Pretty sure they added the bear cubs around Luclin (when the newbie armor quests came in) to roam near the PoK book, which was a huge PITA since those things were like lvl5 and would destroy any enterprising newbie ogres chasing lizardman broodlings there. Tougher bears beyond the stone bridge towards Rathe Mnts.
I'm not entirely sure if there were bears on the Rathe Mnt side of the river before that, though... There could've been some added before Luclin, for tailoring purposes, but from what I can remember ogres had to run to Rathe Mnts for their bear pelts back in classic. This was something I was guided to do as a young shammy, when me and some other ogres sprinted around the mountains until I led them to the hostile sphinx. Who's aggro range was huge enough so that she ran to maul us soon as we saw the wings in the distance. ><
Anyways! This one suggests that the bears appeared at Luclin:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/z...01241463236477
A few other comments also suggest ogres being somewhat unhappy of the angry high-level bears parading in the newbie areas 2002 and forward.