ARKANSAS, USA — 'Tis the season, and not just for the holidays.
For our neighbors to the south, there's a new option for hunting— not ducks or deer, but bears.
"But this is actually a new, exciting chapter for Arkansas bear hunting," Randy Zellers with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. said.
According to officials, there are now enough bears to be able to hunt in new areas of the state.
"As that population has expanded, we've been able to put some constraints on hunting season to make it possible for hunters to enjoy hunting in South Arkansas," Zellers said.
Zellers also explained that this isn't an uncommon thing. In fact, our neighbors to the north have been able to hunt bears for decades.
"Bear hunting has gone on in Arkansas since 1980," he said. "We were able to do that because we were able to restock bears years ago in the north part of the state."
That population growth is part of what's led to a dedicated season in two new zones in South Arkansas.
Zones 3 and 4 have bag limits of 5 and 25, respectively.
As of Monday morning, Zellers said that Arkansans have already harvested 23 bears.
"We weren't sure if this season was gonna last one day, one weekend, or one week," he said. "So to see it spread out over a few days to give hunters a little more opportunity to get out there, it's been very, very positive."
While it may be a new option for hunters in South Arkansas, Zellers explained that this goes beyond that. They'll also be using this to track where the bear population is— one that was almost gone from Arkansas not long ago.
"It can really give us some very valuable data as this bear zone expands," Zellers said. "As the bear population continues to expand, we want to be able to track and see how things are going."
Modern gun bear hunting in Zones 3 and 4 will run until December 16 or the morning after the quota is reached, whichever comes first.