![\"Black](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CIABC6PPPZEJHOD3BN7N3SCSFU.jfif.jpeg\")
Black bear spotted in Anderson County(Landon Cruseturner)<\/p>\nEAST TEXAS, (KLTV) – An American black bear spotted in Cherokee and Anderson counties may be the first to spend the winter in East Texas in over 50 years. <\/p>\n
Texas Parks and Wildlife said they have been following the bear\u2019s activity since July 2025, including his recent appearances at deer feeders in the East Texas area.<\/p>\n
The history of the East Texas black bear<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to verified reports from the public, we believe this bear successfully overwintered along the Neches River corridor. If so, this would be the first documented black bear to overwinter in East Texas in over 50 years!\u201d TPWD said in a post. <\/p>\n
The sighting of a black bear in East Texas, is not the first time and is not just any random bear; this one has been coming back and has kind of made East Texas its home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe suspect this is the same male we\u2019ve been tracking since July of last year,\u201d says Reuben Gay, the district Wildlife Biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.<\/p>\n
He has been following this bear\u2019s tracks since the beginning. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to have it here,\u201d says Reuben. \u201cEvery day it\u2019s like you\u2019re just waiting on that call, whether a new encounter, new observation, so we can get, hopefully get some more data on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, there was a total of 55 sightings of just this one bear.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecember 15, the start of Hanukkah, was when we had our last photo of the bear on the other side of the river in Maydelle,\u201d says Reuben.<\/p>\n
Before reports of sightings this month, Reuben says they had not had any photos or confirmed encounters of the bear since Jan. 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome game wardens and sheriffs came across some fresh bear tracks,\u201d says Reuben.<\/p>\n
Since then, this bear has now appeared four times this month alone.<\/p>\n
It first showed up south of the Salem area along McCann creek on April 2.<\/p>\n
Then a few days later, on April 6, it was spotted again west of Rusk near Highway 294 and the Neches River. <\/p>\n
After that, more photos came in on April 11 and April 13 from the same area near Ioni Creek in Southeast Anderson County.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we suspect that it\u2019s roughly probably about 200 pounds,\u201d says Reuben. \u201cIt should reach adulthood this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
With summer approaching soon, the bear might decide to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could go back to where there\u2019s other bear populations in Louisiana, Arkansas, or Eastern Oklahoma.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or maybe even stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could stay here, you know, where it\u2019s found its new home, it seems,\u201d says Reuben.<\/p>\n
They said the bear is young, but growing fast and could be fully mature by mid-summer. They project the bear may be heading toward Louisiana, Arkansas or Oklahoma in search of a mate. <\/p>\n
\u201cBased off reports, this bear is still shy and afraid of humans,\u201d TPWD said, asking the public to report any sightings to a county biologist or game warden<\/p>\n
If you see a black bear, report it to this number: 903-566-1626 ext. 2406.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a violation of federal and state law to kill, harass, or harm an American Black Bear. <\/p>\n
Penalties are up to $12,000 and possible jail time. <\/p>\n
Black bear spotted in Anderson County(Landon Cruseturner)<\/p>\n
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Black bears are a protected species in Texas. Click here<\/a> or here<\/a> for more resources. <\/p>\n RELATED: <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 KLTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAST TEXAS, (KLTV) – An American black bear spotted in Cherokee and Anderson counties may be the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[7438,16638,8324,257488,79,1022,162470,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-589399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bear","9":"tag-black-bear","10":"tag-east","11":"tag-east-teaxas","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tpwd","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}