PEA RIDGE — Training squirrel dogs yielded an unusual experience for Leland Bray recently.

He found his squirrel dogs in training barking at, not squirrels, but an adult black bear.

Bray recently moved to a canvas tent nestled between two hills on a very small piece of his family’s farm near Garfield in order to train his dogs by allowing them to run free and tree squirrels.

The site is secluded in a valley backed up to two hillsides and surrounded by dense forest on three sides. Daily, Bray checks his squirrel feeders set up near his tent. He returned home on the evening of the June 12 and found his dogs in a frenzy.

From the sound of the barking, he knew that the dogs had treed something.

Following the sound to his dogs, Bray expected to see a squirrel, but saw instead an adult black bear.

Not knowing what to do, Bray returned to his vehicle and sought out the help of a neighbor, Timothy Tillman. By the time they returned, the bear had moved from the tree, but had only gonea little ways before being treed again.

“You could tell the bear did not want to have anything to do with the dogs or with us,” Bray said.

The bear remained in the tree, visibly scared and agitated while the dogs continued to bark, Bray said, adding that he and Tillman stood under the tree and watched. After about 20 minutes, they retreated to their vehicles and left.

“I’m not worried (about staying in the tent). I know that if he comes back, the dogs will run him off,” Bray said.

Bears are typically not dangerous in the wild, Bray said, unless confronting a mother and her cubs. The only time bears become dangerous is when they wander into communities, usually searching for food, and lose their fear of humans. A bear in the wild would much rather leave you alone than pick a fight.

The bear has not made a re-appearance. There have been some rumors that a black bear was spotted near Seligman, Mo., a few days after the incident. It seems this black bear may have chosen to move on, as the Bray squirrel dogs musthave been too much to handle. Now, before dreams of bagging a wild dangerous bear cause you to grab your gun and head out the door, check out some facts.

Arkansas’ nickname used to be the “Bear State,” and in the mid-1800s, Arkansas had a black bear population of 50,000. Due to unregulated hunting, the bear population dropped so low by the 1940s that bears had to be reintroduced into Arkansas. Now, the estimated population of black bears in Arkansas is around 5,000.

Despite these statistics, sighting a bear is not a normal occurrence in this area. While it is quite rare to see a bear, it does indicate a very healthy ecosystem.

When an area has large predators like a bear that are able to thrive, it means that there is enough food and that everything in the forest ecosystem is working correctly.

Community, Pages 7 on 07/21/2010