By Roger McKinney
news@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. —
A second young, male black bear struck by a vehicle in Newton County since May has been euthanized.
Scott Burger, protection district supervisor for the Missouri Conservation Department, said the most recent incident was Wednesday afternoon a few miles southwest of Neosho on Missouri Highway 59, south of Missouri Highway 86. He said the bear’s back legs were broken in the run-in, and that it likely had spinal and internal injuries.
The first black bear was struck by a vehicle in May near Sarcoxie. Burger said both were males, weighing about 150 pounds each.
“They’re typically the ones that are roaming around, expanding the territory,” Burger said. He said they’re probably coming into Missouri from Arkansas. He said the black bear population in Missouri is increasing, but it’s unclear by how much.
“Every year, it kind of increases a little bit, from expansion from there and probably some reproduction,” he said. “We haven’t released any. It’s just kind of happened naturally.”
He said the Conservation Department started a program this year to try to verify the black bear population and territory. He said the department plans to place radio collars on bears to track them. He said he didn’t think any had been collared yet.
“Our wildlife division folks are doing that,” he said. He said they probably will be collared in Barry and Stone counties, where the bears are thought to be more plentiful, based on public sightings that are called in.
Land of plenty
Until the turn of the 20th century, black bears and other wildlife, including elk, were plentiful in Southwest Missouri, said Scott Burger, protection district supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
