Arkansas is seeing an increase in its black bear population, leading to more interactions with people and at least one fatal encounter. Ozarks at Large’s Daniel Caruth has more.
On Sept. 3, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission got an alarming and unusual call that a bear had attacked a man in the Mulberry Mountain area of Franklin County, along Highway 23.
Keith Stephens, chief of communications for Arkansas Game and Fish, says the man, 72-year-old Vernon Patton from Ozark, was using a tractor to move gravel on his property when the attack happened. His son was working with him but wasn’t with him at that exact point.
“He did come up later and found the bear was on top of his dad, and his dad was off the tractor on the ground.”
Patton was in intensive care for a week after the attack and died from the injuries on Sunday, Sept. 14.
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the last recorded fatality from a black bear attack in the state happened in 1892 in Mountain Home.
“We can’t find anything between then and when we became an agency in 1915.”
Bear attack fatalities vary from year to year, but since at least 2010 have averaged around two to three deaths per year in North America, with the majority of fatal bear attacks coming from grizzly bears. That’s according to numbers from the National Institutes of Health.
“This is extremely rare. We just don’t have black bears attacking people.”
Often black bear attacks, including a 2017 case in Minnesota of a bear attacking three separate people, have been linked to brain disease or illness. But Stephens says that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
“That’s the really interesting thing about this. We just don’t know at this point. We are doing tests. We had a test for rabies. We had it tested for distemper. Those both came back negative. We were concerned that maybe this bear had been habituated by people and had lost its fear, and came up looking for something to eat and attacked this gentleman. It just doesn’t seem to be any indication that any of that happened. So we’re running more tests. We’ve sent samples off to the University of Georgia, which does a lot of our bear work, to see if they can tell us what may have caused it in this one bear.”
Stephens says encounters are becoming more common as the population of black bears in Arkansas has steadily risen. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission estimates the number is around 5,000.
He says most black bears in Arkansas are concentrated in the Ouachita and Ozark mountains through the western and north-central parts of the state, but they are expanding into other regions.
“We do have bears in the Gulf Coastal Plain down south in southern Arkansas, the Delta—we’re having bears there as well. At one time, Arkansas was nicknamed the Bear State. We’ve had bears in Arkansas forever.”
In the 1800s, Arkansas was a popular destination for black bear hunting, with the medium-sized bear found in nearly every corner of the state. However, by the 1920s, that population had fallen to fewer than 100 bears. A reintroduction program in the 1960s brought in new bears from Minnesota and Manitoba, and eventually the state reinstated its bear hunting season in the 1980s, which continues today.
“That program is important in helping to control the bear population. We’ve got bear hunting season coming up, and we’ll probably take about 10 percent of that population out by hunting so we can keep it about where it is right now.”
Bear hunting season opened on Sept. 17 and runs through Nov. 30, or until bag quotas are reached for each zone.
“Make sure you’ve got a hunting license. You’ve got to tag the bear when you take it. Most people are out hunting deer at the same time and may see a bear and have the opportunity to take a bear. We’ve had some very successful hunters in the past taking large bears during the season, and they have been very good at it over the years.”
While this recent case is alarming, Stephens says it’s also unusual. The chances of being attacked are still relatively low in Arkansas, but people should be cautious and do their best to prevent an attack.
“You want to make sure that if you do see a bear, don’t turn and run away. Just back away slowly. Yell at them. Throw something at them. Make yourself look bigger—put your hands up and wave them. That usually will scare them off.”
He encourages hikers and campers to carry bear spray as a precaution and says most bear encounters happen when they are looking for food.
“They’re omnivores. They’re not eating just meat, they’re eating anything. They’re just garbage disposals. I would tell people to keep food away, keep trash can lids on tight—not have to bring them into your garage—but just keep them away where they can’t get an easy meal.”
For more information and resources on black bears in Arkansas, you can visit the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission website.
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