Texas has a small but growing population of American black bears, with the species now confirmed as actively reproducing in at least four mountain regions in the western part of the state and reported in as many as 70 counties statewide. There are no grizzly bears left in Texas, and no reliable single count pinpoints the exact total number of black bears, partly because the animals roam across a vast, rugged landscape that straddles the U.S.–Mexico border. The story of bears in Texas is really a story of disappearance and slow return, shaped by isolation, desert corridors, and the surprising resilience of an animal many Texans assumed was long gone.
A State That Lost Its Bears
Texas once had two bear species. Grizzly bears ranged into the mountainous Trans-Pecos region of far West Texas, and black bears occupied forested and semi-arid habitat across much of the state. Both were hunted aggressively through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The last documented grizzly in Texas was killed by a rancher near Fort Davis around 1900, and that single record marks the only confirmed grizzly specimen from the state.1Oxford Academic (Journal of Mammalogy). Texas Natural History in the 21st Century Black bears hung on longer but fared little better. By the mid-twentieth century, unregulated hunting, trapping, and habitat conversion had effectively wiped them out. As recently as 2002, the species was considered extinct within Texas borders.1Oxford Academic (Journal of Mammalogy). Texas Natural History in the 21st Century
That declaration of extinction turned out to be premature. Bears had not vanished from the broader region. Populations in the Sierra del Carmen, Sierra Madre Oriental, and other mountain ranges of northern Mexico endured, and from those strongholds, individual bears began crossing back into Texas through desert corridors. By the late 1980s, sightings in the Big Bend area were no longer just rumors.
How Bears Came Back to West Texas
The black bears now living in the Trans-Pecos region of western Texas are not descendants of a remnant Texas population that survived in hiding. Genetic studies have traced them to source populations in the mountain ranges of Coahuila and Nuevo León in northern Mexico. After more than 40 years of absence, bears recolonized parts of their former range in Trans-Pecos by moving northward through desert corridors that connect Mexican mountain “islands” to similar habitat on the Texas side of the border.2Conservation Genetics. Genetic structure of American black bears in the desert southwest of North America: conservation implications for recolonization
This recolonization has not been a flood. Gene flow between Mexican populations and the Texas bears is episodic and slow. Researchers analyzing mitochondrial DNA found that female-mediated gene flow proceeds at roughly half an individual per generation, and that the Mexico–Texas bear populations are connected by restricted gene flow shaped by isolation by distance. In plainer terms, bears move between mountain ranges, but not often and not easily.3Journal of Mammalogy. Phylogeographic Patterns within a Metapopulation of Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in the American Southwest The genetic diversity within any single site is low, even though the overall system maintains moderate genetic structure because different mountain pockets get their bears from slightly different Mexican source populations.2Conservation Genetics. Genetic structure of American black bears in the desert southwest of North America: conservation implications for recolonization
This origin story matters for conservation. Texas bears are not self-sustaining in the way that a large, isolated population in, say, the Appalachians might be. They depend on continued connectivity with Mexico. Anything that severs those desert corridors threatens the long-term genetic health, and possibly the survival, of the Texas population.
Where Black Bears Live in Texas Today
The core of the Texas bear population is concentrated in the Trans-Pecos, the vast desert-and-mountain region west of the Pecos River. This area includes Big Bend National Park, Big Bend Ranch State Park, and the surrounding mountain ranges like the Chisos, Davis, Glass, Chinati, and Guadalupe mountains. Bears in these areas use a patchwork of habitats that includes oak-juniper woodlands at higher elevations and, surprisingly, lowland desert scrub.
One of the more striking findings in recent years is the presence of a reproductively viable population of black bears in the Solitario, a collapsed volcanic formation within Big Bend Ranch State Park. A camera-trap study running over six and a half years documented persistent breeding activity in what is essentially low-elevation Chihuahuan Desert scrub, not the mountain woodland habitat most people associate with bears. The Solitario’s complex topography and reliable water sources in the form of tinajas, which are natural rock pools that hold water after rains, apparently provide enough resources for bears to raise cubs at elevations well below the typical comfort zone.4Western North American Naturalist. Reproductively Viable Population of American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in Lowland Chihuahuan Desert Habitat of Trans-Pecos Texas This population is considered the westernmost reproductively viable group in the Trans-Pecos and the only one situated entirely in lowland desert habitat.
