What started out as just another morning at the office turned into one bear of a day for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist Sylvestre “Junie” Sorala of Del Rio.

Sorala, 58, is 2 1/2 months from retirement after 35 years with the department. He was in his office doing paperwork on June 10 when he got a phone call from city law enforcement informing him that an American black bear had somehow found its way into town. The caller told Sorala the bear had shinnied up a pecan tree just outside Don’s Funeral Chapels, located in the San Felipe neighborhood on the city’s south side.

Dealing with the situation fit Sorala’s job description, and he didn’t like it. Especially since it meant springing to action before small crowds of onlookers that gathered just about anywhere city police would let them.

“It was one of those situations that you never want to find yourself in — you know, with the cameras rolling and stuff like that,” Sorala chuckled. “I’ve been in this business for 35 years. Then, 2 1/2 months before I am about to retire, I find myself in the middle of something like this. Thank goodness everything went smoothly.”

Sorala’s job? Stick the bear with a tranquilizer dart, capture it and relocate it to Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, located roughly 225 miles northwest of town.

Sorala said he has aided in trapping bears before, but has never been called upon to break out the dart gun in more than three decades of service.

“I had the training, but I had never had to put an animal down before,” he said. “It was a pretty unpredictable situation, pretty stressful.”

Sorala said he darted the bear when it was about 10 feet above ground. Instead of leaving the tree, the bear scrambled higher. It eventually fell unconscious and lodged in the fork of two large limbs.

Sorala and TPWD game warden Mike Durand retrieved the sleeping bear, a 100-pound male, with the aid of a ladder truck from the city fire department. The animal was placed in a large cage and driven to Sanderson, where it was transferred to wildlife staff from the Black Gap WMA and later released in good condition.

Sorala says black bear sightings are nothing out of the ordinary in far southwest Texas counties along the Texas/Mexico border. Neighboring Mexico maintains an abundant American black bear population. It is fairly common for young bears to cross the Rio Grande River to explore new ground in hopes of establishing a home territory and possibly finding a mate.

“I have had seven confirmed sightings in Val Verde, Edwards and Real counties in the last year alone,” Sorala said. “But this is the first time we’ve ever had one come into town.”

According to TPWD reports, the bear was first sighted on the afternoon of June 9 along the outskirts of Del Rio near U.S. Highway 90. The following morning, a jogger encountered the animal inside the city limits shortly before the daylight. City animal control officers fielded a third call about mid-morning, this one from a woman who complained about a large black dog rummaging in her trash cans. The bruin settled in at the funeral parlor not long after that.

“It appeared the bear was just making a big circle,” Sorala said. “He was headed south, almost like he was headed out of town. There is a good chance the bear came from Mexico, but there is no way to know that for certain.”

Confirmed black bear sightings don’t occur near as frequently in the eastern part of the state as they do out west and north to the Panhandle, but they do happen from time to time.

According to TPWD District 6 wildlife biologist Gary Calkins of Jasper, confirmed sightings are most prevalent in counties at the northern tip of the Pineywoods, where Texas meets with Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Calkins said Oklahoma and Arkansas have established populations of American black bears. As the numbers continue to build, more bears are likely to spill over into East Texas.

There have been several confirmed sightings along the Sulphur River drainage in recent years. One of the best documented cases originated in Red River County, where a hunter used a motion-sensitive camera to capture several images of a black bear visiting a deer feeder.

“Bear populations are usually slow to take hold, but they really take off once they get over that threshold “ Calkins explained. “That is what is happening in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The populations have finally built up and made it over the threshold, so more bears are starting to show up in Texas.”

Calkins said male black bears are usually the ones that venture the farthest once they come of age. Females are home bodies.

“The young males will travel some huge country trying to find companionship, whereas the females won’t go very far from their mother to set up a home territory,” he said. “That’s why it takes so long for populations to expand. It is only a matter of time until some of those females decide this side of the river looks pretty good.”

Confirmed (category 1) black bear sightings have been relatively sparse in deep southeast Texas thus far. A category 1 sighting is one backed by solid evidence such as photographs or reliable sign such as tracks or scat (bear droppings).

A sighting is ranked a category 2 if the respondent is able to sufficiently answer telling questions about the encounter and convince biologists that what they saw was indeed a bear. A category 3 sighting generally lacks the evidence to warrant further investigation.

Calkins could think of only one “Category 1” sighting in his neck of the woods. It occurred three to four years ago in Hardin County near Kountze.

“A guy was pouring a concrete driveway and went to town to run some errands,” Calkins explained. “When he returned, there were bear tracks in the fresh poured concrete. Evidence like that is awfully hard to deny.”

The biologist said there have been a number category 2 sightings recorded in deep southeast Texas. Most have occurred in counties bordering the Sabine River, the dividing line between Texas and Louisiana.

Calkins said the sightings are likely the result of expanding populations of the Louisiana black bear, a subspecies that is thriving throughout the Atchafalaya Basin and in the eastern portion of the state near the Mississippi River valley.

“We’ve got a good number of category 2 sightings from reliable sources,” Calkins said. “I have no doubt that the bears are here. But I could probably count the number of bears that are out there on one hand right now.”

Matt Williams is a free lance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwilliams@netdot.com.