FEATURE IMAGE: The once plentiful black bear population in Arkansas nearly disappeared by 1927 but has since rebounded.
During the first half of the 1800s, as a nod to its prodigious population of Louisiana bruins, Arkansas earned one its earliest, albeit unofficial, nicknames, the Bear State. A century later, the state’s resident bear population was reduced to less than 50 animals and moniker hawkers shifted to the Wonder State, as in, “I wonder where all the bears have gone.”
If 2024 is any indication, it may be time to reestablish the earlier nickname to replace the Natural State that came into official usage in 1995. This year has been the Summer of the Bear in Arkansas, not only in the wilds of the Ouachita and Ozark mountains, but in metro areas from Searcy to west Little Rock.
Bears are not the only unusual wildlife visitors to catch residents’ attention these days, however. Thanks to a successful reintroduction program that dates back to the early 1970s, alligators are now becoming common sights in and along the state’s waterways. As well, feral hogs continue to increase in number of specimens and size of territory in spite of, not because of, wildlife management authorities.
All in all, it is a wild time to live in Arkansas. The following is a summary by species of where the wild things are.
BLACK BEARS
Ursus americanus luteolus have enjoyed a long and colorful history in Arkansas. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Louisiana black bears were documented in abundance by early explorers and lived throughout the Ozark Plateau, the Ouachita Mountains, and throughout canebrakes, river valleys and the Arkansas Delta.
Native people were the first to hunt the bruins for meat and fur, but the forthcoming hordes of European and white settlers were more interested in harvesting bear fat as a fuel source for oil lamps, as insect repellent and as hair gel.
The bear was also one of the territory’s first tourist attractions, drawing foreign outdoorsmen and hunters to the area for a chance at squaring off with the majestic beasts. Some of these sportsmen such as famed German tourist and hunter Friedrich Gerstäcker published their exploits, which only increased interest in the experience.
Following the Civil War, bears became viewed less as noble quarry and more as dangerous nuisances. Stories about attacks on livestock and humans, many of them exaggerated or fabricated, led to the wholesale slaughter of bears by locals and market hunters alike. By 1927, only about 45 remained, leading officials to outlaw bear season and, 30 years later, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission began releasing expatriated Canadian and Minnesotan black bears into the wild. With the ban on hunting remaining in place for another three decades, a stable bear population was established.
Today, tightly controlled harvest is allowed in six of the eight AGFC zones during the fall hunting season, which speaks not only to the population of bears, but their range of territory.
“Bears have definitely expanded from repopulation efforts,” said David Luker, assistant chief of the Arkansas Game and Fish Wildlife Division. “Like any animal, they generally have a home range but as population increases, things are going to be pushed out. That’s generally how a lot of these bears show up in these unusual areas, like in town.”
Luker said he was not surprised nor has he been alarmed by the bear encounters reported to the agency of late, saying, in most cases, a bruin that shows up in a populated area is likely lost or merely exploring, perhaps scouting out its own domain.
“It could be any bear, but more times than not, it’s going to probably be younger bears that are just out exploring,” he said. “It really happens a lot with the young males, the ones that get pushed out and have to go set up their own territory.
“Another thing that could cause bears to want to move is food sources. If we have conditions where there’s food sources that are limited, they’re going to search out and find something to eat.”
Left to their druthers, bears typically avoid humans, although as Luker said, the food situation can send them to civilization, where they find sustenance in garbage or from pet food left outside. Done frequently enough, their natural wariness of humans tends to dull.
“You take a deer, for example — you go down in the woods and a deer sees you, it tears out running,” he said. “A deer that’s been acclimated to people around houses and subdivisions, they’ll stand in the yard. You walk down the sidewalk, and that deer will just watch you walk by.
“Same thing with bears. Bears that are generally raised in close proximity to civilization are going to be a little more comfortable, and as time goes on, they’ll get a little more comfortable. People putting out dog food, cat food, that’s going to bring them in. If they’re desperate and they’re hungry, they may not feel altogether comfortable, but they gotta eat.”
AMERICAN ALLIGATOR
More commonly associated with Louisiana and Florida, Alligator mississippiensis actually has a long historical residency in the Natural State, where it thrived in the state’s rivers, ponds, lakes, bayous, oxbows and cypress swamps.
The Arkansas Gazette, in May 1828, provided one of the earliest recorded accounts of the creatures, reporting the killing of an 11-foot gator on the north side of the Arkansas River at Little Rock. Starting in 1860, the creatures suffered a century of population loss due to habitat depletion dating back to the 1780s and unregulated hunting that reduced numbers to an all-time low both in Arkansas and elsewhere.
