{"id":297779,"date":"2026-05-18T05:05:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297779\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T05:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:05:26","slug":"texas-is-seeing-more-black-bears-what-should-you-do-if-you-see-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297779\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas is seeing more black bears. What should you do if you see one?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ll start this story with one I’ve told before: the time I “killed” a black bear<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back in 2014, while driving on I-84 in New York, a creature scurried onto the highway at full speed as I approached. I couldn’t do anything but strike the animal head-on and hope traffic around me adjusted. It did, but the animal bounced off my car and nicked another before resting dead on the side of the road.<\/p>\n

I quickly pulled over and called police, and maybe 15 minutes later a state trooper took me back to the scene, revealing a black cub<\/a> who likely had wandered from its parent.<\/p>\n

It’s rare to be responsible for the death of a black bear, but it happens more commonly up north where the black bear population is larger. According to the documentary series Nature<\/a>, black bears exist in around 40 U.S. states, and World Population Review estimates<\/a> higher populations in Alaska, California, Maine, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. There are approximately 7,000 black bears in New York and 20,000 in Pennsylvania, which was close to me when I unfortunately collided with my victim.<\/p>\n

Texas black bear population<\/p>\n

But there aren’t as many in Texas. In fact, World Population Review estimated 75 total in the Lone Star State; if that’s true, I’ve seen about 3 percent of them. That’s because a few years back I stopped mid-trail at Big Bend National Park as a mother and her cub passed to head up the mountain.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The U.S. black bear population is highest in Alaska. Texas? Not so much. (cweimer4\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Those numbers may be changing, though, even if they’re changing slowly. Two black bears were recently born at a West Texas property<\/a>. One particular black bear was spotted in Anderson County in 2025 and seemingly decided to stay in Texas through the winter, as he reappeared last month in East Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The same bear showed up once more, as a game camera captured him knocking over a deer feeder last week in Anderson County, per KLTV in Tyler<\/a>. This doesn’t mean the black bear population is about to explode in East Texas; for one, a bear needs a second bear to make a third, and officials have not spotted that second bear.<\/p>\n

Most black bears in Texas hang out in the Big Bend area<\/a> and breed in five confirmed West Texas counties: Brewster, Crockett, Presidio, Terrell and Val Verde.<\/p>\n

What to do when confronted by a black bear<\/p>\n

The black bear speces is threatened in Texas, meaning it’s against the law to hunt, harass or kill them. Per the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department<\/a>, killing a black bear could result in penalties of up to $10,000, plus more fines, jail time and the loss of hunting privileges. If you do come across a black bear, you should do the following:<\/p>\n

Talk calmly and back away slowly.<\/p>\n

If the bear approaches, appear larger by raising arms and yelling.<\/p>\n

TPWD also recommends contacting its office<\/a> to report the sighting, so the office can keep track of bear movement.<\/p>\n

More News<\/p>\n

High Costs | $100K tuition era arrives for Texas private universities<\/a>
Education | Nelnet student loan settlement data reveals chaotic process<\/a>
Investigations | Where does Houston toll money go? We tried to find out<\/a>
Intel | Only 9 Texas camps show active licenses for summer 2026, data shows<\/a><\/p>\n

For the latest and best from Chron, sign up for our daily newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Texas is seeing more black bears. What should you do if you see one?<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ll start this story with one I’ve told before: the time I “killed” a black bear. Back in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[68459,108391,2604,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-297779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-big-bend-national-park","tag-black-bears","tag-east-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}