It’s Hard to Say “Black Bear”
By Dana Goolsby
ETX- In my ETX travels I meet many people and I hear a lot of great tales. Last week I met someone (who wishes to remain anonymous) in Houston County, who told me about something he had seen recently near his home while walking the family dog. While he had a pretty good description of the creature in question, he just wasn’t willing to say, “I saw a black bear.”
The gentleman and I were discussing a tract of land, and making reference to a nearby fence line. He noted that he rarely, if ever, saw deer on the property, and then he paused.
“But the other day I saw something out here. I was walking our dog and just happened to glance over toward the fence line and I saw something,” he said.
I could tell he was hesitant to tell me what he had seen because he paused and ducked his head.
“If you saw a big, black, furry animal with no tail, sort of loping away, what would you think it was?”
My mind went immediately to “black bear,” but of course I could not be certain. I have never personally seen a black bear in the wild, but I hope to one day. Black bears have been making a slow and natural return to East Texas for a few years.
I smiled and told him it sounded like he could have possibly laid eyes on a black bear.
“I just can’t say that I saw a black bear. I have lived hear all my life and have never seen one.”
I explained that black bears had been migrating back into East Texas over the past several years and that it wasn’t impossible. I asked if he happened to see any other part of the animal in question, but he said he had not.
“I know it wasn’t a dog, or a hog. I know it wasn’t a cow” he said, and went on to name several other species of which he did not believe the animal to be.
In fact, the only animal he didn’t say that he knew that it wasn’t, was a black bear.
“I didn’t move because I didn’t know if it saw me if it would come back towards me. But he never stopped and never looked back,” he said.
The man explained that after the animal was out of sight he quickly returned to his house and told his sister who happened to be visiting at the time. They got into their vehicle and drove out into the pasture hoping to catch another glimpse of the “big, black, furry animal with no tail.”
“We never saw it again, and I guess that was for the best since we were in such a rush and panic that we didn’t bring any sort of camera with us. Neither if us even had our phones,” he said.
Read more about the black bears return to Texas HERE.
Have you seen a black bear in East Texas? MYETX wants to hear from you! Email our team today at [email protected].