JESSIEVILLE, Ark. — On a recent Monday afternoon, field biologists Wade Walker and Matt Mourot of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission carefully approached an open rock crevice in a stunningly scenic portion of the Ouachita Mountains.
They planned to use a blowgun to tranquilize the female black bear inside the crevice, so they could safely study her and any cubs she might be tending.
But momma bear wasn’t totally down with the plan.
When Walker fired the shot from the blowgun, the bear let out an ominous growl and lunged at the biologists, who fled from the den in fear.
“I thought she was coming out of there,” said Walker, his heart rate obviously elevated. “They don’t do that very often.”
After another dart with a stronger dosage, the mother bear fell into a deep, peaceful sleep, and the biologists were able to enter the den.
They emerged with a 6-pound bear cub that would be a total delight for the crowd of spectators for the next 90 minutes.
“Every time we do one of these den surveys, people just can’t get enough of these cubs,” said Myron Means, coordinator of the AGFC‘s bear program. “We learn a lot from these surveys — and people just really get a kick out of handling these bears.”
The black bear population in Arkansas is rock-solid, with an estimated 4,000 bears roaming the Ozark Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains and a small area along the White River.
But the bear population once fell to dangerously low numbers — and the den surveys are designed to make sure it never happens again.
The Bear State?
Black bears were so plentiful in 19th-century Arkansas that it was known as “The Bear State” instead of “The Natural State” as it’s known today.
But those native bears were hunted nearly to extinction by people who needed light and heat.
“A lot of people think the Arkansas bears were hunted out for meat by people who wanted them for food,” Means said. “But they were actually over-hunted because of the oil that their fat produces. The only way people could get oil for heat or light was from bear fat or whale blubber.”
Bear fat was such a valuable commodity that by the mid-1950s, there were only about 50 bears remaining in Arkansas.
That’s when a massive restocking effort began in the Ozarks and the Ouachitas, with bears being brought in from Minnesota and Manitoba, Canada.
“The bears along the White River are believed to be the only native bears remaining in Arkansas.” Means said. “The others are from the restocking efforts. But as a whole, the bear population in Arkansas is doing very well.”
Amazing comeback
The recovery of the Arkansas bear is actually considered one of the world’s most successful large carnivore re-introduction programs.
It worked so well that in 1980, the state determined it had enough bears to once again allow an annual organized hunting season. That season has been held ever since — and last year, Arkansas hunters harvested a record 533 black bears.
“The bear population is doing very well, and bear hunting is growing in popularity to the point that it’s becoming a staple sport,” Means said. “We have people coming here from Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri — you name it. They’re traveling to Arkansas from all over the country to hunt bears.”
That increased interest in bear hunting is one more reason why Means and company must keep a close eye on the state’s bear numbers.
That’s where the den studies play a vital role.
Learning about bears
Every year during summer, AGFC biologists trap female bears and fit them with radio collars. Then during late winter and early spring, they use telemetry equipment to locate the female bears inside their dens.
With the bears located, they use tranquilizer darts to put them into a deep — but definitely temporary — sleep. This allows biologists to check the health of the adult bear and change the batteries in her radio collar if necessary.
It also allows the biologists to count the cubs, study their health and take important measurements like weight, paw length and width, body length and girth and head width.
“By taking the same measurements from all the cubs we study, we can develop a model for what they should be,” Means said. “We know what a healthy weight is, and if we come across a cub that’s not healthy, we can investigate and try to find out why.”
Bears in the Ozark Mountains are dependant mostly on fall mast crops like acorns and usually have just two cubs. In the Ouachita Mountains, they have hard mast and soft mast like berries and fruits, so they tend to produce three cubs.
The bear they studied in the Ouachita Mountain on March 8 is known affectionately by the biologists as “McKenzie.” She usually has three cubs but this time had only one.
“This is the first time we’ve ever found a mother bear with just one cub,” Means said. “That tells us that reproduction is down for this particular bear. It’s something we’ll need to keep an eye on — not only with this bear but in this region.”
Still, for the spectators, one cub was plenty.
“I would really love to take this little guy (it was actually a female) home with me,” said Haley Hall, a young visitor from Little Rock. “This is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
JUST THE BEAR FACTS
Adult female black bears usually weigh less than 300 pounds. Full-grown males weigh between 400 and 700 pounds.
Bears have poor eyesight but an extraordinary sense of smell.
They are one of Arkansas’ most intelligent mammals.
The lifespan for a black bear in the wild is about 25 years.
Contrary to popular belief, black bears are not true hibernators like woodchucks or ground hogs.
Instead of shutting their systems down completely, bears go into periods of deep sleep with slow-moving metabolisms. But they can arouse out of that state immediately.
Bears don’t go into their periods of deep sleep in response to cold weather but rather when food is no longer available.
Black bears go through their gestation period under a full fast, meaning they nurse their cubs while they’re fasting. They don’t eat or drink anything for 41/2 months and nurse their cubs all the while. Because adult female bears drink no water while they’re nursing cubs, their milk is very rich, and cubs gain as much as a pound a week.
Bears breed during the summer months, and males cover large areas searching for females. Young are born in the winter den. Mother and cubs emerge from the den by mid-May, and the cubs begin learning about life in the wild.
Cubs den with their mothers again the following winter and stay with her until the next summer when she finally drives them away.