Tracking Bears

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You may recall that the Missouri Department of Conservation was trapping and radio collaring bears to study their range.  Since then MDC, in cooperation with Mississippi State, has been collecting hair samples across the southern part of the state for DNA analysis to get a better idea of the number of bears.

We recently had a collared bear visit Bull Creek.  It was seen by several neighbors and a few days earlier it visited our feral hog trap, fortunately not tripping the door shut.

There is now a web site where you can track the path of individual collared bears.  Check out the site ,http://www.fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/mo_bear/track.asp. The nearest collared bear was wandering around Christian and Taney County in Bull Creek Country.  Click on Bear 1117 at the bottom right and scroll down to the map. It may have visited near you.