AmericanBlackBear_Recolonization_VanDellen_Adrian_WoodvilleTX_2July2024_Reel4208.mp3

Adrian Van Dellen [00:00:00] The short answer to the basic question is what is the state of Texas doing about recovery? And the answer to that is zero.

Adrian Van Dellen [00:00:08] But, back in the '50s, Arkansas didn't see it that way. And so, the wildlife officials and management decided, without legislative approval, they just brought in something like almost 500, 450 or so black bear out of Minnesota and Ontario, and restocked and recovered the black bear population of Arkansas. And that has now expanded into Oklahoma as well.

Adrian Van Dellen [00:00:36] So, that was initiative, good management, futuristic outlook for having black bear populations that had also been dissipated in that state.

Adrian Van Dellen [00:00:47] And then Louisiana did the same thing some ten years or so later back in the '60s, the early '60s, about 1962 or so, they brought in about 160, 166 black bear from Minnesota also, and released them into Louisiana at different points...

Adrian Van Dellen [00:01:04] And then Louisiana got smart, with the help of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and began restoration recovery efforts back in the '70s with the Endangered Species Act support. It got listed. And the Louisiana black bear over the next 25 or more years now was subject to a program of recovery. And it did very well. They had maybe only about 100 bear left in Louisiana back in the '70s, again in the bottomlands.

Adrian Van Dellen [00:01:37] And the real major impetus that drove restoration was concern about losing the bottomlands, not the bear so much, but it was also recognized that the bear live there. And so, the bear got restored along the way. But there was concern about losing the bottoms, the bottomlands...

Adrian Van Dellen [00:01:55] The official policy of Texas Parks and Wildlife, in terms of black bear management, is natural re-colonization. And that process continues. But in the biological world of the black bear, that's a very slow process, unless it's aided by certain natural forces like a drought, which is what brought them back to west Texas out of Mexico.

Adrian Van Dellen [00:02:17] And as we go forward with climate change, maybe in decades ahead we may see that here.

Adrian Van Dellen [00:02:24] And so, we would be bypassing that enormous difficulty of getting the officials, the general population, landowners on board to have an active recovery program for black bear in southeast Texas. That's a very difficult thing to unfold.

Adrian Van Dellen [00:02:44] If a natural re-colonization process brought the Louisiana black bear to southeast Texas, we would all clap and support that, and thank the lucky stars!