The Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit is a program of the U.S. Geological
Survey. Since 1948, it has been an integral part of OSU and wildlife and fish research in Oklahoma,
helping cooperators like the Wildlife Department collect useful information on a variety of resource
issues.
Oklahoma black bears were put in the spotlight in 2009, when the first official hunting season
took place in a four-county region of southeast Oklahoma. The season came after years of research
and nuisance bear control, but prior to that, many Oklahomans may not have even been aware of
the existence of bears in the state.
Black bears once ranged over the entire area of what is now Oklahoma, but by the early 1900s,
sightings had become rare. Factors like land use changes, unregulated hunting and habitat
fragmentation caused black bear numbers to eventually decline drastically. In the late 1900s,
however, black bears began making a comeback in Oklahoma after their successful reintroduction
in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains of Arkansas. That initial relocation of about 250 bears from
northern Minnesota and Manitoba, Canada, turned into thousands of bears in the mountains of
Arkansas, which then expanded into southwestern Missouri and eastern Oklahoma.
This successful reestablishment of black bears led to a renewed bear hunting season in
Arkansas in 1980 and in Oklahoma in 2009.
Today, the species represents an important part of the state’s wildlife diversity. The presence of
black bears in an area can indicate good wildlife habitat, because the habitat requirements for black
bears are often more demanding than for other species.
To learn more about the Wildlife Department, the state agency charged with conserving the
state’s wildlife, log on to wildlifedepartment.com
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