Posted by Bonnie R. McKinney on June 18, 2000 at 10:18:04:
In Reply to: Live Bear Photoed in West Texas Wilderness! posted by John Fraser on June 14, 2000 at 19:26:23:
: Here is an actual photo that was taken Southeast of Sanderson, Texas, in Terrell county, on June 6, 2000, at 6:20pm, on a clear, warm, 85F+ evening. Myself & Good Friend, Mike Geiger, of Seaford, DE, were out driving when we heard a crashing noise some 50' away from our Jeep. Moving was a black, hairy animal & when it came into a clearing, it was easy to identify as a Mexican Black Bear! In my 18 years of travels to the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas, I had never seen a bear in the wild, but here it is. This was taken with my digital camera and the bear was about 200'+ away
John,
That was neat you saw the bear near sanderson, I work for TPW and I am the principal investigator for the west Texas Black Bear Project. Black bears were extirpated from the state back in the 1940's and only a few remnant populations were still in the northern mountains of Coahuila, Mexico. The bear has made a natural recovery in Coahuila, Mexico and range expansion has occurred into western Texas. We have 10 black bear currently radio collared and are conducting researchon habitat, food item sin the diet, survival, mortality, dna etc.,
I couldn't pull the picture up on my computer for some reason. I did enter your note into our data base file for distribution. If you could download me the photo in a jpeg image or even mail me a copy I cwould sure appreciate it. My address is:
Bonnie McKinney, TPW
P.O. Box 354
Marathon, Texas 79842
Thanks,