Habitat modeling across the Trans-Pecos has helped clarify what the bears are looking for. Their probability of occurrence increases with elevation, proximity to water, and steeper terrain. They tend to avoid bare ground, open grasslands, and agricultural areas.5Canadian Field-Naturalist. Habitat-Distribution Modeling of a Recolonizing Black Bear, Ursus americanus, Population in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas Southern-facing slopes and areas with more topographic complexity also seem to attract bears, likely because those features provide thermal cover and food resources in an otherwise harsh environment. The model’s accuracy was high, correctly predicting bear presence in over 93% of known sighting locations.5Canadian Field-Naturalist. Habitat-Distribution Modeling of a Recolonizing Black Bear, Ursus americanus, Population in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas
How Fragile the Population Really Is
Bear numbers in any one area of West Texas can swing dramatically. The best-documented example comes from a long-term study in the region that tracked a population growing from a single known breeding pair in 1988 to 29 bears, including six breeding-age females, by March 2000. That is a growth rate of about 25% per year, which sounds encouraging until you learn what happened next. Between August and December of that same year, a mass dispersal event scattered the population. Bears left the study area in every direction, with females averaging about 76 kilometers of one-way travel and males averaging about 92 kilometers. Three individuals moved at least 154, 178, and 214 kilometers respectively. After the dust settled, only two adult females and perhaps five to seven individuals remained.6Biological Conservation. Dynamics of a black bear population within a desert metapopulation
The likely cause of that dispersal was a failure in the regional food supply, probably tied to drought. Desert bears live on the edge of what the landscape can support. When mast crops fail or prickly pear fruit is scarce, bears move, sometimes over astonishing distances. This boom-and-bust pattern is characteristic of a metapopulation, where local groups rise and fall but the overall system persists because animals can recolonize empty patches from neighboring ones. It also means that any snapshot of bear numbers in a specific Texas mountain range can be wildly misleading. A thriving local group one year can be functionally gone the next.
Beyond the Trans-Pecos
While West Texas gets most of the attention, bears occasionally turn up far from their Trans-Pecos stronghold. Sighting reports have come from across the state, and researchers have noted that the distribution may be expanding in some areas.7Western North American Naturalist. Updating the Distribution of American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in Texas Using Community Science, State Agencies, and Natural History Collections Community science reports, state agency records, and natural history collections have all been tapped to try to piece together where bears are showing up, because formal surveys across such a large state are expensive and logistically difficult.7Western North American Naturalist. Updating the Distribution of American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in Texas Using Community Science, State Agencies, and Natural History Collections
East Texas represents a different chapter in the bear story. The Louisiana black bear, a subspecies of the American black bear, historically occupied the bottomland hardwood forests of the Gulf Coast from Louisiana through East Texas. Those forests have been heavily logged and fragmented, but some remain. Habitat modeling of a roughly 43,500-square-kilometer recovery zone in southeastern Texas found that less than 1% of the area qualified as highly suitable for bears, and about 16% was moderately suitable. The remaining 84% was marginal or unsuitable.8The Journal of Wildlife Management. Using GIS‐based, regional extent habitat suitability modeling to identify conservation priority areas: A case study of the Louisiana black bear in east Texas Still, researchers identified four potential recovery units of more than 20,700 hectares each that could theoretically sustain viable bear populations if the habitat were managed properly.8The Journal of Wildlife Management. Using GIS‐based, regional extent habitat suitability modeling to identify conservation priority areas: A case study of the Louisiana black bear in east Texas
Louisiana’s own bear population has been recovering and expanding westward, which raises the possibility that bears could naturally recolonize East Texas from the east, mirroring what happened in the Trans-Pecos from the south. But that process is far from guaranteed. The habitat in between is a gauntlet of highways, agriculture, and development.
Roads, Fences, and Connectivity Pinch Points
For a species that needs to move long distances to find mates, food, and new territory, the landscape between suitable habitat patches matters as much as the patches themselves. Research on regional connectivity for recolonizing black bears in the south-central United States has identified highways as semi-permeable barriers. Bears can and do cross roads, but highways intersect several connectivity pinch points where bear movement is funneled through narrow corridors.9Biological Conservation. Regional connectivity for recolonizing American black bears (Ursus americanus) in southcentral USA If a bear is trying to move from one mountain range to another, or from a national forest to a river bottom, it often has to cross a stretch of open, developed land. High-traffic roads in those bottlenecks can slow or prevent dispersal.
The practical recommendations from connectivity research focus on maintaining forest cover, preserving riparian buffers along rivers and creeks that serve as natural travel routes, and installing highway mitigation features like wildlife crossings at identified pinch points.9Biological Conservation. Regional connectivity for recolonizing American black bears (Ursus americanus) in southcentral USA In the Trans-Pecos, the border region adds another variable. The bears recolonizing Texas depend on movement from Mexico, so any infrastructure along the international boundary that blocks wildlife corridors could have outsized effects on a population that is already genetically thin.
