Bear sightings in East Texas prompts caution

TYLER – Texas Parks and Wildlife is reporting several bear sightings across East Texas and encouraging people to stay away from its path. According to our news partner KETK, it’s a rare sight for East Texans to spot a bear because the last few bears in the state are predominantly found in the southwest; however, one bear is being spotted all across the piney woods.

“We believe it’s a male, young male, subadult,” Texas Parks and Wildlife District biologist Ruben Gay said. “It has a signature upside-down Nike swoosh in a way that looks like it is on the right side of his face, so that’s helping us verify it.” Gay said with over 14 reported sightings across East Texas, they’ve been able to track his travels as he moves loosely.

“We first started tracking it in the park’s Texas area near Mud Creek, kind of over there near 204 and 110 area in Cherokee County on July 15th,” Gay said.

Seemingly every corner of East Texas has seen this bear with sightings in Anderson, Cherokee, Rusk and Panola counties. This youngster has potentially found the bare necessities in the piney woods.

“This bear has been making his rounds and we’ve been monitoring and tracking it for about a month now,” Gay said.

Experts at the Caldwell zoo said the bear most likely came from Louisiana, scouting out a potential new home.

” Especially if it’s a young male, they actually get kicked out about two years old, kicked out from their family group.” Cadwell Zookeeper Kailee Murphy said. “They have to go find their own territory, and they’ve got to go experience life on their own. Just like all you guys going back to school, and so he is just probably looking for his new territory or looking for some scraps here and there.”

As he tracks this new trail, the Texas black bear alliance is warning people to leave him be

“A fed bear or a bear that has human animal conflict is a dead bear, and we just don’t want to see that happen,” Vice Chair of the Texas black bear alliance Kati Krouse said.

Texas Parks and Wildlife also warns that attempting to target this animal could result in severe penalties and jail time.

“It could be severe monetary penalties and jail time, and the fees could exceed 12 grand,” Gay said. “So be respectful of this animal passing through and just enjoy it.”

If a bear is spotted, Texas Parks and Wildlife asks that all sightings be reported by contacting the local department.