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4 ft. Prevent Feeders should Bear be hung at least 8 feet high and Austin, TX 78744 4200 Smith School Road Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Conflicts 4 feet from the attachment point. Keep camps clean to prevent odors that will attract bears.

Discard gut piles far away from campsites. 8 ft. Placing corn in piles in open feeders will attract more bears.

Using an automated feeder hung out of reach of bears will decrease bear visitation.

Switching bait types from corn to soybeans will reduce bear activity.

Planting food plots is the best way to Sweeny Enterprises attract deer and avoid bear visits!

Electric fencing will deter it’s the law! bears while allowing deer access to feeders. Hog hunters, BEWARE! Hogs and bears can look very similar. Know your target! HUNTER’S It is a violation of law to kill a black bear in Texas, with penalties of up EDITION to $12,000, added civil restitution fines, jail time and loss of all hunting privileges. Walt Cotton

To report information that could lead to the arrest of anyone killing a black bear, please call the 24-hour toll-free TPWD Poaching Hotline at 1-800-792-4263 Bill Ford TO REPORT black bear facts A BEAR ENCOUNTER The black bear is a protected and rare Bears den in large, hollow trees, brush in the state of Texas. piles, thickets, rock crevices and caves. Call the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: Male bears weigh 150 to over 350 lbs., Denning bears go into a deep sleep but 1-800-792-1112 and females weigh 120 to 250 lbs. can be aroused if disturbed. Or call your TPWD Regional Office: Male home ranges average 20,000 acres, Females mature at three to five of West Texas (Alpine) (432) 837-2051 while females average 5,000 acres. age and, on average, have two cubs every Chris Wynn Central Texas (Kerrville) (830) 896-2500 other . Denning can start as early and November East Texas (Tyler) (903) 566-1626 and continue until late May. Cubs are born in the den weighing 8 ounces North Texas (Canyon) (806) 651-3012 and will exit the den weighing 4 pounds. IF YOU South Texas (Pleasanton) (830) 569-8700 Confirmed Texas Cubs stay with their mother for 1-1/2 years. ENCOUNTER Frank Van Manen Black Bear Sightings A BEAR 2000–2020 Bears are opportunistic feeders and will eat almost anything that is available. Up to 90 percent of a bear’s diet is NEVER APPROACH A BEAR! vegetable material, which includes nuts, fruits, and plants. Bears are normally shy and not aggressive to humans. Most of the protein in a bear’s diet comes from like beetles, , If a bear regularly visits your deer stand, and . scare it with rocks, a slingshot or air horn. Prime bear includes escape cover, If you encounter a bear at close range, dispersal corridors, diverse foods and dens. talk in a calm manner while backing away For more information: slowly. Do not make direct eye contact. Black DO NOT RUN! This can trigger a bear’s Committee chase instinct. (225) 763-5425 If a bear approaches you, stand your www.bbcc.org ground and raise your arms, backpack PWD BR W7000-1428 (12/20) Adapted from “Bear Safety in Mind – Hunters’s Edition” brochure, ©Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries or jacket to appear larger. Yell at the In accordance with Texas State Depository Law, this publication is available at the bear to scare it off. Texas State Publications Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries. TPWD receives funds from the USFWS. TPWD prohibits discrimina- If attacked, fight back aggressively tion on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, A small bear population is located in age, and gender, pursuant to state and federal law. To request an ac- with anything available. Let the bear commodation or obtain information in an alternative format, please western Texas and a few individual contact TPWD on a Text Telephone (TTY) at (512) 389-8915 or by know you are not easy prey. Relay Texas at 7-1-1 or (800) 735-2989 or by email at accessibility@ bears have been sighted in other parts tpwd.texas.gov. If you believe you have been discriminated against of the state. DO NOT DEAD! by TPWD, please contact TPWD, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744, or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office for Diversity and Workforce Management, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041. Larry Meyers