Jackson Bray and Phillip Necessary have bragging rights that few other high school students can match.
"Not many people you meet have ever held a live black bear," Bray said.
The two Rogers High School juniors got to hike deep into the Ozark National Forest in early March with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission biologists and others to check on a hibernating female black bear and her two cubs. The mother bear had been outfitted earlier with a radio transmitter so her travels could be tracked by the commission.
The students traveled to the Mountain View area with Tom Woodruff, a teacher at the high school. Woodruff is a member of the Arkansas Black Bear Association and won the trip in a fundraiser auction.
About 15 people were on the trip, the students said. They traveled by four-wheel drive into the forest, then bushwhacked a mile through the woods to the hibernating bears.
"The sow was under a fallen tree on a hillside," Necessary said. "She was under the rootwad of the tree, and not in very deep like you would think."
The cinnamon-colored mother was safely sedated. A few minutes later, Game and Fish people lifted the cubs, both female, from the shallow den.
Each cub seemed dazed and a little cranky, the students said. They made little screeching sounds, but were docile enough that the students were able to hold the cubs in their arms before they were gently returned to mom.
"They had no wild instinct at all. They'd just cuddle with you," Bray said. "I was shocked that I was holding an actual live bear. When they brought it out, it looked kind of fake, but they were so real."
This was Woodruff's third bear den trip. The adventures are impressive for guests like Woodruff and his students, but the visits are science for Game and Fish biologists.
Arkansas' bear population is constantly monitored and studied, said Myron Means, large carnivore program coordinator with the commission. Biologists measured evaluated the cubs' condition. Once all the scientific data was gathered, they were returned to the den.
Black bears don't sleep the entire winter. They wake occasionally and may even make short trips on warm days, according to Game and Fish information.
Arkansas was formerly known as "The Bear State," and the number of black bears is growing, Means said. The current population is about 3,000.
Sports on 04/05/2016