Vernon Bailey, chief naturalist for the U.S. Biological Survey, interviewed a hog farmer and bear hunter named Ab Carter in 1904. Carter reported that in 1883, he and a neighbor set out to exterminate the bears in the Tarkington Prairie area of Liberty County that preyed on their free ranging hogs in the forest. That same year 182 bears were killed within a radius of Tarkington Prairie and annual hunting continued until 1900 when the last two bears were killed in that area. Currently, extremely rare bear sightings in east Texas are believed to be wondering individuals from reintroduction efforts in adjacent areas of Louisiana. They are now a threatened species in Texas and the National Park Service list them as "probably present".