State and federal entities reacted to protect the creatures. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission passed new restrictions in 1961, and Congress listed the alligator an endangered species six years later. Alligators rebounded from their dire straits over the next 20 years, moving from endangered to threatened status by 1977, and were delisted altogether in 1987.
For 12 years starting in 1972, the AGFC reintroduced the American alligator to its former Arkansas homeland, releasing nearly 3,000 gators from stock in Louisiana. Most were released on private land at the request of landowners looking to control other nuisance wildlife, but they were also released in the wetlands around Arkansas Post near Dumas in Arkansas County and the marshes of Millwood State Park near Ashdown in Little River County.
During the early 2000s, population surveys showed sufficient numbers to introduce limited hunting of alligators in Arkansas by special permit. Despite being limited to three of the state’s five alligator management zones over just two four-day periods, the hunts have steadily yielded more of the reptiles taken. According to the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, hunters set a record for alligator harvest last year, bagging 202 alligators on public and private lands.
Meanwhile, gator sightings have been called in from farther and farther north, suggesting the creatures’ habitat is spreading.
“We have great habitat for them, as you can see, and the population definitely has expanded to where we’ve got a good number of alligators in the state,” Luker said. “We do surveys, and we get reports that show us they are starting to expand their habitat to some degree. Alligators generally are not like a bear. They can’t move quite as fast, and their movement is generally going to be along waterways.
“They will cross over land, there’s no doubt, and we’ve moved numerous nuisance alligators that were walking across an ag field or on the side of the highway. Generally, though, when they’re doing that, they’re just moving from one waterway to another.”
Luker is quick to add that there is a limit to continued alligator sprawl, since the potential for cold, snow and ice increases as the creatures head farther north. He put the “Arkansas Gator Line” at Interstate 40 around Little Rock.
“Weather conditions in Arkansas will definitely constrict that zone,” he said. “That hard freeze we had a few years ago or when we got 12 to 15 inches of snow on the ground for two weeks, that’s very hard on alligators. They basically hibernate in winter. They might make a burrow on the bank, or a lot of them will actually submerge down in the water, where they can lay for hours without breathing, and then float up for air.
“If we start getting freezing temperatures, a lot of these alligators will stick their nose up right above the water surface, and you can see where it’s actually frozen around an alligator’s snout. Sometimes if it freezes over so hard and fast the alligator is not strong enough to bust through the ice, he literally drowns. We lost a lot of alligators during that last hard freeze that way, so that limits how far an alligator can really progress north because the colder the temperatures get, the likelihood of him surviving in that environment goes way down.”
FERAL HOGS
In 1909, University of Arkansas head coach Hugo Bezdek was asked for his assessment of what was then the Arkansas Cardinals football team. Bezdek described the squad as resembling a “wild band of razorback hogs” for their fierce style of play. The team went undefeated that year, and by the following season, the mascot was changed, and fans have been calling the Hogs ever since.
In the wilds of Arkansas, however, feral hogs have engendered few fans. Sus scrofa are everywhere in the state, non-native invaders that adapt to virtually any terrain, are impervious to weather, propagate quickly and have few predators. Female hogs start breeding at 8 months and are capable of producing two litters of up to 12 piglets every 12 to 15 months.
According to the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, feral hogs cause any number of issues, from property, crop and pasture damage to water pollution and spreading disease to livestock. They do not just munch on crops; they root up the landscape such that Smithsonian Magazine termed them the “rototillers of nature” in a piece about the problem.
The hogs also compete with native wildlife for food supplies, wreck habitat, and even consume small mammals, the young of larger mammals, and eggs of wild ground-nesting birds such as bobwhites and turkeys.
Hogs can live as long as 25 years and are tough, aggressive beasts capable of reaching 30 miles per hour on a dead run and equipped with fearsome 3- to 5-inch-long tusks. Little wonder then, that Luker considers feral hogs the most pressing threat in the Arkansas ecosystem, well ahead of bears and alligators.
“We’re way worse off than we were 10 years ago, for sure,” he said. “If you look at maps from 10 years ago to maps as of today where hogs are located, they’re in a lot more areas, and unless you really put a very strategic plan in place to control them, they’re going to steadily expand.
“There’s been a lot of different research, and probably, on average, most hog populations expand about 4 miles a year roughly. Some of the research I’ve read shows they could go up to a maximum of 8 to 10 miles, possibly.”
Arkansas is not alone in its battle with wild swine. According to Modern Farmer, there are an estimated 6.5 million to 9 million feral hogs terrorizing at least 35 states. The rooting horde carries a steep price, anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in damages and control costs.
“The [U.S. Department of Agriculture] has referred to the phenomenon as ‘the feral swine bomb,’” the magazine reported.
Experts are divided on what to do about the feral hog problem. Liberalizing hunting guidelines are one seemingly obvious solution; however, the animals’ natural intelligence causes it to take evasive maneuvers. That can actually make the problem worse as animals scatter and establish new sounders, or family groups, in different locations.
