Drought-hit bears head for Texas urban areas
By Benjamin Wermund; Editing by Karen Brooks and Jerry Norton
29 July 2011 MARFA, Texas (Reuters) – A historic Texas drought is driving bears into urban areas searching for food and water, the latest in a series of bizarre wildlife stories to come out of the deadly hot and dry weather across the nation. Authorities have reported wayward razorbacks in Arkansas digging through flower beds, and bats changing their nightly flight patterns in Austin, Texas. High temperatures and stifling humidity in the Midwest have killed thousands of cattle in the Dakotas and Nebraska. In far West Texas, the bears have been lumbering out of their normal habitats for more than one reason. With fires scorching black bear ranges in the mountains of Far West Texas and Northern Mexico, and extreme drought making it difficult to find water and food, the usually reclusive beasts have been on the move this summer — making their way into towns and cities increasingly. “They’re going to where they need to,” said Louis Harveson, a Sul Ross State University professor of wildlife management who directs the school’s Borderlands Research Institute. “They’re scavengers — they’re basically an oversized raccoon.” And where bears need to go is where the food is, be it dumpsters, gardens or, as in one west Texas resident’s case, bird feeders. […] There have been 13 black bear sightings in west Texas since May 31, according to Jonah Evans, a Texas Parks and Wildlife diversity biologist for the Trans-Pecos region in charge of tracking bear sightings in the area. In all of 2010, he said, there was only one reported sighting. […] Harveson said. “They (hunters) used to hunt in the Davis Mountains and harvest eight a day.” The hunting, among other factors, drove the bears to near extinction in Texas, where they are still a protected species. […]
