LAKE CORMORANT, Miss. (WMC) – The first black bear spotted in DeSoto County in years has found a home in a family’s backyard. Many neighbors and friends of the residents are now paying visits to check out the burly bruin.
“Normally, when you see an animal like that, it’s in a zoo,” says Graham Sammons, one of the many onlookers who went to his friend’s house to see the bear. “This is totally different because it can get up and run towards you at any moment.”
Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks has had a black bear program since 2002. Program leader Anthony Ballard says it’s not dangerous to watch black bears from a safe distance, as long as the bears are not cornered.
Ballard shares why black bears can sometimes appear in unexpected places.
“You have young males that are a year-and-a-half old dispersing for the first time away from [their mother],” says Ballard. “They’re following their nose to food, and they can disperse tens or hundreds of miles away from their home range.”
Witnesses say the black bear spotted in Lake Cormorant took a liking to a pear tree in a family’s backyard, tearing down nearly every limb.
“He was not in a hurry to leave,” says Reid Greenslade, who left work Tuesday afternoon just to check out the bear. “He was camped out under a pear tree, just lying down, eating pears.”
Ballard warns neighbors to avoid leaving any attractive meals outside for the bear to find, as bears tend to be nosy and get too close for comfort in search of a meal.
“Secure any kind of attractants,” says Ballard. “That could be things like pet food, barbecue grills and smokers, garbage, of course. Anything that a dog could get into, a bear would get into.”
Black bears are considered an endangered species in Mississippi. They are most often observed in the southern Delta near Louisiana.
This map shows every reported black bear sighting in the state since 2016.
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