Black bear spotted in Jackson County neighborhoods and state park. ‘Camp at your own risk.’
City Park Ranger Clark Gautier was mowing a side of the street leading to the boat launch early one morning at Shepard State Park, a little more than a week ago, when he saw something that didn’t fit.
“I turned and caught something large and strange out of the corner of my eye,” Gautier said. “He was up on his hinds, partially obscured, kind of Bigfoot-esque. When I realized it was a bear, I said, ‘Hold on.’”
He photographed it at 60-70 yards — probably a Louisiana Black Bear, because that’s what the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks says roams this area.
“He was chill,” Gautier said. “He didn’t run or anything. He just ducked back into the woods.”
Gautier was riding a noisy mower and he thinks the bear was checking him out as much as he was the bear.
The park now has a bear warning disclaimer at the entrance that includes, “Camp at your own risk.”
The next day, Norma Arnold stepped out the front door of her home on Sandalwood Drive, which backs up to the park, at about 10:30 p.m. with her chocolate Lab, Dusty.
Dusty knew something was wrong.
When the dog growled, Arnold shone a bright flashlight onto the vacant lot across the street and caught a bear in the spotlight. She grabbed the dog and pulled it back in.
Her biggest fear at that instant was that the two might tangle. She described the bear as about 200 pounds and twice the size of her full-grown Lab. She called the bear, “little but fat.” Arnold has seen bigger ones in other states.
Arnold is 5-foot-5 and believes the bear wouldn’t stand as tall as she is. Neighbors have seen it — one saw it under a streetlight, the other in her yard near where she keeps her garbage cans.
Arnold said they were warned not to put garbage cans out recently.
Steve Shepard, who lives south of the park — 400 acres near the Mississippi Sound surrounded by bayous in south Gautier — said he’s never heard of a bear in the area, and his family has lived there for generations.
They had sightings of panthers in the 1890s, but not bears this far south, Shepard said. Ten miles to the north, above Interstate 10 and the Mississippi Crane National Wildlife Refuge, there have been several sighting in the last decade.
Chassity Bilbo, the city’s recreation director, pointed out there have been bears spotted along the Gulf Coast recently. The one in Shepard State Park also wandered into a neighborhood nearby.
Because Shepard State Park is sort of a peninsula, bordered by bayous, railroad tracks and Graveline Road, some wonder if the bear has been living in the park for awhile. However, the species is know for wandering a wide range, especially young males.
There were bear tracks recorded in 2012 in the park, Gautier said he was told. Those prints were smaller than ones for the bear he saw last week.
He was wondering if it’s possible the bear grew up in the park.
“There’s tons of berry bushes and wildlife here,” he said, “deer, ‘possums, large rodents, bobcats and tons of rabbits. It’s like its own little nature paradise.”
The Louisiana black bear, seen in the southern two-thirds of Mississippi, has recently been removed from the Federally Threatened Species list, but is still classified as endangered under Mississippi law, according the the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
The state started the Black Bear Program in 2002 at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. At that time, it was estimated there were less than 50 bears residing in the state. That estimate has tripled.
According to the Fish and Wildlife, the increase is due primarily to the recent appearance of female bears in Mississippi. There have been numerous cubs born in the last several years, it said, something not documented in Mississippi in the previous 40 years.
This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 2:15 PM.