12 / OutdoorIllinois October 2007

A modern history of one of Illinois’ extirpated mammalsincludes new possibilities: Will bears return to Illinois?

Black Bearsin IllinoisBlack Bearsin Illinois

Story By Joe McFarland

How long has it beensince black bears(Ursus americanus)roamed the PrairieState? Few people

seem to know exactly when the last Illi-nois bear vanished. By most accounts,whatever populations of black bears stillexisted in Illinois by the mid-1800s hadfaded into extirpation around the time ofthe Civil War.What happened to our bears? Just as

today, fear probably drove European set-tlers to eliminate black bears—butmoney and unregulated hunting also

contributed to their demise. In 1832, abear hide could fetch as much as $6 inIllinois (for comparison, a deer hidemight bring as little as 15 cents).Although Native Americans held bears inhigh spiritual and ceremonial regard, set-tlers to the Illinois country and fur tradersrarely missed a chance to bag a bear.According to David Prosser, a

Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refugetechnician living in deep southern Illi-nois, a 19th century forebear namedGrandma Holmes delivered the finalblow to Illinois’ bear population—andshe did it with an axe.Family legend has it that Holmes—

then a young woman with two children—buried an axe in the head of a bearbehind her log cabin in Alexander County.

“I believe it was some time during the1850’s,” Prosser recited. The bear wasreportedly snatching a pig from behindGrandma Holmes’ cabin, and Holmesreally wanted that pig.“All she could think about as she

watched that bear climbing over thefence with her pig was, ‘there goes ourwinter meat,’ and so she grabbed anaxe,” Prosser said.Whether or not Grandma Holmes

was truly the last person to see the lastof Illinois’ native bears might never be

Once a native mammal throughout

much of Illinois, the black bear

was extirpated in the Prairie State

during the 19th century.(PhotocourtesyWildlifePrairieStatePark.)

October 2007 OutdoorIllinois / 13

proved. But in the 150 years since,viable populations of wild bears simplyhaven’t been documented in Illinois,despite the occasional report of a lonebear sighting.Wildlife biologists point out that black

bear sightings during the past fewdecades typically involve domesticated

bears someone turned loose, or late-night pranks, or both. In 1995, southernIllinois residents followed the daily newsto catch updated reports of a very tameblack bear as it wandered around Hamil-ton and Jefferson counties. Wildlife offi-cials, concerned about potential humanconflicts, had no trouble nabbing thebear, which was far from wild (someonephotographed it guzzling a MountainDew): A few doughnuts tossed into alarge cage coaxed it back into captivity.The “Mountain Dew Bear,” as it came to

be known, was later sent to a naturecenter in the Shawnee National Forest.Yet freak Illinois sightings of bear

escapees might soon be eclipsed bysightings of legitimately “wild” bears,according to wildlife biologists. Blackbear populations nationwide areexpanding their ranges, and confirmedsightings of bears have now reached theIllinois border in all Missouri countiessouth of St. Louis. One black bearresearcher in southern Illinois fullyexpects to see male black bears slipping

Bears make dens in a variety of

habitats, including hollow trees.

Cubs remain with their mother for

more than a year before dispersing.

Southern Illinois has ample habitat

for bears, including more than

278,500 acres of national forest.

(PhotobyEricHellgren.)

(PhotocourtesyWildlifePrairieStatePark.)

(Photo by Joe McFarland.)

14 / OutdoorIllinois October 2007

across the river and into the ShawneeNational Forest within the next decade.“The bears being reported in Missouri

are coming from the Missouri Ozarks,”explained Eric Hellgren, director ofSouthern Illinois University’s CooperativeWildlife Research Laboratory. Hellgrenhas plenty of bear facts, having studiedblack bears extensively in Texas, Mexicoand the East—he once spent two yearsin Virginia and North Carolina’s GreatDismal Swamp, tracking black bears withradio telemetry. His knowledge of howbear populations naturally expand laysgroundwork for our understanding of alikely scenario in Illinois.“The bears in the Missouri Ozarks

today are all descended from 254 blackbears that were moved out of Manitobaand Minnesota in the 1950s and 60s,”Hellgren noted. “Prior to that, bears hadbeen extirpated from the Ozarks, just asthey had been in Illinois.” And, while thetransplanted bear population in theOzarks continues to grow, a fundamen-tal trait of bear dispersal will limit theirability to quickly settle into Illinois.“Young males may walk 100 miles

away from where they were born,” Hell-

gren said. “But very few females willtravel much more than 10 miles. Obvi-ously, without females, new populationscan’t get established.”So, at the current rate of female

black bear dispersal—perhaps a fewmiles every year—it would take severaldecades before bears could once againsettle into the southern forests of Illinois.“Once they’re here, they’ve got

everything they need,” Hellgren pointedout, but quickly added, “There are notpopulations of bears close enough to(southern Illinois) to have a bear popula-tion in Illinois anytime soon.”

Department of Natural Resources Divi-sion of Wildlife Resources Manager JohnBuhnerkempe said the state currently hasno management provisions for bears in itswildlife code since they’re still consideredan extirpated species (similar to cougarsand wolves). But that may change.“I think we need to look at the biology

as well as the human impacts of bears inIllinois,’ Buhnerkempe said. “Bears bringtheir own set of issues, just as deer pre-sent their own issues, and people tend tohave issues with large predators.”If the day arrives when a few female

bears eventually reach Illinois and rearyoung, human tolerance will make orbreak their survival.“Their limiting factor is people,” Hell-

gren concluded. “It depends on people’stolerance and whether or not peoplewant to have bears in Illinois.”

“Bear sign” includes clawed tree

trunks (left). The Mississippi River

(above) is all that divides Illinois

from Missouri bear populations.

Black bears also exist north of the

Illinois border, including this bear

spotted earlier this summer in a back

yard near Green Bay, Wisconsin.

(PhotobyJoeMcFarland.)

(PhotobyEricHellgren.)