Black bears are slowly recolonizing the lower Mississippi River basin after decades of overhunting
Reported byTennessee Lookout ↗·Sourced by Goodlede
Black bears, once reduced to 12 individuals in Mississippi by 1932 and confined to 10 mountainous Tennessee counties by the 1970s, are now expanding across their historical range in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, with sightings reported across Middle and West Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri.
The recolonization is early and will be gradual; long-term settlement patterns remain to be seen.
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