Without DNA I can make no knowledgeable statement. All I know is what I saw.
Now, there’s this. The bear in this area have been described, in color as very black. I know many who have seen them.
What I saw was brown. A outlier. Even the game warden with his brief sighting said, and I quote, “He’s very brown, isn’t he?”. But still said it was a juvenile black bear. Most likely male.
Really, I know there’s a difference. Unless of course a bear broke out of the zoo. Not likely, of recent history. Or a very strayed out of its normal zones, bear who wished to travel.
ETA: I give you the Ivory billed Woodpecker, thought extinct and found in Big woods of E.Arkansas.