LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — A female black bear sporting an awfully trendy tracking collar has been spotted frequently in the Camdenton area, and the Missouri Department of Conservation says she’s pretty unique.
“This bear is particularly interesting,” said local conservation agent Tyler Brown. He says the department is “able to verify that this is the northernmost female—confirmed—that we’ve had [in Missouri].” The sow was spotted on Wednesday, July 12 by local resident Randy Shelton. She was in his back yard, around Highway D and Audrey Bell Road, southwest of Camdenton and just outside Ha Ha Tonka State Park. She came to the Lake by way of Laclede County: Brown noted she was trapped by conservationists in Lebanon just a few weeks ago. She’d found her way into town and was up a tree in a populated neighborhood.
photo courtesy of Johnna Ingham
They relocated her to rural Laclede County, and a LakeExpo.com reader says she spotted the bear west of Bennett Springs on July 3. Soon the sow found herself at the most popular recreational lake in the country, wandering around the fourth most popular state park in the country. This bear has good taste.
photo courtesy Randy Shelton
But Brown reminds residents that her taste could ultimately be her downfall, and locals can help ensure she stays safe, happy, and a good distance away from people. Residents should do everything they can to keep outdoor food sources secure, he says. That means bird feeders, trash cans, and cat or dog food bags: if they’re put away or secured, bears will forage for food elsewhere. It is blackberry season, after all.
“A fed bear is a dead bear,” Brown stressed. Once a bear gets accustomed to finding food from human sources, there’s no going back. Brown said even if the bear is relocated into rural areas, it will always find its way back to homes… and garbage cans… and bird feeders.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) confirms that a black be…
This certainly isn’t the first black bear sighting at the Lake—they’re on the rise in recent years, and the community was buzzing about a male black bear who was spotted lounging in an Osage Beach neighborhood tree last summer. Not all bears wear tracking collars, of course, and the female who has been wandering around the Ha Ha Tonka area is the only one being tracked at the Lake. Click here to view MDC's bear tracking map—though it's got a substantial delay of a week or more (Brown pointed out it wouldn't be good for the growing bear population if people were able to track them in real time).
Black Bear at Lake of the Ozarks [PHOTOS]
Lake Shots Photography captured this image an American Black Bear during a sighting and confrontation on Saturday, June 25, near the Grand Glaize Bridge in Osage Beach, Mo.
Photography by Lake Shots Photography
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Sightings are sparse, and it will likely be awhile before local residents and visitors spot a whole sleuth of bears, but Brown says this she-bear could be the start of something big at the Lake. She’s three years old, just approaching sexual maturity, so it’s possible she is looking for a place to settle down—and a mate. Missouri’s Ozark (southwest) region has a sizeable black bear population, with several hundred that the MDC knows of. And it appears those bears are slowly moving north, reaching the edge of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Time will tell if they find the good life at the Lake, and whether local residents and visitors are willing to live alongside them.
