Scientists Tested 556 American Black Bears — And One Group Did Not Belong

In 1902, a president refused to shoot a black bear tied to a tree in Mississippi, and America got the Teddy bear. A century later, that bear's real-life relative, the Louisiana black bear, was listed as threatened. In 2016 it was declared recovered. In between, researchers strung barbed wire through three river swamps, collected more than 38,000 hair samples, and compared the DNA of 556 bears. In one of those swamps, the genetic signal pointed more than a thousand miles north, to bears trapped in Minnesota in the 1960s and released in the South. This is the story of how black bears vanished from Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Mississippi, how 254 bears from Minnesota and Manitoba were hauled to the Ozarks and Ouachitas, how 161 more were shipped to Louisiana, and what the DNA says about the bears living there today. This video is not wildlife-safety or legal advice. For bear safety, follow your state wildlife agency. More from this channel:    • Scientists Tracked Baby Pythons in Florida...      • Scientists Just Named the First New Cat Sp...      • Scientists Brought Back the Dire Wolf — Bu...