What “70 Counties” Actually Means
The figure that black bears may be present in as many as 70 Texas counties sounds dramatic, but it needs context. “Present” does not mean “living there permanently.” Many of those county records likely reflect wandering individuals, especially young males dispersing from established populations in search of their own territory. A single bear passing through Kerr County or being spotted on a ranch in the Edwards Plateau does not mean that county has a bear population. It means a bear walked through.
The distinction matters because it shapes expectations. Texas is not on the verge of having bears everywhere. The reproducing populations are concentrated in a handful of mountain ranges and protected areas in the Trans-Pecos, with the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park being the most well-known and the Solitario in Big Bend Ranch State Park being the most ecologically surprising. The sightings elsewhere reflect the species’ natural tendency to explore and disperse, especially during food shortages, but they do not yet represent established, self-sustaining groups outside the Trans-Pecos.
That said, the geographic spread of sightings is itself meaningful for conservation planning. It suggests that bears are testing the landscape, probing corridors, and occasionally finding pockets of habitat that work. If the right conditions align, what is currently a wandering individual could become the founder of a new local population. That is, after all, exactly how the Trans-Pecos was recolonized in the first place.
Why Nobody Can Give You an Exact Number
If you are looking for a headline figure like “Texas has 350 bears,” you will not find a reliable one. There are several reasons for this. Black bears in Texas live at low densities across enormous, remote terrain. The Trans-Pecos alone covers roughly 30,000 square miles of desert, mountains, and ranchland, much of it private and difficult to access. Traditional survey methods like mark-recapture trapping are expensive and cover limited areas. Camera traps and hair snares provide presence data and can confirm breeding, but extrapolating from those to a total population count requires assumptions about bear density and home range size that may not hold in such variable habitat.
The metapopulation dynamics described earlier make counting even harder. A local population of 29 bears can crash to five in a single season. Bears that leave one area may show up in another, or they may cross into Mexico and not come back for years. The population is not a fixed number sitting in one place. It is a shifting, interconnected web of small groups and solitary wanderers spread across two countries.
What researchers can say with confidence is that multiple breeding populations exist in the Trans-Pecos, that bears are documented more widely now than they were two decades ago, and that the trajectory is generally upward compared to the near-total absence of the mid-twentieth century. The combination of community science reports and agency records has helped fill in the map, even if precise counts remain elusive.7Western North American Naturalist. Updating the Distribution of American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in Texas Using Community Science, State Agencies, and Natural History Collections
Living with Bears in a State That Forgot It Had Them
Texas classified the black bear as a state-threatened species, which means it is illegal to hunt, harass, or kill one. Because most Texans have never seen a bear and many do not realize the state has any, encounters can produce reactions ranging from excitement to panic. In the Trans-Pecos, ranchers and rural residents are the most likely to cross paths with bears, particularly during drought years when food scarcity pushes bears into lower elevations and closer to human activity.
The basics of bear coexistence are similar regardless of geography. Securing garbage, not leaving pet food outdoors, and removing bird feeders during active bear seasons reduce the chances of habituating a bear to human food sources, which is the single biggest predictor of conflict. In Big Bend National Park, bear-proof food storage has been standard for years, and the park serves as a de facto refuge where bears can live with minimal human conflict.
Private land is a different story. The Trans-Pecos is overwhelmingly private ranchland, and bears moving between mountain ranges inevitably cross private property. Landowner attitudes toward bears vary, and the willingness of ranchers to tolerate bears on their land is a genuine factor in whether the species can continue expanding. Unlike states with long bear-hunting traditions and established management frameworks, Texas is still in the early stages of figuring out how to manage a species that most people thought was gone for good.
Desert Bears and Climate
Black bears in the Trans-Pecos are desert-edge animals, pushing the limits of what the species can tolerate in terms of heat and aridity. The Solitario population’s reliance on tinajas for water highlights how precarious the resource base can be.4Western North American Naturalist. Reproductively Viable Population of American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in Lowland Chihuahuan Desert Habitat of Trans-Pecos Texas Tinajas are not permanent streams; they are rock depressions that fill during rain and slowly evaporate. A prolonged drought can empty them entirely, removing a resource that bears in higher-elevation forest habitat would never need to worry about.
The food supply is similarly drought-sensitive. Prickly pear cactus fruit, sotol, acorns, and juniper berries all fluctuate with rainfall. The mass dispersal event documented in 2000, when a population of 29 bears collapsed to as few as five, is a preview of what extended drought can do.6Biological Conservation. Dynamics of a black bear population within a desert metapopulation If climate trends push the Trans-Pecos toward hotter and drier conditions, the carrying capacity for bears in the region could shrink even as the species tries to expand. The bears’ future in Texas depends not only on whether corridors stay open and humans remain tolerant, but on whether the desert itself continues to provide enough food and water to keep them alive.