The AGFC warns against hunting, favoring instead large-scale trapping, which is more efficient and economical in capturing the whole sounder at once. The agency quoted studies that show at least 66 percent of a hog population must be removed each year just to maintain current numbers. Hunting has shown to reduce hog populations by 8 to 50 percent.
“At the current rate, they’re definitely going to be moving into more residential areas as the population expands,” Luker said. “Hogs are a way worse nuisance. They can get acclimated to people quicker, and they will actually move in and cause a lot more damage than alligators or bears. You have 30 pigs move on your yard or your cop fields, and you’ve got major problems.
“The state is doing some great things. We’ve got programs where people can get grants to get funds to buy traps. We’re working with different agencies in the state and putting things out there to help people trap their pigs and get them off their land. That’s definitely going to help because you have to use these smart traps to trap hogs. Any hog that is not trapped is just educated, and that makes them very difficult to catch.”
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Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold
Experts say bears tend to avoid humans and generally only attack when surprised. In most cases, their instinct is to take defensive measures such as simply running away. That especially goes for black bears, which rarely attack humans unless cubs are involved, Travel Experience reported.
When hiking, go in a group or make noise to reduce the chance of inadvertently sneaking up on a bear, thereby startling it. If faced with one, stay calm, face it and make yourself look as big as possible. Keep talking in a low voice, but do not scream or yell at it or make sudden movements. Backing away slowly is a good, nonthreatening move, but people should never turn their backs on a bear or try to outrun or outclimb it up a tree. All things being equal, a black bear will generally shuffle off.
Rare though it is, black bears can attack, and when they do, they are being predatory, and there is just one option left — fight for one’s life. Grabbing something to hit it in the face and nose is great, but know this is a serious situation involving a creature with bad intentions. DO NOT PLAY DEAD. Experts say a bear that gets resistance will most likely give up for more yielding prey.
The best defense is to be aware when you are in bear country. Take posted warnings seriously, and pack bear spray when hiking or camping. Remember, bear spray is not bug spray, so do not fog the campsite before bedtime, trying to ward them off. Instead, use it like mace but at a greater distance.
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Smile and Stay Back
Should one encounter an alligator, be it in a waterway or the backyard, experts shared one simple instruction: Stay away from it.
“Honestly, they prefer to avoid people,” biologist Becky McPeake was quoted as saying in a recent blog post by the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Agency. “It’s when they become used to being around people that they become dangerous. Some people want to feed them for some strange reason. Please don’t. It can have terrible consequences for both people and pets.”
Gators can be surprisingly fast on land — faster than they can swim, Surf Researcher states — but only in very short bursts because their big bodies and short legs are not built for running. That said, proximity is key, and McPeake recommended cutting the beast at least a 60-foot berth. If one has to run, run away in a straight line.
A far more dangerous situation is encountering an alligator in the water or on a shoreline, where gators generally feed.
Let’s not mince words here: Humans cannot outswim alligators, which can reach 20 miles per hour in the water, or outmuscle them if they successfully bite and roll, a move that drowns gators’ air-breathing prey. Once a gator clamps on, most people are in deep trouble, but fight back anyway, aiming for the tip of the nose or the eyes, in the hopes the animal lets go in favor of finding something easier.
“Fight like hell. Don’t go willingly,” Frank Mazzotti, professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Florida’s Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, told ABC News. “The bigger fight you put up, the more likely it’s going to let you go and say, ‘This isn’t worth it.’”
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Do Not Call This Hog
Like alligators and bears, feral hogs tend to stay away from people, but as the number of animals increases and sounders overlap with inhabited areas, attacks are becoming more frequent. Stone Age Man reported hog attacks are more common than those by wolves and cited one study that showed while there were only about 400 attacks between 1825 and 2012, 70 percent of those had occurred since 2020.
Large, solitary males are the most dangerous, especially when cornered or if they feel threatened in some way. About twice as many attacks happen in winter as in summer.
As previously stated, hogs are extremely fast and remarkably agile given their size, so outrunning one from a reasonably close proximity does not favor the human. What does play in their favor is the swine have relatively poor eyesight, so depending on distance, a hog might not notice a person at all, allowing the person to quietly sneak away.
Hogs also cannot climb, so in a pinch, shimmying up a tree to a height of about 6 feet should put one out of harm’s reach.
In a human versus hog matchup, however, it is best to grab something to fight with. Do everything to keep your footing. Finding oneself on the ground in a hog attack is bad news because it exposes the human to being gored by the animal’s tusks. Fight ferociously as long as the pig does; even though attacks generally only last a minute or so, it can feel a lot longer in the heat of battle.
