With Memorial Day weekend upon us MDC re-issued a link to their article on staying safe when hiking in black bear country.
Here’s the link to the article: Camping in Black Bear Country.
Just in case you don’t think there are black bears in the woods of the Ozarks
The above map comes from the Missouri Black Bear Project which aims to quantify the number of bears in the state of Missouri so that a comprehensive management strategy can be developed. Bears in 23 southern Missouri counties have been trapped and fitted with GPS collars. Some of these bears’ tracks are shown on the website. You can select an individual bear and follow its trail on a map. We were amazed to find that bears regularly visit areas where we hike!
You’ll need to enable ‘pop-ups’ in your browser if you want to see the tracks.
You can also check out this link to a map of bear sightings.
Wow, the read bear really gets around. Thanks for sharing this. I never really thought about how far bears traveled in a given day but this puts it in perspective.
We were surprised to see bears near where we hike and backpack! So maybe it is a good idea to keep putting our food and trash up in the trees! I don’t know if you tried this – but on the website you can select to track an individual bear and see exactly where it went.