DNR: Don’t feed the bears

As cool as some might think it to have a wild bear in the Iowa woods, the Department of Natural Resources is warning that feeding a bear that's lingered three months near the Yellow River State Forest could be dangerous to humans and lethal for the bear.

DNR communications director Kevin Baskins said officials have not yet determined if feeding wild bears is illegal. “But it's a very bad thing to do, both for the people and the bear,” he said.

Attracted by handouts from well-meaning people, the adult black bear has been seen in Allamakee County since late July, said Rylan Retallick the ranger at Yellow River State Forest.

Most black bears seen in Iowa, he said, are fast-traveling young males straying from their established range in Wisconsin and Minnesota. It's unusual for an Iowa bear to stay long in one place. and the food handouts likely prompted this one to settle down, Retallick said.

DNR Wildlife Bureau Chief Dale Garner said bears that rely on humans for food can become dangerous to people, leaving biologists no other recourse than to euthanize the bear.

Relocating the bear is no longer an option “because the problem is then simply being moved somewhere else,” Garner said.

Garner said the bear could easily survive on its own in the wooded hills in and around the Yellow River State Forest.

Black bear sightings were reported earlier this year, June 24 in Jesup and July 3 in Postville.

Retallick said there is no way to tell if those sightings were of the same bear or if the bear near Yellow River State Forest had been involved in or more of the earlier sightings.

The bear seen in a Postville garden was tranquilized by a local veterinarian and relocated to a remote Allamakee County location, but it was not tagged for future identification, Baskins said.

Retallick said he thinks the bear now in the area is substantially larger than the one removed from the Postville garden.