I-Team: No lions, no tigers, but there are bears in Missouri woods

By Mike Owens, I-Team Reporter

Jeff Beringer, a spokesman for the Department of Conservation, has written a bear management plan for the state, since there are so many bears in the woods. Beringer said the state needs to manage habitat so bears increase in number. He also thinks people need to know how to deal with bears.

Beringer said residents should not leave food out for them, not even bird of dog food. He added that people should not be afraid of bears, either. When a bear sees somebody in the woods, the bear only sees a person and not dinner.

While the number of bears is increasing, the Conservation Federation of Missouri, an organization made up mostly of hunters, passed a resolution at its recent statewide meeting, suggesting a bear hunt.

The hunt, according to the federation, would be in the winter, a time when more males are in the woods than females, which would allow the breeding population to survive.
The hunt, according to executive director Dave Murphy, would be there to cull the herd, which is so big in some areas that it's causing problems, and to provide outdoor activities for Missouri citizens.

Alan Journet, a scientist at Southeast Missouri State University and a member of the Sierra Club of Missouri, thinks a bear hunt is a bad idea since no one is sure how many bears there are. He also said we'd run the risk of exterminating them again, just when they are making a comeback.

The head of the regulations committee of the state Conservation Department said it would be ten to 15 years before there's a bear hunt in the state. There just aren't enough bears to sustain a hunt.

Beringer said it is great news the bears are coming back. He said it appears there is a Missouri population, descendants of the bears released in Arkansas in the 1950s. Illinois does not have a problem with bears, since there aren't any.

But just where is Missouri's "bear country?" There are about 20 counties in the Ozarks, south of Interstate 44, where there are 20 bear sightings a month, and have been for the last few years.

Also included are Franklin and Jefferson counties. Those places are not quite the Ozarks, but popular with Ursus Americanus, the Latin name for the American black bear.