Bear spotted again in county

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NEPONSET — The black bear of western Bureau County is apparently on the prowl again.

On Tuesday, Neponset farmer Clark Currier confirmed he saw the bear about a week ago while doing fieldwork.

Currier, who lives about six miles southeast of Neponset, said he was chiseling up cornstalks, about 5:15 p.m. Nov. 16 when he came down a hill in his tractor and saw a pair of eyes looking toward him from about a quarter-mile away.

At first he thought the eyes belonged to a deer, since he’d been seeing deer all day. But when he noticed the animal was all black, his next thought was maybe some cattle had gotten into the field.

“But then I saw the animal running on all fours, and I knew it was no cattle, and it was no deer,” Currier said. “It was the bear.”

When the bear ran toward a hedge along the field, Currier kicked his tractor into high gear to follow. He pursued the bear to a neighbor’s cornfield and watched as the bear ran across the cleared field.

“I could tell the bear was thin, but I still guess he weighed between 375 and 400 pounds,” Currier said. “I was surprised at how fast he could run. He got across the field a ways, and then he stopped and looked back at me. Then he turned away and kept going, and I went back to my chiseling.”

Since then, Currier said he’s heard reports that a neighbor saw the bear shortly after he did, only this time it was during the daytime. Currier  suggests hunters be careful and wait until daylight before heading out into the woods.

The black bear of Bureau County was first spotted in late June when Tim Ries, owner of Sheffield Plumbing and Hardware, reported seeing the bear about a mile west of Sheffield.

About the same time, a father and son spotted the bear near the Mautino State Fish and Wildlife Area, between Buda and Sheffield. The son had commented to his dad about the size of nearby dog, but his dad looked and saw the “dog” was actually the bear.

In mid-September, Ron Miller, also of rural Neponset, was traveling on the Kentville Road when he saw a large, black figure ahead of him on the left side of the road. The figure was the wrong shape to be a horse or a cow, and Miller realized it was probably the black bear. Miller stopped his Jeep and watched the bear for a couple minutes before the bear dropped to all fours and walked into the cornfield.

The recent sightings of the black bear shouldn’t be a cause for alarm, Clark Currier said on Tuesday. As far as he knows, the bear doesn’t seem to be doing any damage or harm to anyone or their animals.

“I don’t think the bear would bother anyone,” Currier said.

For now, Currier said he will carry a camera with him as he travels the roads and fields in western Bureau County. In his opinion, there’s no reason for anyone to try to shoot the bear, except maybe with a camera, he said.