Thursday Marks A First Ever For Black Bears In Louisiana

While the odds of winning tonight's Mega Millions $575 million jackpot are incredibly less, hunters will soon have the chance at a lottery of their own.

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The black bear population in Louisiana has returned to a level where Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries felt there was need for population reduction, so starting this Thursday, August 29, Louisiana will open a "lottery" to issue permits for legal bear harvesting.

While Louisiana permitted the hunting of black bears until 1988, when it was banned, this Thursday will be the first-ever lottery to permit a select few hunters to participate in the first legal bear hunting in thirty seven years.

In an interview with the Louisiana Radio Network, new Louisiana Secretary of Wildlife and Fisheries, Madison Sheahan, says that after many years of successful restocking of black bears in Louisiana, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed black bears from the endangered list in 2016.

Sheahan said, “This is a huge conservation success story, not only of the people of Louisiana, but also nationally to be able to get something off of the endangered list and back into a hunting season.”

While many Louisiana residents who have had their property destroyed by black bears felt as though Louisiana is being too entirely too conservative in issuing only ten permits for this lottery, others feel as though it's still a step in the right direction.

Of these ten black bear permits, their issuing will come in three different ways. Sheahan says, "There’s our Wildlife Management Area tags, we have our private landowner tags to really thank those private landowners that have been able to help us through this conservation success story, as well as general public tags.”

The lottery hunts will only take place in Bear Management Area 4 which is in northeast Louisiana and includes Tensas, Madison, East Carroll and West Carroll parishes. The special season will run for 16 consecutive days, beginning December 7 and concluding on December 22.

For those interested in participating in the lottery, the application fee is $50, which will go into the black bear management accounts.

If selected, those licensed Louisiana hunters will need to attend a training course. According to Sheahan, “On November 2nd or the 14th, you’ll have to go through the training and that’s in partnership with our department, and Safari Club International has been helping us out on that.”

For more information or to register for the lottery go HERE to wlf.louisiana.gov