Local resident Tim Deppe helps police officers shepherd an American black bear away from residents after it wandered into the Blackhawk mobile home park Monday afternoon.
Posted on 06/23/2009 5:11:20 PM PDT by SJackson
Local resident Tim Deppe helps police officers shepherd an American black bear away from residents after it wandered into the Blackhawk mobile home park Monday afternoon.
Some Baraboo residents got a surprise nature lesson Monday afternoon when a 200-pound-plus American black bear wandered into a neighborhood at the edge of the city. He’s likely a young male recently cut loose by mama bear and wandering around looking for a territory of his own, says a local game warden. Just before 2 p.m. the News Republic received a citizen report of a black bear at the Blackhawk Manor mobile home park along South Boulevard on the city’s southwest side.
A short time later the bruin could be spotted roaming casually among homes there with police and local resident Tim Deppe trying to shepherd it away from the inhabited area. At one point the bear tried to evade his pursuers by climbing a pine tree. However, after sitting in some lower branches for few minutes and looking around, he climbed down and galloped off in an eastward direction through the residences. Eventually officers lost sight of the bear when he ran into the dense foliage of what local people said is an overgrown apple orchard.
Baraboo Police Department Operations Lt. Mark Schauf said they hoped the bear would rest and relax in the cover of the orchard, then wander on out of the city. “We hope he’ll rest and settle down there,” he said. “According to the (Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) bears will naturally find their own way out. We think he came into town looking for something to eat, smelled the food in the mobile park there and came down to eat.” Schauf said when Baraboo officers first spotted the bear he was eating out of a couple of Blackhawk residents’ bird feeders. Their first caller told police they saw the bear near the Menards store on Highway 12, observed it cross the highway and continue eastward into the city, he said. “(The DNR) told us as long as it’s not harassing people, there’s not a lot they’re going to do,” Schauf said. “They feel it will go back into the wild on its own.”
Deppe said he become involved when police came to his business, Deppe Transit, Inc., after the bear was first spotted. He and officers searched a wooded area behind his building in hopes they would find the bear and could shoo him back west, out of the city. While in those woods, police got the radio call the bear was at the home park, he said. At the park they tried to get the bear to go back the way it came, but its mind was set on an eastward trek. Deppe said the bear was a good-sized animal and another observer speculated it was between 200- 250 pounds. “He was taller than I was when he stood up,” Deppe said. “He was over 200 pounds.” Mike Ilkka lives a short distance from the wooded area where the bear took refuge and said he sees a lot of deer and other wildlife roam past his home. However, seeing the bear was a new experience. “You see deer, coyotes. Two coyotes tried to tackle a deer right here, you see foxes here,” he said. “I never thought I’d see a bear, that’s good. At least you know they’re coming back,” Ilkka said.
Sauk County DNR Warden Mike Green said the bear is likely a male that has reached the age when older juvenile bears separate from their mothers and wander looking for their own home territory. “They’re cubs from a year or two before,” he said. “When the sows are getting ready to have new cubs, the last year’s or 2-year-old cubs will start roaming around looking for a new area.” It is common for such bears to get to this area after following cover along the Wisconsin River from Northern Wisconsin where black bears are well established. However, Green said he cannot say for sure where Baraboo’s visitor came from. “I would just be guessing,” he said. About five or six bears have been seen in the Wisconsin Dells/Lake Delton area in recent years, he said. People report seeing bears from time to time in the Baraboo Bluffs both east and west of the city. “We had reports of a bear in Baraboo last year, kind of on the east side of town,” Green said. “Then, I never got any more reports on it. “I don’t know if it was a true bear sighting or not.”
Black bears are not generally a threat to people, but it is a good idea to avoid having food sources available, like accessible garbage containers or bird feeders, that could draw a bear to human habitations, Green said. “If they get into the bird feeders, just get the bird feeders down for a while,” he said. “If (the bear) knocks it down, just don’t put them up or refill them for a few days and the bears will move on.” Green said some people like seeing the bears and re-fill their bird feeder to draw bears. However, the DNR would prefer people do not attract bears into urban areas. “We’d like to see them in the country for sure,” he said. DNR policy does not require action against bears that wander into an urban area unless they are causing problems for people, Green said. So DNR will not try to trap or remove the visiting bruin. “As long as it doesn’t do anything, as long as it’s only in the area, doesn’t cross that line (of problem) interactions with people, we’ll let him pass,” he said. “Usually they just move through the area.”
