As the deer hunting season gets into the heart of its schedule, it’s increasingly obvious there’s a villain becoming more despised than wild pigs across nearly half of the Sportsman’s Paradise.

Many deer hunters can’t bear what’s happening. They are up in arms over the increasing presence, vandalism and ability to spook deer posed by black bears. It’s an issue dominating social media through most of October, according to the Outdoors board of tigerdroppings.com and Facebook’s Louisiana Black Bear Report.

There are many photos and videos on the Facebook page of black bears enjoying themselves at the corn feeders so prevalent on today’s deer hunting scene. Those posts also include images of damage done to those corn feeders, other valuable equipment, deer stands, ATVs, ice chests, etc.

A majority of the Facebook posts generated from north Louisiana, mostly from Union Parish. Deer hunters are unhappy up there, very unhappy.

There were posts from 22 other parishes, including a few from St. Mary Parish and St. Landry Parish. Those were the only posts from south Louisiana.

Other parishes with posts were Allen, Avolleyes, Bienville, Caldwell, Catahoula, Concordia, East Baton Rouge, Franklin, Iberville, LaSalle, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, Tensas, West Carroll, West Feliciana and Winn parishes.

Sometimes there are multiple photos and videos from one poster. Some posters have given the bears names, such as “Teddy,” “Yogi,” “Rufus” and “Buddy.”

The bears are shown shaking, toppling or breaking corn feeders, or on their back under one waiting for the meal to pour down, an incongruous sight. Others are seen sleeping near a pile of corn as if guarding it.

Photos and videos more often than not show more than one bear, like a sow with two cubs or triplets, or, even, two sows with two cubs or triplets, within view of the camera lens.

Many of the posters, particularly those on tigerdroppings.com, rue the day black bears were reintroduced into Louisiana. Many of them are calling for a black bear hunting season, one with or without tags if the population supports it.

A common thread in the discussion settled squarely on the pros and cons of deer hunting over a corn feeder. Some said it isn’t real deer hunting if someone has to attract deer with 40 pounds of corn.

Sawtooth, an LSU Fan from Baton Rouge, asked on tigerdroppings.com, “Have hunters lost the ability to harvest a deer without putting corn out? Well that is quite pathetic.”

Another deer hunter posted on Facebook this time of year deer will walk right by that much corn to get to acorns that are falling. He added no mature buck will come to a feeder during the day, adding, “Hell, most won’t come at all.”

A deer hunter posted on Facebook he’d rather have a “pig” problem than a black bear problem, noting a deer hunter can rig up a feeder so the pigs cannot destroy it and can shoot the pigs.

The hotspot appears to be around Marion in Union Parish, as well as the state’s northernmost parishes along the state line with Arkansas.

Blaine Viator of St. Mary Parish posted a photo on Facebook at 2:18 p.m. Thursday of a black bear on its haunches at night with the caption in red, ”Waiting for the buffet.” Two other posts five minutes earlier show a video of what looks like a young bear standing and grabbing two of the tripod legs of a corn feeder and a photo of one under the corn feeder with the caption, “Busted.”

A Union Parish deer hunter offered assistance in a Facebook post Oct. 18 at 11:14 a.m.: “Want to aggravate your local bear? They can’t hurt the One and Done (PRO Game) Feeders.” Those are from Garland, Texas.

For the record, the Louisiana black bear is the state mammal for Louisiana, one of 16 subspecies of the American black bear found in Louisiana, east Texas and western Mississippi. On March 10, 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Louisiana black bear from the list of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act due to recovery.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.