A move is underway that wildlife advocates hope will persuade the state to abandon plans to overturn Louisiana's nearly 40-year ban on hunting black bears.
Jeff Dawson, executive director of the Louisiana Humane Society, said in late December that the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries had begun the process of allowing hunters to kill up to 10 bears this year. An online petition has been started.
The petition, which says it's better to “educate residents to live with other living things than kill them,” has just over 7,500 signatures as of Wednesday. There is.
If a Colorado wolf wanders into the Cowboy State, Wyoming ranchers will shoot on sight.
“There is nothing fun or funny about killing animals, especially large omnivores with such a small population,” Dawson told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate.
The 1902 Louisiana black bear hunt, in which President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear tied to a tree by members of his hunting party, sparked the birth of the iconic teddy bear toy.
Black bears had all but disappeared from the state by the 1950s and 1960s, but wildlife experts say they count at least 1,212 bears in the Mississippi Delta and Atchafalaya Basin alone. But John Hanks, large carnivore program manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said current estimates are probably 80% to 90% of the bear population. He said these animals are found throughout the state, with the largest population in the Tensas National Wildlife Refuge.
A Louisiana black bear photographed on the branch of a water oak tree in Marksville, Louisiana, on May 17, 2015. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Louisiana banned bear hunting in 1988. Four years later, the bear was granted federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. In 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deemed the bear nearly recovered and removed it from the endangered species list.
State biologists said a carefully managed hunting season would have little impact on the species.
The proposed hunting season would be limited to December 2024 and would be limited to the northeastern corner of the state, including Tensas, Madison, East Carroll and West Carroll parishes and parts of Richland, Franklin and Catahoula parishes. The new rules prohibit killing young bears and cubs weighing less than 75 pounds.
Hunting advocates argue that killing a few bears each year can prevent bears from becoming a nuisance in rural and suburban areas. In northern Louisiana, black bears are increasingly appearing in people's yards, scavenging trash cans, compost bins and bird feeders for food. Pecan and corn producers say bears are also causing significant damage to their crops.
“Reports of bear collisions continue to increase,” said Mark Rance, southern region coordinator for the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, a hunting advocacy group. “Hunting is the most desirable way to balance their numbers.”
But opponents argued that reinstating the bear hunting season would jeopardize bear recovery.
Dawson said the state is not doing enough to curb bear-human conflicts. Instead of killing bears, he said, Louisiana should “teach people to coexist.”
That's what Florida is doing through its BearWise program, which provides residents with wildlife-resistant trash and pet food storage and other strategies to reduce the attractiveness of their properties to bears, he said. It pointed out. Some Florida communities have seen a 70% reduction in bear conflicts, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Louisiana has a similar program, but with far less outreach and education, Dawson said.
After all, bears shouldn't suffer the consequences of problems caused by humans, he said.
“We took most of their land,” he said. “Where else should we eat?”
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The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will hold three public hearings this month regarding a proposed hunting season in north Louisiana. The first event is scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. at the West Monroe Convention Center in West Monroe. Other events will be held Jan. 23 at the Black Bear Golf Course Conference Center in Derry and Jan. 25 at the LSU Ag Center in St. Joseph.
Public comments can be submitted until Feb. 5 to Hanks at jhanks@wlf.la.gov.