Warden Green said if the bear acts aggressively toward people or causes trouble in some other way, people should call their local police or any DNR office. In general, giving black bears a wide berth is enough to avoid having any problems with the animals, he said. Deppe said he was surprised by how far the bear penetrated the urban area. “I’m surprised he crossed Highway 12 down here, he said. “He’s not afraid of people for sure. “It’s kind of neat to see one in our backyard. Leave him alone, he’ll be fine.” The toll free number to call the DNR is (800) TIP-WDNR or (800) 847-9367.
Maybe he can get a job at Circus World. Otherwise, leave the poor lonely guy alone.
I just can’t bear to hear that news!! He He He
I heard of this on the way to work this morning and immediately thought, ‘Betcha Jackson’s all over this one!’ LOL!
So, a bear walks in to a bar and says to the bartender, “give me a drink.” The bartender says, “sorry, we don’t serve bears.” The bear says, “well, give me a drink or I’ll eat that woman at the other end of the bar.” The bartender says, “psh, go ahead.” So the bear eats the woman and asks the bartender one more time to give him a drink. The bartender says, “we don’t serve bears on drugs.” The bear, clearly dumbfounded says, “what? I’m not on drugs.” And the bartender says, “that was a bar-bitch-you-ate.”
Obviously mama bear didn't have a basement with a computer down there........There's nothing more pathetic than a full grown bear sitting at a basement computer in jammies surfing the internet.
About a week ago a black bear showed up on my neighbors property. We live in the sticks, so it happens from time to time and generally it’s no big deal.
On this occasion, it was a mama bear with 2 cubs and they destroyed my neighbors honeybee boxes.
I won’t have any problem with her. She can eat from my 16 apple trees and pick the wild blackberries later in the year. BUT, if she messes with my GSD, I will not say a word to anyone and there will be a bear rug or 3 on the wall in my shop. She will probably stay away because of the dog.
I used to raise Dobermans and a cougar ate one of the little ones. My neighbor has a nice cougar hide on his shop wall. ;>)
You got that right! I use the sunporch/breakfast room.
This bear walks into a bar. Then he sits down and orders a beer.
The bartender, amazed that this bear can actually talk, gives him a beer.
The bear says, “What do I owe you?”
The bartender stops and thinks for a moment.
“Even though this bear is smart,” thinks the bartender, “he probably hasn’t been in many bars.”
So the bartender says, “That’ll be ten dollars.”
The bear forks over the money and starts drinking his beer.
After a few minutes, the bartender can’t restrain his curiosity, so he walks back over to the bear and tries to strike up a conversation.
“You know, we don’t get many bears in this bar.”
The bear looks up from his beer and says, “Well, at ten bucks a beer, I’m not surprised.”
Oh, I like that one better, LOL! That’s my new ‘favorite bear joke.’
With the bear population closing past 40000 plus in Wis. They well be found all over the place. I have said for years if one truly wants to shoot a big bear the southern zone in Wis. is a good place to hunt not much hunting allows the bears to grow big.
A bear walks into Bob's Bar in Baraboo, and says, "Give me a beer!"
The bartender in Bob's Bar in Baraboo says, "I'm sorry but in Bob's Bar in Baraboo we don't serve bears beer!" The story can be further enhanced by having the bear ask for burbon and then brandy, and each time the bartender politely says, "In Bob's Bar in Baraboo we don't serve bears beer, burbon or brandy..."
You get the picture, and makes for a dandy tongue twister.
Betcha it’s REALLY fun to say after consuming a six pack, LOL!
It sure is... course it all depends on how good the storyteller is doing! ; )
Boo-Boo in Baraboo.
Hey-Hey Yogi!
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