Black Bear in Texas? Yes! Texas actually has a fair number of black bear in the western part of the state, especially the area of Big Bend National Park and westward. Northern Mexico has numerous black bears that travel back and forth across the Rio Grande River into Texas. In addition, New Mexico has a healthy populatin of black bears that move in and out of far west Texas.
Add the northern Mexico bears to the New Mexico bears and Texas functions as the crossroads for black bear traffic. Although Texas has many bears that move into and out of the state, most of the black bears found in Texas are residents.
In 2002 summer, I saw a black bear crossing US highway 70 (a two lane divided highway ) going to Ruidoso, NM from Alamogordo, NM. The bear was so relax in crossing the street I almost stopped along with other vehicles in both directions. The bear in this picture I think is trying to get water out of the tank. Nice effort but a high resolution would be awesome. Oh, I miss Texas (specially the west)