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Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? #8314774 07/07/21 05:29 PM
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ErnestTBass Offline OP
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Been hearing and seeing more anecdotal evidence of black bears moving into Sutton County, Real County, Edwards County. Nothing concrete - just game cam pics being sent around or shown in town and people talking. Seems pretty clear they are coming. Will be interesting to see how far they go and how fast it happens. Anyone have any good info on this?

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8314780 07/07/21 05:40 PM
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Should be expected with droughts in Mexico causing bears to move in search of food. Then throw in year round protein and corn feeders in SW Texas...it is a free buffet for bears. I looked at a ranch for sale last fall just west of Sonora and south of IH-10. They had trail cam pictures from 2014 of a bear sow with 2 cubs. Said they thought the cubs had been born on the ranch. Had cam pics in and at water troughs and tearing up corn feeders. Also told me that the TPWD would have people out to observe the bears but they would never see them. Only to have them at a different location on the ranch on the cams. The bears only stayed for a short period then moved southwest they thought. No one ever saw them after that they now of nor did they ever return(as of last fall). I know there have been bears seen in SW Texas since the early 90's.


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315036 07/07/21 10:30 PM
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They're in Real county. I've got land on "Camp wood creek" , Devils canyon area. The ranch to the north of us has seen a Momma and 2 Cubs. This was probably 3 years ago. A friend of mine has land in Edward's, he's seen pics of bears from his neighbors. Terrell county has a boatload. Not sure about Sutton though.


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315049 07/07/21 10:37 PM
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When I was feeding there was a sow that denned underneath an old ranch house on one of the properties in northern Val Verde County. The guys leasing said she'd have 2 cubs about every 2 years. We had one do major damage to one of our feeders when I was guiding west of Del Rio about 25 miles. But, that ranch was only about 3 miles from the river/lake. Feeder was not repairable.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315062 07/07/21 10:45 PM
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There are quite a few bear sightings popping up in those counties confirmed by TPWD


For it is not the quarry that we truly seek, but the adventure.
Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315127 07/08/21 12:06 AM
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I know people that ranch out there, I am hearing more stories about sightings out west.


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315155 07/08/21 12:38 AM
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Not the Edwards plateau
My friend had one tearing up his feeders In Brewster county.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: deerfeeder] #8315173 07/08/21 01:06 AM
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Just remind any guest hunter that it is illegal to shoot one.
I had a sighting in edwards county last month

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315258 07/08/21 02:27 AM
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My buddy has a picture of one he saw on his lease South of Ozona a couple of years ago. My police buddy here in Midland has a picture of one on a rancher's front porch just outside of Garden City.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: Jgraider] #8315296 07/08/21 04:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Jgraider
My buddy has a picture of one he saw on his lease South of Ozona a couple of years ago. My police buddy here in Midland has a picture of one on a rancher's front porch just outside of Garden City.


That one in Garden City was spotted by several folks. One of the ladies who work at the office own a place outside of Garden City and her husband and two sons seen it crossing their cotton field. From the pictures it was obviously a bear but couldn't tell size or if it was male or female. They thought it was a hog until it stood up and looked back at them.


Yes! A Weatherby does kill them deader.
Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315316 07/08/21 10:30 AM
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My friend moved from the place where the bear was he said it would come and go.
He called TPWD and told them the bear was tearing his stuff up and that the bear had a limp what looked like a soar foot. They weren’t concerned at all and told him to quit feeding and it would go away. He did that it left but was back a few months later.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315340 07/08/21 11:31 AM
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They've been in the hill country for a good while now and even in south TX.
Had sightings of one between Dilley and Cotulla crossing IH35 some years back.
A friend had several feeders destroyed by one just north of Leakey about 7-8 years ago on their lease.


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315536 07/08/21 03:16 PM
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Couple of our neighbors have them on game cam in North Central Uvalde county. Very mountanous and remote so i dont see why they wouldnt thrive.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315627 07/08/21 05:06 PM
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Here is a link to a magazine article from back in May 2014 on Black Bears.
https://issuu.com/texaswildlifeassociation/docs/2014-5-proof_6\
More links:
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_lf_w7000_1683_12_13.pdf
https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20121127c


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315731 07/08/21 06:46 PM
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There's been a couple around Menard County. Photos on a game camera near Ft. McKavett and another south of town near the county line. One was killed north of town a few years ago.
We had them on the ranch on the Pecos east of the Terrell Plant.
More are coming as populations continue to grow to the southwest and in Mexico.
Adios,
Gary

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8315743 07/08/21 07:00 PM
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Originally Posted by ErnestTBass
Been hearing and seeing more anecdotal evidence of black bears moving into Sutton County, Real County, Edwards County. Nothing concrete - just game cam pics being sent around or shown in town and people talking. Seems pretty clear they are coming. Will be interesting to see how far they go and how fast it happens. Anyone have any good info on this?


I have photos we took of a black bear 600 yards away. We were in Brewster county, only a few hundred yards east of the park. We were a mile north of the Rio Grande. We watched him for 30 minutes digging in the leaves of soto trees.


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: DaveTexas] #8315945 07/08/21 11:01 PM
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Originally Posted by DaveTexas
Just remind any guest hunter that it is illegal to shoot one.
I had a sighting in edwards county last month


What part of the county?

Someone told me they recently saw one off Highway 41 headed back towards Garven store.

I haven’t seen one on our places, but I’ve heard enough secondhand in the area recently that I’m actually telling people on our places to make sure they don’t shoot one.

We are mostly in Edwards, but I have one place that straddles Real and Edwards. I have cousins in Sutton (where I spent most of my time hunting and doing ranch work growing up) that have seen one bear.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8316386 07/09/21 02:43 PM
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Question: What does the population of black bears have to be, before it becomes viable to hunt or to have a season established?

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: kphilli66] #8316513 07/09/21 05:14 PM
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Originally Posted by kphilli66
Question: What does the population of black bears have to be, before it becomes viable to hunt or to have a season established?



Enough to start voting.


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: kphilli66] #8316762 07/09/21 10:21 PM
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Originally Posted by kphilli66
Question: What does the population of black bears have to be, before it becomes viable to hunt or to have a season established?


Dunno. Oklahoma and Arkansas have open bear seasons now. Louisiana is still closed.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8317156 07/10/21 01:32 PM
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I saw one on the Caddo Grasslands in N.E. Tx about 8 years ago while turkey hunting. And a landowner not far from there has a picture of a bear on the dam of his pond 20 years before I saw mine.

Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: Texas452] #8317223 07/10/21 02:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Texas452
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Not the Edwards plateau
My friend had one tearing up his feeders In Brewster county.

"hey, bring the ladder"


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: colt45-90] #8322484 07/16/21 03:04 AM
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Plenty of bears come up from Mexico. Many travel the devils, nueces river canyons. Most get shot. That’s been happening for many decades since most ranchers prefer deer and livestock over bears. Some of the reason is geography. Hard to protect animals in big country. I don’t think most of us will live to see legitimate bear seasons in Texas.


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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8325763 07/20/21 01:51 AM
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Ozona had a young bear recently running through town, ended up being treed up a tree in my back yard by my Neapolitan Mastiff and little Corgi.

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Re: Bears in Southwest Texas / Edwards Plateau? [Re: ErnestTBass] #8327084 07/21/21 01:48 PM
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Wow, that’s crazy. Thanks for sharing.

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