans got to Texas, black bears roamed across the entire state. And it wasn’t until the 1950s when they were almost completely wiped out. I think by the 60s they were completely wiped out, and then slowly started coming back.

Sightings of the Louisiana black bear, a threatened subspecies found in east Texas, trickle into Texas Parks and Wildlife; the animals are usually lone males meandering across the Texas-Oklahoma border. It’s a different story for the Mexican black bear, says Texas Parks and Wildlife mammalogist, Jonah Evans.

30—The Mexican black bear seems to be making the biggest comeback right now. And these are bears coming across from Mexico – the del Carmen region, sort of across from Big Bend National Park. In 2011 we had sightings in a huge number of counties where we haven’t seen them before, like Mennard County, Valverde County, Crockett County, and all the way down south in Star County and Webb County. So, we had a lot of bears moving around.

What’s bringing these south-of-the-border bears back into Texas? Mammalogist, Jonah Evans, returns tomorrow to share his thoughts.

That’s our show for today…Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Tobusch Fishhook Cactus

Conservation: Texas Tobusch Fishhook Cactus Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Sometimes the best course of action is no action at all. At least that’s the stance Texas Parks and Wildlife botanist, Jackie Poole, takes when it comes to the endangered Tobusch Fishhook Cactus and the insect grubs that eat it.

09— And that’s a real problem, because one of these insects is only known to lay its eggs in Tobusch Fishhook Cactus; so, it’s basically as rare as the cactus.

Jackie says in the case of the Tobusch cactus – and its nemesis the Tobusch weevil – the best botanists can do is observe.

28—We’ve just been studying it for the last 10 or 15 years to see if there’s some kind of cyclical nature to this predator/prey relationship—where you have a big prey population buildup, like a lot of Tobusch fishhook cactus are out there, and then all of a sudden the insect population starts to boom because it has so many cactus to lay its eggs in. And then the cactus goes away and then it crashes, and then you just go through this cycle back and forth.

Other variables could also come into play to explain these fluctuations, making a hasty solution no solution at all. Patience is necessary.

13—That’s right. And that’s the main thing I think with endangered species. I often tell people to just to take a deep breath, because you just need to sit back and think about it and look at it and not think that the sky is falling.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Hunting/Food: Hunting and Eating Rabbit Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Andy’s Mother in Law’s Gumbo Recipe. Substitute rabbit for the chicken; if you don’t have venison sausage, any good smoked sausage will do.

Hunting/Food: Hunting and Eating Rabbit Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Andy Gluesenkamp calls rabbit the third white meat.

04—Rabbit really is all white meat; it’s like a cross between pork and chicken. It’s very, very lean; there’s very little fat in the meat, itself.

A herpetologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, Andy has hunted and eaten rabbit since he was a boy.

07—I grew up eating curried rabbit that my mom made. And no one makes better curried rabbit than my mom.

A self-professed “good cook,” Andy Gluesenkamp likes to prepare rabbit he’s harvested. Preparation, he says, begins with properly field dressing the animal, which, he adds, is “easy to clean.” Rabbit is a versatile and healthy protein that lends itself to a variety of cooking styles.

18— I think my buttermilk fried rabbit is pretty good. I also make rabbit gumbo, based on my mother-in-law’s gumbo recipe; and that is exceptional. I’ve also done rabbit pot pie, and Teriyaki rabbit, and grilled rabbit, and poached rabbit. It’s really hard to mess up rabbit.

Find Andy’s recipe for Rabbit Gumbo at passporttotexas.org. It’s no curried rabbit, but it’s still tasty.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and is funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuel.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.