Recolonizing the State

For a two-week span in May, multiple Missouri news outlets were abuzz with the same stories — black bears in urban areas. From door-cam footage in Kansas City to reports from a Walmart parking lot in St. Charles County near St. Louis, black bears were making their way out of the woods and into neighborhoods.

The story of a country bear in the big city is not unprecedented in Missouri, but as the bear population continues to grow, it is a story that’s becoming more common. And the population is continuing to grow.

Once abundant throughout the state, the black bear saw a steady decline — due to heavy logging practices, which negatively affected bear habitat, and unregulated hunting — throughout the 1800s and early 1900s until, by the 1940s, they were considered all but gone from the Missouri landscape.

Now bears are back, and according to MDC’s 2023 Missouri Black Bear Program Annual Report, they are “successfully recolonizing the state.” Unlike the resurgence of the white-tailed deer, turkey, or elk, where MDC actively restored wildlife populations by moving animals about the state or from other states, the return of the black bear was not the product of direct MDC efforts, although habitat improvement, species protection, and public education facilitated the rate of recovery. The more direct factor was an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission restoration program undertaken in the late 1950s through the 1960s to return the bear — using stock captured in Minnesota and Canada — to the mountains of northwest Arkansas.

Once settled, those bears, as their descendants continue to do today, began expanding their territory, eventually ending up in southwest Missouri. By 2012, Missouri’s bear population was estimated at 300. Today it is estimated at more than 1,000 animals, with the bulk remaining south of Interstate 44 and expanding into areas predominately south of Interstate 70. Rare individuals have been reported as far north as the Iowa border.

Once the population became established, the Missouri Conservation Commission approved a limited and regulated bear hunting season in 2021. 

This month marks the fifth black bear hunting season, with up to 600 Missouri hunters being given the opportunity to purchase permits to hunt during the season, Oct. 18–31. Although the number of permits being issued has increased, the total number of bears that are allowed to be taken remains at 40, as it has been since the first season.

Even as the bear population increases, being drawn for a permit is not a guarantee of a harvest. In the first four seasons, a total of 47 black bears were harvested, with last year topping the list at 15.

What follows are the stories of two hunters — both of whom received permits for the 2023 season — and their experiences hunting black bears in Missouri.

Unbelievable Feeling

Kansas City man, 85, harvests first bear

by Bill Graham

When Lane Morris first went afield hunting, his quarry weighed only a pound or two and scampered about in trees. At age 85, he harvested another tree climber, this one weighing 420 pounds. Squirrel hunting as a boy led to decades of deer hunting on his family’s farm in Douglas County. Then after drawing a bear hunting permit, he killed a male black bear on the same farm on Oct. 23, 2023.

“The feeling was unbelievable,” Morris said. “I could not believe it. I’d almost given up hope of getting one.”

Nor would he have imagined as a boy in the 1950s that someday he would hunt for black bear on his family’s farm. But decades of conservation work by MDC and private landowners brought once-scarce wildlife and hunting opportunities back. That includes the 133-acre timbered Ozark farm near Ava that has been in the Morris family since 1903. Besides the bear, Morris also harvested two turkeys on the farm during the 2023 spring season and a button buck deer that autumn.

“I had a good year,” he said.

When he graduated from high school in 1956, “the only thing was squirrel hunting. We didn’t have any deer or turkey then. We did kill a few rabbits, but they were not plentiful there.”

Morris moved to the Kansas City area and worked in the air conditioning and heating business. But the family kept the farm. When white-tailed deer made a comeback in Missouri thanks to conservation, he and his father hunted deer starting in the 1970s. In the 1980s, wild turkeys had rebounded, and he began hunting them on the farm with family and friends.

Opportunity Presents Itself

An opportunity to hunt bears came when he drew a permit for the 2023 bear season. Along with help from friends, he began watching for bear sign, and they set out some trail cameras.

“I saw the same bear two days before the season,” Morris said. “We’d been seeing a few in the area.”

When the season opened, he began watching for bears from a permanent hunting blind built on the edge of a power line right of way. A young friend accompanied him on the hunts to help if he got a bear.

“I hunted six to eight hours every day for eight days,” Morris said. “I usually went out in the morning and hunted from 6 to 10:30 or so, then I’d go back out at 2 in the afternoon and stay until dark.”

Then one evening a big bear appeared about 225 yards out and began moving in the hunter’s direction. When the bear was close, Morris squeezed the trigger. One shot from a .30-06 Remington rifle rang out and the bear dropped, then moved no more.

“I shot him at 60 yards, right through the heart,” he said.

His young friend, Heith Carnall, was there to help. Others in the area who heard the shot also came to help. The bear was field dressed and taken to scales and weighed, and the offal was also weighed. They then took the bear to an Amish butcher shop to process the meat and tallow. The head is being mounted by a taxidermist and the pelt is being made into a rug.

Enjoying His Harvest

Bear meat tastes good, Morris said.

“We’ve had chili,” he said. “My sister fixed meatballs. We’ve had meat loaf and sausage. It’s all been good. Bear is a dark meat, with a taste that’s kind of a combination of beef, pork, and deer. It’s not as fat as pork and not as lean as deer. There’s no strong taste; it is milder than deer. It does have an odor when you cook it.”

The Amish butcher took 25 one-gallon buckets of fat off the carcass to render into lard for cooking.

“He said bear fat is good for frying things in,” Morris said.

Despite his senior years, he’s not done hunting. When spring turkeys are gobbling and buck deer are chasing does in autumn, Morris plans to be afield.

“I’m going to go turkey hunting,” he said. “I’ll bow hunt for deer with a crossbow. I just enjoy being outdoors, and the camaraderie of being out 
with the guys. And we’ve always processed our own meat, but this is our first bear.”

