I have never seen one here in north central Mo.There is some pretty thick timber in the south west ,that is where I have heard of the population growing.I just dont know to much about bears.It would be alright to have some ,but around here we have so many cattle farms I think the rednecks would go crazy tring to kill any spotted.We have buffalo farm here and one of the bulls got out,man that was the talk of the year.The farmer told the sheriff to just have it shot cause he would never get it back in.And it was several miles from his farm.So this guy got picked to do the shooting,he used a .270 win it took him 5 shots to kill it.I couldnt belive how dumb they were about it .There was a crowd standing around it like a game.I even offered them my 45/70,.338wm,& my .50bmg but they said the .270 was more then enough.I dont recommend head shooting buffalo with a .270win.