Vicksburg: The Key To The South!
I'm missing my hunting friend, Rex Howell, who passed away on January 31, 2021, from cancer.
This picture was taken the first day we met at his deer camp at the famous Christmas Place Plantation Hunting Club on Christmas Road near Eden, MS. The land has 11 Indian mounds on it, and we are standing at one of them. It was taken on May 5, 2007. You can see his dog, Camo to the right of the picture.
Rex came to my website and signed my guestbook and I always thanked everyone who had signed, and that is how it all started. I asked him one day how did he find me. He said he had gone to a hunting forum and saw a post that I had answered, and the rest was history.
Rex has a blog called Deer Camp Blog and I had a blog as well and I had started my blog in 2006 and stopped. He told me to continue because at that time he said it was not that many lady deer hunters who blogged.
He would have me up every hunting season to deer/hog hunt at the family camp. I did not get to go in January of this year because he was very sick. I'm so thankful that he called me and told me about his condition in December but did not realize that it was so bad. He died on the last day of the hunting season.
The current period for online application opened July 26, 2021, and will close August 9, 2021. Submitted applications will be evaluated based on the number of acres available for trapping, historical agricultural losses caused by wild hogs on the property, and current trapping efforts on the property.
This is from Simpson County Mississippi... Killed today. NOTE: The snake looks much bigger in the picture due to the camera angle.
Misty Shack Munn, Tommy Shack
“Deputies responded and did see minor damage to the front of the vehicle, but never found a bear,” Sheriff Martin Pace said. “The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks’ officers responded and did not find a bear either.”
In the case that a bear was hit, Black Bear Program Biologist, Jamie Holt, at MDWFP said there is not much they can do to help an injured bear.
“On an occasion where one gets hit and injured, we usually give it a good effort to try and find it,” Holt said. “There’s not a whole lot we can do, but bears are pretty hardy animals,” Holt said he has actually seen bears lose a limb in an accident and then continue on with their lives. One in particular he saw was a video of a bear swimming across the Mississippi River and then climbing up the ledge on the other side without a front leg.
They’re pretty tough animals, but on a rare occasion some will get hit and go off in the woods and die somewhere, but we never find it,” Holt said. If a bear is found dead, the MDWFP will go pick up the remains. If the remains are in good condition, they will use it for educational purposes in their museum.
“With black bears being a protected species in Mississippi, we do try and collect any and all parts from a vehicle mortality,” Holt said.
If the MDWFP is able to locate an injured bear, they will assess the injuries to decide if the bear isn’t going to make it and suffering or if its injuries could cause the bear to be a threat. If either of these are found to be true, they have to make a decision regarding if the bear should be euthanized or not.
“A black bear’s first instinct is always going to be to flee if there is any type of confrontation with a human,” Holt said. “If an injured bear wasn’t able to get away, that’s where the ‘stand and fight’ may come into play, but it would be a very, very case-by-case incident.
"Holt said drivers should look out for bears on the road just as they do for deer. The bear population is growing in counties along the Mississippi River and sightings are happening more frequently.
“If you are coming through an area that has a higher population of bears or deer, be aware of the road and keep distractions to a minimum, which is always a good idea whenever you’re behind the wheel,” Holt said. “A deer is a much smaller animal than a bear and everybody has seen what a deer is capable of doing to a vehicle at high speed. The same goes for a bear, and even worse as far as the damage to a car.”
Holt said if anyone spots a bear, it can be reported here on their website. However, if the bear is injured or it is something urgent, one should call 601-433-2199 during regular office hours and 1-800-BE-SMART outside of office hours to have the MDWFP and local law enforcement come to access the situation.
Vicksburg Post - Olivia Mars
