{"id":158532,"date":"2026-04-29T12:20:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=158532"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:20:35","slug":"the-mississippi-department-of-wildlife-fisheries-and-parks-mdwfp-announces-bear-week-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/the-mississippi-department-of-wildlife-fisheries-and-parks-mdwfp-announces-bear-week-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) Announces Bear Week 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks<\/strong> (MDWFP) is excited to announce the return of <strong>Bear Week<\/strong>, taking place now until May 1, 2026, on MDWFP\u2019s<strong> Facebook<\/strong> and<strong> Instagram<\/strong> pages. This week offers a behind-the-scenes look at a century of black bear research and conservation in <strong>Mississippi<\/strong>, highlighting how those collective efforts have shaped MDWFP\u2019s monitoring and management of the species today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout the week, followers can see behind the scenes footage, throwbacks, the evolution of black bear research, and the steady growth of our black bear population over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMississippi\u2019s black bear population is growing\u201d, said <strong>Anthony Ballard<\/strong>, <strong>MDWFP Black Bear Program<\/strong> Coordinator. \u201cThis year, bear week highlights how a century of research and conservation efforts has shaped MDWFP\u2019s black bear program into what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Residents are encouraged to join the conversation by engaging with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mdwfp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>MDWFP\u2019s Facebook<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mdwfponline\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>Instagram<\/u><\/a>\u00a0throughout the week. Visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdwfp.com\/wildlife-hunting\/wildlife-species-program\/black-bear-program\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>https:\/\/www.mdwfp.com\/wildlife-hunting\/wildlife-species-program\/black-bear-program<\/u><\/a>\u00a0for more information on Mississippi Black Bears.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14544\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) is excited to announce the return of Bear Week,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":157205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[31741,31742,34442,5,33907],"class_list":["post-158532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-anthony-ballard","tag-bear-week","tag-mdwfp-black-bear-program","tag-mississippi","tag-the-mississippi-department-of-wildlife"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/newsalertmdwfp-1.jpg?fit=512%2C84&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158533,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158532\/revisions\/158533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}