WOODVILLE &045; Earlier this year in a secluded, heavily forested area of Wilkinson County, five babies entered the world.

Having five babies born to one mother would be remarkable in itself, but this birth was remarkable for a whole different reason. This mother is a Louisiana black bear, and her litter of three females and two males are the first recorded black bear births in Mississippi in more than 40 years and may represent a milestone in the recovery of the black bear population in the lower Mississippi River basin.

The mother set up her den in some logging debris on land owned by Entergy in southern Wilkinson County.

But for mama bear, this is just the last in a series of adventures. She was first tracked in Tensas National Wildlife Refuge. There she was fitted with a radio collar as part of an LSU research project tracking black bears.

She was relocated to Lake Ophelia NWR near Blackhawk, La.

&8220;She just up and disappeared one day. She packed up and went on a hike,&8221; said Brad Young, bear biologist for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. &8220;We flew over and picked up her signal near Angola prison. She went back and forth between Wilkinson County and Louisiana there for about a year before we caught some pictures of her and a large male from a trail camera in May of 2004.&8221;

With the knowledge that she might have cubs this spring, the researchers again tracked down her signal from the air and picked it up just over the state line in Wilkinson County.

LSU graduate student John Benson tracked her down on the ground and got close enough to the den to hear cubs crying. Benson left to bring back a team to investigate.

On their return, the group tranquilized the mother and found five cubs, an extremely large number for a black bear to have.

&8220;That’s unbelievably high, and it’s very unusual,&8221; said Michael Chamberlain, director of LSU’s black bear research program. &8220;It’s the largest litter I’ve ever seen. Last time she had four (at Tensas NWR), so she may just be genetically predisposed to have large litters.&8221;

The LSU project tracks bears throughout a large section of Louisiana.

The black bear’s historic range spans from east Texas across all of Louisiana and large sections of Mississippi, Chamberlain said. This bear’s movement into Mississippi is a good sign for the population.

&8220;We know males have roamed through that area before,&8221; Chamberlain said. &8220;This is the next step.&8221;

Young said black bears have been sighted in Mississippi often in recent years, many of them after crossing the Mississippi from Louisiana. Young estimates there are 30 to 40 bears in Mississippi at any time.

&8220;The river doesn’t present much of a barrier for them,&8221; Young said. &8220;They cross back and forth all the time.&8221;

Chamberlain did say it’s more unusual for a female to cross the river but not uncommon.

Males are generally more inclined to roam, including swimming the Mississippi.

Chamberlain said his best guess would put the bear population in Louisiana around 300, though that’s only a gross estimate.

&8220;That’s certainly not an accurate representation. Anyone who tells you they know how many bears are out there is just wrong,&8221; Chamberlain said. &8220;But it’s not as many as we would like.&8221;