{"id":719997,"date":"2026-06-22T22:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/719997\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T22:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:30:08","slug":"why-black-bears-are-appearing-in-coast-neighborhoods-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/719997\/","title":{"rendered":"Why black bears are appearing in Coast neighborhoods now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several reports of black bear sightings<\/a> in residential areas across the Coast have spread on social media following last week\u2019s torrential rainfall.<\/p>\n

With sightings reported in Biloxi, Bay St. Louis and Gulfport, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is urging residents to take precautions.<\/p>\n

Black bear program leader Anthony Ballard said items such as dog food, bird feeders, trash cans and grills can attract bears into neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask that you pick up any sort of attractants,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cA bear has a sense of smell about seven times better than a bloodhound. So anything that a dog can find, a bear can find even better,\u201d Ballard said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ballard said it\u2019s important to maintain a safe distance and remain calm during an encounter. Black bears are not typically aggressive, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure you give it room to escape where it is, to have an avenue to get away and just keep your distance,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cAny kind of wildlife can be dangerous, but black bears are not going to seek out any kind of conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mississippi\u2019s black bear population is growing, including in Coast counties. Ballard said May and June often bring increased bear activity because of the bears\u2019 life cycle and mating behaviors.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a lot of the young males that are making their way in the world for the first time, and then you have bigger males that are covering more ground and seeking out breeding opportunities,\u201d Ballard said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ballard said Tropical Storm Arthur may also be a factor in the increased reports. Between Friday and Sunday, Jackson County alone recorded 20 inches of rainfall, with wind gusts up to 78 mph across the Coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s less available ground, because there\u2019s more of it that\u2019s flooded, you can definitely see some bears, or any wildlife for that matter, pushed up into areas where they have less cover,\u201d Ballard said.<\/p>\n

Coast residents also may be more likely to report sightings because bears are less common in the region, Ballard said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s in an area like the Coast, they get reported by basically everybody that sees them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aggressive bear behavior should be reported to 1-800-BE-SMART, Ballard said. Nonaggressive sightings can be reported on the department\u2019s website<\/a> and on the Mississippi Black Bears Facebook page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several reports of black bear sightings in residential areas across the Coast have spread on social media following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-719997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719997","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=719997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}