LIVINGSTON PARISH, La. (Louisiana First) — Livingston Parish residents report seeing more bears in their neighborhoods over the last couple of months. Experts with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) and the Baton Rouge Zoo attribute this to seasonal movements and more residential construction.
The Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office reported a sighting in Holden back on April 23. Since then, people in Watson, Walker, and Holden have taken to social media to share photos of bears. Some were in people’s yards.
“They’re trying to find food, they’re in a brand new place, they don’t know where they are,” said Jennifer Shields, the Baton Rouge Zoo Education Coordinator. “They’re going to take the easiest thing they can find.”
Shields said most sightings during the spring and summer months involve young, male cubs that are looking for new territory and food after being sent out into the world.
“They’re omnivores,” Shields said. “They’re going to eat anything they can get.”
In Holden, a ring doorbell camera owned by Richard Sticker captured a black bear rooting through the trash earlier this month. It appeared to grab something before running off.
On May 12, neighbor Joshua Groce said his trail camera captured a bear lingering around his deer feeder for around an hour and a half. The bear scooped some corn out before lying down and taking a nap right under the feeder.
Bear boom: livingston parish neighborhoods see surge in sightings 1
“There’re a few pictures of him sitting up looking at the feeder,” Groce said. “That picture that got you and me in touch was him sitting down, taking a nap, passed out sleeping good, I guess.”
Groce said he has been in the area for around 12 years, and he’s seen all kinds of animals.
“I’ve seen Hogs, deer, coons, but I’ve never seen bears,” Groce said.
“There have been black bears here for a millennia, probably,” said John Hanks, Large Carnivore Program Manager for LDWF. “About 85, 90% of those bears are in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and the Atchafalaya River Basin.”
Hanks said the geographical population area means places like Livingston Parish are ripe for sightings.
“If you’re in Livingston Parish or East Baton Rouge, you’re probably getting a little spill over from those Atchafalaya Basin bears,” Hanks said.
Hanks said there are more bears than there were even a couple of decades ago, and it prompted a small hunting season to start in 2024. Last year was the first black bear hunting season since the late 1980s, and it’s set to expand.
People who shoot a bear on their property could face serious consequences, including fines, revoked hunting privileges, and even jail time.
“It’s just like seeing a deer or raccoon or anything else,” Hanks said. “If you’re having problems with a bear, you need to contact your local Wildlife and Fisheries office.”
Hanks said securing garbage and pet food will deter bears from showing up at a person’s doorstep. Bears have a quality sense of smell, so they can detect food in a trash can from a considerable distance away. Keeping bear spray safely somewhere in the home can also be a good idea, Hanks said.
“If you have chicken coops or beehives or something like that, I’d recommend you get an electric fence,” Hanks said. “You can solve about 90% of your problems with an electric fence.”
Hanks and Shields said if you encounter a bear, make yourself “big,” meaning get loud and alert the bear of your presence. Bears are more frightened of humans than the other way around.
Groce said some people who live near him want LDWF to come in and remove the bears. He said he has the opposite perspective. He wants more bears to come around—adding ongoing construction is shrinking the bears’ home territory.
“We’re taking their homes away, and they have to go somewhere,” Groce said. “They don’t bother us. We have cows and chickens at the house, and they don’t bother them.”
Groce said he plans to put more food out to attract the bears and give them a habitable place to stop. He said he wants his children to enjoy the animals around them.
“If I can keep the wildlife back here for them, that makes me happy,” Groce said.
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