Black bear may have been sighted in Erath

ERATH - There may have been a Louisiana black bear siting in Erath earlier this week.

Telisa Legé, who works for the Vermilion Parish School Board and was on break because of the Easter holidays, was ironing her clothes in her house, when she looked out the back window and saw something black walking in her back yard.

At first she thought it was a black cougar. She stopped ironing and went in search of her camera to take a photo of what she saw because she knew no one would believe her.

She took a picture of it and then called her brother Kevin Bernard, who was in Abbeville. Her husband, Tim, was in New Iberia at the time.

Right after she took a quick photo of it, the bear went into the woods behind her home. She lives on the old La. 14 highway not far from Pappy’s Texaco gas station.

“I didn’t get scared because the bear was walking in the opposite direction,” Legé said.

The photo came out blurry and was hard to determine if it was a bear or not. After her husband looked at the photo when he returned, he went search the woods with a shovel But he spotted no bear or paw prints.

Tim, a teacher at Erath Middle School, also called the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department to report the siting.

Maria Davidson of the Wildlife department said it is common to see black bears in the Erath and Henry area. She did say that it is uncommon to see them near the town.

Davidson said if it was a bear, it was in the area because it smelled the food that the Leges throw behind their house to feed the cats. She advised them not to put any more food out. The bear will move on once the food supply is gone, she said.

As for the Lege’s who have children, Tim said it will be a while until he lets his girls play in the backyard by themselves.

If a bear is in your neighborhood, you should initiate preventive measures to avoid encouraging nuisance bear behavior.

Efforts should be made to secure all garbage containers or deposit all edible wastes in separate containers that are stored where bears cannot gain access. When possible, residents in bear habitat should keep their garbage inside their home or closed utility shed in double-bagged garbage bags and put garbage out the morning of pick up, not the night before, to limit the time a bear will have access to your garbage.

In areas where garbage pick up is early in the morning, state wildlife agencies can work with local communities and waste management companies to schedule later pick up times to allow for this preventive measure. To further eliminate attractive odors, wash the refuse containers about once a week with disinfectant solution. Bear resistant garbage cans are another alternative; however these are somewhat expensive for individuals to purchase.

Pet foods as well as bird feeders can attract bears. If pet food is allowed to remain outdoors for extended periods of time a bear will surely find it, eat it, and will come back looking for more.

Although feeding wild black bears is illegal in Louisiana and Arkansas, and strongly discouraged in Mississippi and Texas, problems still occur when people, fascinated by a bear near their home or workplace, have tossed food out the door so that they can watch or photograph the animal.

In these situations, both the humans and the bear quickly lose fear of each other. Fear of humans is a bear’s most important survival mechanism. Once bears lose their fear of humans there is little incentive for them to avoid circumstances that bring the two together. This could easily result in a dangerous situation, both for people and the bear. It must be remembered that these are wild animals that may react to the presence of humans in unpredictable ways.