At one point in history thousands of bears roamed the Mississippi forests, but the black bear has been federally listed as a threatened species since 1992. Many veterans of the area's woods and rivers say they've never encountered an actual bear in the wild.
"I wish I could tell you I had," said Roland Lee, who has been manager of McLeod Park on the Jourdan River for 12 years. "I'd like to know if we had them."
Lee added the Stennis Space Center Buffer Zone, with its 125,000 ares, provides ample room for the shy and elusive black bear to roam. But are they really out there?
"Absolutely," said Brad Young, manager of the Black Bear Program for the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks in Jackson. "Without doubt, there are a fairly significant number of bears in the coastal region."
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