Mississippi Outdoors Podcast · Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks

Bear Den Checks with Anthony Ballard

·36 min·3 clips

Anthony Ballard belly-crawled into a den and faced a bluff-charging black bear just five yards away.

This episode features host Matt Wyatt interviewing Anthony Ballard, the Black Bear Program Coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. Ballard details the annual process of conducting "den checks" on collared female black bears to monitor reproduction and cub health. He reports that the 2025 season was particularly strong, with seven sows found with litters compared to only two in each of the two prior years. The den checks were conducted across several Mississippi River counties, including Bolivar, Sharkey, Warren, Wilkinson, and Claiborne. Litter sizes this year ranged from a single cub to a healthy litter of four from a 312-pound sow in Sharkey County. Ballard explains that sows typically have cubs every other year, raising them for about a year before the cubs disperse. Major threats to cubs include predation by larger male bears and various accidents, such as falls from tree dens or highway crossings. A key adaptation is that many bears den high in cypress trees to avoid seasonal flooding. One surprising insight is the intensive, multi-layered process required to locate and safely tranquilize a sow for a den check, which Ballard compares to "high-tech hunting." He describes having to belly-crawl into dense cover for shots at distances of five yards or less, sometimes while a bear bluff-charges. The team uses GPS and VHF telemetry from aircraft to find dens, but satellite signals are often blocked when a bear dens inside a tree. Ballard personally lost ten pounds in physical preparation for the climbing and strenuous terrain involved in the work. The most memorable moment he shares is the intimate feeling of being the first human to handle newborn cubs, which weigh only 2-5 pounds during checks. Ballard emphasizes that the black bear represents a major conservation success story in Mississippi, rebounding from an estimated 12 bears in 1932. His primary public message is educational, focused on preventing human-bear conflict by securing trash and pet food, directing listeners to resources like BearWise.org. The tone is conversational and educational, blending casual interview questions with detailed, field-based anecdotes from Ballard's direct experience. This episode would greatly appeal to Mississippi residents, outdoor enthusiasts, and anyone interested in wildlife biology and state-specific conservation efforts. Listeners seeking highly produced narrative drama or debates on wildlife policy might find it too focused on straightforward departmental fieldwork.

As heard by us

A practical bear-management story that makes the careful work behind conservation easy to picture.

Bear Den Checks with Anthony Ballard follows the careful work behind Mississippi’s black bear program, from collared females and GPS points to dens tucked into brush piles or cypress trees.

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Why you'd press play

Want the real work behind bear season, not just the headline version?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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