Bill Graham is a retired MDC communications specialist who has enjoyed a lifetime of Missouri’s wonderful outdoors and conservation programs.

A Different Success

Even without a harvest, hunter finds satisfaction — and a new perspective — in the effort

by Will Rechkemmer

This isn’t a story of a successful bear hunt, if notched tags and meat in the freezer are the gauges. However, if one considers respect for bears, the unique places they live, and a new perspective for the outdoors, it was as successful as it gets. 

When I found out I had been drawn for the third modern Missouri black bear season in 2023, feelings of both excitement and apprehension came over me. I grew up hunting and fishing. Ducks, deer, turkeys, bass, catfish, and crappie are all familiar to me. But bears? This was new to me, and given the low-density bear population in Missouri, I knew it’d be the hardest hunt I had been on. As a wildlife biologist, I spend an immense amount of time in the woods, and I have yet to lay eyes on a Missouri bear. After 25 years of hunting and fishing, an opportunity to hunt a new animal, or experience something for the first time, doesn’t come up as often as it once did. 

A Place a Bear Might Frequent

I spent the summer scouting, with relatively little success other than some old sign to go on for opening day. Over the course of the past few deer and turkey hunting seasons, I had taken note of areas where I found bear sign, but very little of it was fresh. The freshest sign I had found was several years prior during spring turkey season. After striking out on the roost hunt, I decided to explore areas a bear might frequent, like a ridge top. On the topo maps, there was an interesting area that looked like it may be a large sinkhole. I found a recently torn up log on the opposite side of the sink hole and fresh bear scat right next to it. 

Missouri’s regulations do not allow bait or hound hunting, so my strategy was simple — cover ground until I find them. My one goal for the season wasn’t a notched tag; I just wanted to see a bear. 
I drew a tag for Bear Management Zone 1, located in southwest and south Missouri along the Arkansas border. Although 
the smallest of the three bear management zones, it has the highest density of bears in the state, so I thought that if I covered enough territory, I would eventually find a bear. 

As the season drew closer, I noticed that the acorn crop was going to be spotty across the Ozarks due to a couple late frosts. This should have been to my benefit because bears would be concentrated in areas that actually had acorns, so I just had to find where that was. My approach on opening day was to hike areas where I had found bear sign in the past and cover different elevations and slope aspects trying to find acorns — and hopefully bear sign. The first day and a half I turned up some areas with acorns, but no bear sign fresher than a few weeks old.

Return to the Sinkhole

On the afternoon of the second day, I decided to hike back to that area of the big sinkhole that showed promise a couple years prior. As soon as I left the truck on an old four-wheeler path, I found the ground was littered with white oak acorns. As I cut down through a drainage and started to break the top of the ridge into a nice stand of big oaks, I couldn’t believe what I saw — scat so fresh it didn’t have a crust on it.

“This is actually turning into a bear hunt,” I said.

From this moment forward, my mindset changed — I really did have a chance at achieving my goal. 

Over the course of the next several days I chased that fresh sign. What appeared to be a lone bear and a sow with a couple cubs had followed an elevation band of acorns, through steep, rocky, south facing slopes. Following their sign, it appeared they were travelling and hadn’t stayed in one area long. Finally, I caught up with them — or so I thought — at an oak flat with fresh scat scattered all across it. I spent several days sitting in this area, but they never showed. Maybe they caught my wind, or maybe the 85-degree weather had them moving after dark. 

A Mud Track

After never finding where those bears went, I decided on the ninth day of the season to hike into a wilderness area where I had heard rumors of bears from deer hunters. It had been dry, but I could see several small ponds on the map and decided to start there. As I crested the berm of the first pond, I could see that it had dried up, but the mud was still tacky and covered in wildlife tracks needing investigation, including one large track. My heart began to beat faster as I approached. I could tell it was a bear track — and a big one at that. The edges of the claws and pad were still clear as day, about as fresh as it gets. I spent the rest of that day and the next looking for sign of where it was feeding or heading. Unfortunately, a few tracks in the dried-up pond were all the sign I ever found. I sat until dark in the area on the final day, with only a few deer and squirrels showing up on the oak flat. Ultimately, over the 10-day season, I hiked 75 off-trail miles in the Missouri Ozarks and was on fresh bear sign for a lot of those miles, but I never laid eyes on a bear.

Reinvigorated Love

This is where my perspective began to change. A first hunt really isn’t about harvesting an animal; it’s about learning. Was this a successful hunt even though I didn’t achieve my goal? I got out into the woods, stuck to my strategy, and I did find bears. From my perspective, learning to be hyper-observant and looking for things that most folks would walk past is what made this hunt successful. Over those 10 days I learned to notice the little things: freshly rolled rocks, tips of oak twigs on the ground from bears feeding in the canopy and dug out yellow jacket nests. These small clues were what made this a hunt instead of an ordinary hike through the woods. With each bit of sign, I felt like I was putting together a giant puzzle. Each piece of sign brought excitement and anticipation. I knew I was close, and any second the hunt could take a 180-degree turn to a notched tag. 

This hunt reinvigorated my love of the outdoors. It brought something out of me that I hadn’t had since I was young: excitement over the little things, like a child exploring the outdoors for the first time. Most of us need to appreciate the little things in life. Bear hunting does just that; you’re not likely to see a lot of them, so measuring success looks different. The little things are what made this hunt successful to me and reminded me I can apply that to all aspects of life. 

Missouri black bear tags are a lottery system, and there is no telling when — or if — I’ll get a second chance. The lessons, experiences, and memories made will have to hold me over until then. ▲

Will Rechkemmer is a wildlife biologist and outdoorsman. He enjoys spending his free time hunting, camping, and fishing with his wife, Danita, and dog, Rye.