Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – June 29, 2024 – A few weeks ago on the 104.9 The Fox program Jonesboro Community Breakfast Jeremy Brown, Assistant Deer Program Coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said we were in that time of the year when bears move through parts of Northeast Arkansas.
“We get a lot of calls this time of year about bears and they’re almost always young males,” Brown said. “They’ve overwintered with their mother twice and now it’s time for them to find new homes.”
2023 bear spotted in Jonesboro (Facebook: Brandy Turner)
A black bear moved through the Jonesboro community in May, 2023 causing quite a stir. “We had bear sightings near Craighead Forest, along a ditch near Home Depot,” Brown said. “Later the bear was spotted in a neighborhood near Hilltop. He was definitely moving North.” It was speculated at the time that the bear probably ended up along Crowley’s Ridge in Greene County.
On Saturday, Blake Powell, a Cross County farmer, received a call from one of his farm workers who was doing levee maintenance in a rice field along Bayou De View near the Tilton community South of Hickory Ridge. “You’re not going to believe this, but there’s a bear moving through your rice field,” the worker said. The worker even snapped a photo and sent it to the farmer.
Myron Means, large carnivore program coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, says yearling bears have two life paths after they emerge from dens in spring, based on their sex. Female yearlings will be allowed to stay near their mother, setting up territories adjacent to hers. Males, however, are shown the door and are pushed away to find new homes. “This prevents inbreeding and promotes expansion of the species,” Means said. “For some of these young males, it’s the first time they will encounter people.”
“Probably 90 percent of the bear nuisance calls we get can be handled by simply taking away whatever food source the bear has found,” Means said. “That’s going to be the first thing I tell a landowner when they call. Take away that easy food, and the bear almost always moves on quickly.”
Corn feeders and easily tipped trash cans are obvious targets for inquisitive bears, but other food sources, such as birdfeeders and barbecue grills with uncleaned drip pans also attract these trouble bruins.
The peak time for male bear movement are the months of May and June. So the time for additional bear sightings like the one in Cross County is running short.
Some of the information for this story was written by Randy Zellers, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission website