“So meet a bear and take him on out to lunch with you, even though your friends may stop and stare."
-Steven Fromholz/Bears
They tell us we have about a 1,000 bears in Missouri now. Black bears. We've had one in our area, up the hill at our neighbors. They have one of those self-dispensing deer feeders and the bear knocked it over and had his way with the contents. They took a picture of him. You can see it in the gallery.
At one time, bears were thick in Missouri, but by 1850 they'd pretty well been hunted out. By 1931, they were thought to be extinct in the state. In 1958, Arkansas reinstated bears into their state, bringing several in from up north. Over time that population thrived and the've since migrated up this way. It's to a point now that they've opened up a short hunting season to help control the population. This year 40 permits will be issued for October 17-30. Look out bears!
I don't think we have too many in our immediate area. If there were, surely the trash bins would occasionally be worked over. I haven't seen any evidence of that. Too bad. I'd love to see a bear here in our back woods just doing its bear thing.
My favorite recent bear story is about the one last year in Lake Tahoe, NV, who broke into an ice cream parlor, ate 40 pounds of ice cream and then passed out in a food coma. That's my kinda bear.
Sometimes, they just don't come no better than a bear. You can ask Lyle.