A New Iberia outdoorsman was more than ready when opportunity rang. It didn’t knock, as the tried and true saying goes.
With his opening day Louisiana black bear hunt delayed by heavy rainfall until approximately 10 a.m. on Dec. 6, Lannie Buteau was more than a little anxious when he finally sat with his back against a tree on his 600-acre lease in St. Mary Parish. He could see the broad back of a bear in the distance but wasn’t in position for a solid, ethical shot with the Browning 7mm rifle he has used on deer hunts since around 2000.
The 65-year-old Jeanerette native, however, forgot to turn off his cellphone. He tried to call a longtime friend, Jacques Hebert of Patoutville, to alert him he was on his way to hunt bear and might need help if successful, but there was no answer. Buteau also notified Louisiana Black Bear Program personnel as required before finally starting his hunt at approximately 10:30 a.m. It was a 300- to 400-yard walk in hunter orange to the spot he chose.
“When I got into the woods, my heart … to say it was pumping heavy would be an understatement,” Buteau said about his hunt that ended with the harvest of a 528-pound bear.
A cellphone scare
Buteau scouted the area for nearly three weeks, watched trail cams and also studied videos online about hunting bears. Before that eventful Saturday, he was aware of 14 bears, one of them much bigger than the others, on his lease near Cypremort Point.
From his vantage point on opening day, he was unsure if he was looking at the big one. He was attempting to move for a better shot when he heard an innocent cellphone ring tone, which actually sounded like a full-scale, high-pitched alarm in the wild.
As Buteau froze, the startled bear 30 yards away got up on all fours to skedaddle.
“Fortunately, I was still in position,” he said. “I knew it was that bear I was hunting. I made a good shot placement and it only ran 25, 30 yards. I hit it behind the left shoulder and took out the lungs.”
Buteau slowly walked to where the bear collapsed.
“I backed off at that point,” he said. “I tried to text but my fingers wouldn’t work I was so nervous, so I had to wait a while to regroup.”
His was the first Louisiana black bear killed in Louisiana’s second straight special season. By 26 minutes. Buteau shot his bear at 11:14 a.m. The season’s second bear was downed at 11:40 a.m.
“I’m really excited to have had the opportunity,” he said. “I had no idea I’d take a bear that size. I never dreamed I would take a 528-pound bear. The bear that I was hunting, that I was able to get, was the biggest bear out there.”
Getting samples
Louisiana Black Bear Program staffers William Futch, Hank Atkins and Chad Gaspard (who were close enough to hear the shot and responded immediately) took hair, tooth and blood samples, weighed the bear and pegged its age as 15 to 17 years old. Along with Chris Haydel of New Iberia, they helped Buteau move the bear out of the woods. New Iberians Brent Colomb and Mike Colomb and Haydel helped him clean it later.
Buteau never thought about hunting a Louisiana black bear until this summer. Slade Landry of Jeanerette, a friend, urged him to enter the lottery, which began July 28. He entered two days before the lottery deadline of Aug. 28. Two days later, an email notified him he got one of eight permits (five landowner, three general) issued for Bear Management Area 1, an expansive region from extreme southeast Plaquemines Parish west to Cameron Parish and as far north as Acadia Parish and lower West Baton Rouge Parish.
Buteau, a Halliburton Completion manager, was one of 26 lucky hunters whose names were pulled in the Louisiana Black Bear Program Lottery for the 2025 season in Louisiana.
“I would say I didn’t think I had much of a chance, but if you don’t enter you definitely won’t get picked,” he said, noting he attended one of the mandatory three bear hunting training courses held for all 26 permit holders in October.
