Crack. Crack. Crack.

The soft cracks belied the damage that followed each time a bullet entered a Louisiana black bear sitting or standing in a ditch along Hunting Road near a tiny community south of U.S. 90 on the west side of the Wax Lake Outlet in rural St. Mary Parish. Those shots from a firearm came on a day, or night, probably between May 14 and May 16, according to the state’s lead agent on the case for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement Division.

Traveling at standard velocity of approximately 1,120-1,135 feet per second, depending on the caliber, each slug tore into the bear’s belly almost immediately after it was fired. The gutshot bear died there, a slow, painful death because none of the bullets hit a vital organ.

Cpl. Jake Darden, who lives on the Chitamacha Indian Reservation at Charenton, the Humane Society of the United States, the Acadiana Chapter of Safari Club International and LDWF’s Operation Game Thief Program want to know who fired the deadly shots. A reward totaling $6,000 has been offered to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the illegal killing of the Louisiana black bear.

The bear, an adult male estimated between 300 to 400 pounds, was killed within sight of residential houses, Darden said. Someone knows something, he said, and, hopefully, someone will talk. After all, he said, one of the biggest enemies of an outlaw is his or her mouth because they often like to brag. It all depends on how loyal to the outlaw people might be.

“We have our feelers out there,” the lead investigator said, noting he interviewed people in residences along the road where complaints about a nuisance bear have been filed.

On May 17, a Sunday, an LDWF representative responded to a report of a dead black bear off Hunting Road. Veteran LDWF Enforcement Division agent Sgt. Scott Dupre of Charenton, who was honored by the Louisiana Wildlife Agents Association as the Region 6 Agent of the Year in 2015, and a federal black bear biologist went to the scene.

Dupre, who was on duty that day, found the bear in the ditch and a single natural trail leading to the spot, Darden said. The bear’s body was along a “small road,” he said, and it was highly unlikely that it was struck and killed by a vehicle.

They took the carcass that day to store in a freezer at the old LDWF building in Iberia Parish.

Two days later, Darden, the LWAA’s Region 6 Agent of the Year in 2015, picked up the bear and took it via pickup truck to LSU, where LDWF veterinarian Jim LaCore X-rayed the animal, then conducted a necropsy on the big bear.

“It took four of us to handle him,” Darden said.

Darden, 32, said the bear was either “sitting on its butt like a dog” or standing when it was shot. He’s leaning to the latter, which could mean it was shot from an elevated structure, he said.

The outdoorsman who marks his 10th year as an Enforcement Division agent in September has seen the good and bad among hunters and fishermen in the wild over the years. It’s apparent he finds cases like this despicable.

Whoever gutshot the bear probably reckoned it would run off and die, Darden said. He had some choice words for whoever intended to do that. But they were uttered off the record.

“To me, as a conservation officer, it’s a slap in the face to the state of Louisiana, a slap in the face to bears,” he said.

The Louisiana black bear was listed as threatened in 1992 under the Endangered Species Act. After collaborative efforts by multiple stakeholders to monitor black bear populations, restore black bear habitat and protect the subspecies, one of 16, the Louisiana black bear was removed from the list in 2016.

Louisiana black bears aren’t a threat, Darden said.

“Oh, absolutely. The whole thing is, bears are nothing but oversized raccoons,” he said, adding other states don’t have issues with black bears.

The bears can be a nuisance, as so many nuisance bear cases attest in St. Mary Parish and Iberia Parish. Eighty-five bears have been caught in St. Mary Parish, roughly half the estimated population locally, it was reported in December 2019. Many were relocated northward and elsewhere with hopes they would establish residency there, but they often return to the parish.

The adult male bear had a microchip in its neck and an ear tag, according to Darden.

Anyone with information about the black bear’s death is urged to call the Louisiana Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-442-2511 or use LDWF’s tip411 program. To use the tip411 program, residents can text LADWF and their tip to 847411 or download the “LADWF Tips” iPhone and Android app from the Apple App Store or Google Play free of charge.

The hotline and the tip411 program are monitored 24/7. Upon request, informants can remain anonymous.