MONTEREY, La. — Cecil Grantham was driving Thursday north on Louisiana 129 when he saw something he’d never seen before: a bear — a big, black bear.

&uot;He was just standing there in the edge of the corn,&uot; Grantham said. &uot;The corn was full grown, and he was about a head taller than the corn.&uot;

Grantham slammed on his brakes about 100 feet from the bear. &uot;I don’t quite remember, but there was prayer in there somewhere,&uot; he said.

Grantham, pastor of Monterey Pentecostal Church for the past one and a half years, has been driving Louisiana 129 to and from the church daily. His sighting occurred south of Stacy in western Concordia Parish.

&uot;I haven’t seen a bear here before and have been in this area for a few years,&uot; Grantham said. Grantham’s quick stop must have frightened the bear as well, because the bear bolted into the corn field soon after Grantham stopped.

The bear’s reaction is not unexpected, said Louisiana Game and Fisheries District 4 Supervisor Reggie Wycoff. &uot;They generally flee humans,&uot; he said of the bear he believes was a Louisiana black bear. The bear sighting is not unusual for this time of year, Wycoff said.

Young male bears begin to move around in the spring and often move long distances, he said.

&uot;We had a report of a bear sighting two weeks ago west of Ferriday,&uot; Wycoff said.

The bear sighting produced a track and the first documentation of a black bear in Concordia Parish in many years, said Steve Brock, a wildlife biologist at Bayou Cocodrie Wildlife Refuge

The Louisiana black bear is a threatened species, Brock said. The fisheries commission and Black Bear Conservation Committee may attempt to reintroduce more of the bears to south Concordia Parish. Though public hearings have been held about the program, it is not off the ground yet. &uot;If plans are finalized, we could be moving bears in next spring,&uot; Wycoff said.

But, Wycoff said, no bears have been released yet in Concordia Parish, which lies between two different populations of Louisiana black bears, Wycoff said. Those two populations have been separated for years. If bears are introduced into Concordia Parish, they would help provide a link between the northern population near the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge and the southern population in the Atchafalaya Basin, he said.

&uot;It might help get them off the list,&uot; Wycoff said.

Two weeks ago, a bear was sighted in the southern end of Bayou Cocodrie and a cast was made of the track it left, Brock said.

The cast is the first official documentation of a black bear in the Concordia Parish in, &uot;many years,&uot; Brock said.