Black bears in our woods
By By Otha Barham / outdoors editor
May 21, 2004
Although bear sightings have occurred in this area intermittently for as long as this country has been settled, some people will be surprised to know that black bears are in the woods hereabouts. In recent days a big bear has left its footprints 25 air miles from Meridian.
When Sara Welch Seward was a little girl a bear decided that the mobile home in which she and her family lived at Ward, Alabama in Sumter County was a suitable object on which to scratch its back. Or perhaps the bruin wanted to open up this large box and see if it held food, which of course it did. Its scratching (or pushing) so rocked the trailer that the family went outside and the bear left the scene.
He/she went over to Sara's uncle Rob Jowers' place. Jowers fired shots into the air to scare the beast away. Next the bear showed up a couple of miles away in Sara's cousin Richard Chapman's yard. Chapman's German shepherd dog charged the bear and got the worst of the encounter. "We took the dog to the vet and got him sewed up," said George Welch, Sara's father
Last week Sara Seward, now a Lauderdale resident, visited her parents near Ward and anxiously searched Bunkum Road south of their home for bear tracks that had been reported to her by relatives. She took along her camera to record the tracks. She got her photos from the mud on Bunkum Road just in the edge of Choctaw County.
Many Tracks
Mr. Fredy Reeves and his wife Ann, more relatives of the Welch's, had seen the tracks several times, beginning on April 27, the bear evidently doing a lot of walking in the area around the Sumter and Choctaw county line. "I was turkey hunting after it rained all day the day before," said Reeves. "I parked my truck and walked about 20 yards, called and got no answer." When Reeves went back up the muddy road, fresh bear tracks were in his truck tracks.
The bear had torn up some of Fredy Reeves' game feeders in the area. Bears can be destructive when they expect feed and it's not there. They seem to think if they tear the container apart, they can find more food.
A game biologist visited the area and made a plaster casting of one of the bear's footprints. The five-inch wide print leads to an estimate that the bear is about five feet four inches tall.
On March 18, 2003, Reeves saw a bear eating his cat's food. "He was a small bear, only 100 to 150 pounds," he said. The next night the bear came back and killed a turkey gobbler after tearing into its pen. The bear took the turkey into the barn and ate half of it before Reeves arrived to scare it away.
More Bears
That angler's reaction may be typical of many people when they spot a bear. Actually black bears are not very dangerous creatures. Only in certain rare instances do they cause physical harm to humans. Examples would be if a female sensed someone doing harm to one of her cubs. Another situation where a bear could become aggressive is if someone had been feeding it and then withheld the feed. Otherwise a black bear will turn and run at the sight of a human.
So back away and leave the area if you spot bear cubs, and never put out feed for bears.
Fredy Reeves, who has seen bears and lived in the area where so many sightings have occurred, gives insightful advice. "Don't try to shoot or harm a bear." He understands that a bear is just another wild creature that deserves to be in the woods trying to find food and shelter. What bears need from humans is to be left alone. Observed and appreciated, yes, but left to thrive undisturbed.
We have left black bears precious little good habitat for their well being. We owe them respect and safe passage in the few woodlands remaining. Isn't it good to know that they still prowl some of these wild places where we too venture forth for outdoor sustenance?
