Bear still seems headed east; Bicyclist glimpses beast along Trace

Kia Hall Hayes
St. Tammany bureau
27 February 2009
Times-Picayune

A Louisiana black bear that has been moving through St. Tammany Parish was spotted Thursday morning along the Tammany Trace between Mandeville and Abita Springs, meaning the animal is continuing its eastward trek from Iberville Parish.

Eric Jensen of Massachusetts, who is visiting friends in Mandeville, said he was biking toward Mandeville from Abita Springs around 8 a.m. when he looked down one of the wooded horse trails just north of Interstate 12 and saw the animal. "I saw him looking at me. He was just sitting there.

"I thought, 'That can't be a bear because there's no bears out here,' and then I got home and saw the (newspaper) article" about the animal, said Jensen, who was unable to reach wildlife officials to report the sighting.

The St. Tammany Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that the 3- to 4-foot-tall, 300-pound bear had been spotted this week near Perilloux Road and Louisiana 22, northwest of Madisonville. Thursday's reported sighting was nearly 10 miles east of Perilloux Road.

The young adult male, whose travels are being monitored by state wildlife officials, is thought to be moving east from Iberville Parish, home of the 15,000-acre Atchafalaya Wildlife Refuge, where many Louisiana black bears live.

The bears, described by wildlife officials as "opportunistic feeders" that eat fruits and berries, are wanderers by nature. Male black bears travel two to eight times the area of females, routinely covering areas of about 40,000 acres, with more travel during the summer mating season.

Officials with the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries could not be reached to confirm Jensen's sighting, and Sheriff's Office spokesman George Bonnett said Thursday that his office had not received any new reports of bear sightings.

If the bear spotted Thursday is the bear from Iberville Parish, that would mean it has traveled more than 100 miles, an impressive distance but still topped by that of "No Neck Hebert." That 350-pound black bear became famous in 1996 when it traveled from its home in Panama City, Fla., to Baton Rouge, a distance of nearly 400 miles. The bear was captured and returned to Florida.

Black bears in the region normally are black with a brown muzzle and occasionally a white blaze on the chest. Males range in size from 150 to 350 pounds.

The Sheriff's Office quoted Wildlife and Fisheries as saying that federally and state-protected Louisiana black bears are not predatory or aggressive, and should be treated like a stray dog.

Anyone coming into contact with the bear should call the Sheriff's Office at 985.809.8200 or wildlife officials at 800.442.2511, authorities said.

Kia Hall Hayes can be reached at khayes@timespicayune.com or 985.645.2848.