Bears aren't at home on Kansas range - yet

From little lizards to majestic mule deer, Melissa McKinley thought she'd seen every kind of wildlife possible in her rural southwest Kansas yard.

Then a few weeks ago, she looked to see why her dogs were barking.

"I figured it was maybe a rabbit. When I opened the door there was a bear," said McKinley, of rural Morton County. "He seemed pretty content to be there, just sitting in a wagon."

B.J. Thurman, the region's game warden for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, said he has received reports of bears the last 10 years.

Chances are more will wander into Kansas from neighboring states with expanding bear populations.

"We used to think our only population was in southeast Oklahoma," said Joe Hemphill,an Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation biologist. "Now we have a population in the northeast, and we've caught five nuisance bears in northwest Oklahoma in the last month."

In the past year or so, bears were hit by cars in Neosho, Mo. —about 20 miles as the bear rambles from southeast Kansas.

Black bear comeback

Most black bears were wiped out in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma by the early 1900s.

Arkansas reintroduced the species into some mountainous areas about 50 years ago. They've since prospered, multiplied and moved across state lines.

"We get quite a few calls from people with bears getting into their dog's food," Hemphill said, "and it seems like everybody in southeast Oklahoma dumps out some food for some kind of dog. Bears love that free food."

Bear in the