‘Getting way out of hand:’ Black bear hunting season in La. could begin in 2024

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A lot of people are catching black bears on camera, and they’re even in places they shouldn’t be like a front yard.

It’s a rise in encounters that has the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries mulling an idea to open a limited black bear hunting season in some parts of the state.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission adopted a Notice of Intent to hold a Louisiana black bear hunting season in December of 2024 in northeast Louisiana. The action came during the commission’s November meeting Thursday (Nov. 2) in Baton Rouge.

But some local hunters believe that South Louisiana parishes should be included as well.

Imagine getting up in a deer stand then all of a sudden you see a bear looking up at you.

“After a while, I felt the ladder shake, I looked down and the bear was down there at the ladder, which it’s not a big deal, it happens all the time,” said Launce Moore, a hunter from Pointe Coupee Parish.

It was opening weekend of primitive firearms up in Morganza when the encounter took place between Launce Moore and a bear.

“I turned the phone off and I opened the door, so when he got up, I just slapped him on the nose and he went back down. No harm no foul,” he said.

“You slapped a bear on the nose,” questioned WAFB’s Lester Duhe’.

“Well, I’m not going to let him get in the stand with me. It wasn’t a big one,” said Moore.

You may not want to try that one at home.

Moore says Louisiana black bears are becoming way too common in Pointe Coupee and other neighboring parishes as well.

“Every time we go to the woods and the neighboring properties whenever they go to the woods, you’ll see three, four, or five sometimes. It’s all throughout Pointe Coupee Parish, a lot of your pecan farmers have problems with bears, people have problems with bears in their yards now, and it’s just getting way out of hand,” said Moore.

Because of the increase in population of the Louisiana black bear, there could likely be a season to hunt the animals at the end of 2024.

“The first season if it did occur, would be in a defined area in Northeast Louisiana. Basically, Madison and Tensas, East Carroll and West Carroll, a portion of the state only,” said Scott Durham, a wildlife administrator with LDWF.

Durham says the state hasn’t hunted bears since the 1980s, so that’s why they want to take things kind of slow with this process. Under the proposal, there would only be 10 bears allowed to be harvested in the entire state to begin with.

“So, we wanted to start off very conservatively,” he said.

But hunters like Moore believe that other areas of Louisiana should be able to hunt the bears as well.

“A lot of hunters are griping and griping about it, and griping and griping to the point where they just want to give up. But they’re also scared to do anything about it because they’re scared of repercussions,” said Moore.

“Pointe Coupee could see a bear season, we would like to have one there if our harvest data allows it. So, that is another part of the state that we would consider,” said Durham.

All of the hunters would have to take a training class, there would be mandatory reporting, certain weapon restrictions, and officials want all the meat to be consumed.

“An average bear can actually produce enough meat for 200 meals,” said Durham.

According to LDWF, cubs and females with cubs are not legal to harvest. A cub is defined as any bear less than or equal to 75 pounds. According to the NOI (notice of intent), the number of bear harvest permits issued will be determined based on Bear Area specific population estimates and vital rate data acquired at regular intervals.

Hunts will be restricted to properly licensed Louisiana residents by lottery. All successful applicants for the hunt will be required to attend an LDWF bear hunter training course.

But Moore something needs to be done to prevent the black bear population from growing even larger in the future.

“It’s beginning to be a pain in the behind to try and deer hunt, and we’re paying to deer hunt, we’re not paying to raise bears, we’re paying to deer hunt,” said Moore.

The proposed black bear hunting season would begin on Dec. 7, 2024, and run through Dec. 22, 2024.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission should make a final decision on the specifics of the season at their meeting in February.

Public comment on the NOI will be accepted through Feb. 5, 2024, at 4 p.m. and can be submitted to LDWF Large Carnivore Program Manager John Hanks at jhanks@wlf.la.gov or 318-343-8325.

To see the complete NOI, click here.

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