HOWARD, Wis. (WFRV) – A black bear has been seen with increasing frequency in Howard near the Village Green Golf Course since April, and the neighbors have mixed feelings about it.
“Initially, ‘oh, that’s kind of cool.’ and then you think about it a little deeper and you go ‘I don’t know if I want them that close especially when you have pets,” Paige Van Elzen said. “We have two little dogs. So I just look at them as lunch for something like that. I keep an eye out when I let them out to make sure something’s not going to come eat them.”
Two doors down, Mike Goza is a fan of the bear and has appreciated seeing the bear each time. Goza, a bear hunter himself, believes the bear is a two-year-old male.
“I’ve seen him four times,” Goza said. “I enjoy seeing the wildlife. I’m retired, and it’s nice to be able to look out the window and see all this stuff, you know.”
According to the Wisconsin DNR, bear sightings in Howard began being reported in April but have picked up in the last week or so.
“We’ve received a few calls, just reports of a bear in the Howard area,” Wisconsin DNR wildlife biologist Steven Burns said. “Both the USDA and Wisconsin DNR, we do have protocols in place for kind of evaluating if the concern is elevated to the point where we would intervene.”
The USDA is contracted by the DNR to take care of bear calls, and Burns explained that it takes extenuating circumstances for the agencies to take action. Ideally, they hope that the bear would realize that the area is not a suitable habitat and would just move on.
“Once they do find food, they’re more likely to stick around an area for a period of time,” Burns said. “Unless a bear becomes an imminent threat to humans or our pets or starts significantly damaging structures, we really don’t intervene.”
In Howard, Goza thinks that the bear has found a readily available food supply at an apartment building’s dumpster.
“He likes to eat in the garbage cans over there. So he’s going to go wherever there’s a free meal,” Goza said. “I’ve heard of him tear down a few bird feeders but I got a bunch of bird feeders in my backyard and he hasn’t wrecked those. He just kind of does a big circle.”
He thinks that the weather has a role in the frequent sightings, but that they will not last for long.
“Because it was such a mild winter this year, they were out of their dens early this year,” Goza said. “He’s just trying to find a new home. He’ll probably either head back up north or go down south somewhere.”
Burns says that human sprawl is the leading cause of more bear encounters.
“It’s becoming more common I’d say, bear habitat is expanding throughout the state of Wisconsin,” he said. “We’re expanding our range into what has typically been wildlife habitat, so we’re moving into their range to an extent.”
While encounters are inevitable for those living near typical bear habitats, it is important for humans to do what they can to prevent bears from finding a reliable food source.
“People might consider bringing their birdfeeders in for a period of time, if they keep gas grills or charcoal grills on their patio maybe they consider bringing those into their garage at night,” Burns said, in addition to keeping garbage cans inside garages.
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Goza thinks that because the bear is mainly nocturnal, it does not pose a serious risk to humans, and would like to see the bear hang around the neighborhood.
“I guess you don’t expect to see one, if you see one it’s ‘oh, that’s pretty cool,’” Goza said. “He’s no harm to people, because he’s out at night.”
Van Elzen is okay with the bear if it does not cause trouble for her or her pets.
“If it becomes a nuisance, then I think you need to do something. If he’s minding his business, then you can coexist,” she said. “But obviously if it becomes a threat, I think at that point something has to be done. But we enjoy seeing the wildlife, it’s fun.”
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