Almost 100 years ago, black bears resided in Oklahoma before unregulated hunting and habitat changes wiped out the black bear population in the state. Over the past ten years, these bears have returned to some part of the state. For most of that decade, OSU professor Sue Fairbanks has taken graduate students to research the bears. She just returned from southeastern Oklahoma after researching in the field for the summer. Maggie Burke sat down with Professor Fairbanks and PhD student Courtney Dotterweich to discuss black bears in Oklahoma, where they came from, and where new sightings of black bears in the state are taking their research next…