JEFFERSONVILLE — After a black bear has wandered into Indiana, state Department of Natural Resources officials said they’re following the advice of Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources: “Let it be a bear.”
At a press conference at the Falls of the Ohio State Park on Thursday, Falyn Owens, urban wildlife biologist, said the black bear seen in Corydon won’t be captured or harmed by the state.
“We cannot expect that this will be a single instance,” Owens said. “We don’t want to set precedence here that the solution is to capture the bear.”
The bear was seen Monday evening in the back yard of a Corydon resident, going through their garbage. Taylor Rasmussen, state non-game mammalogist said on Tuesday that the bear was seen about six miles north of Corydon by Tuesday. But he said Thursday that as daily reports come in, the bear continues to move north. Though they don’t have solid evidence, he said it’s likely the bear is a juvenile male, weighing about 200 pounds.
Owens said as bear populations in neighboring states continue to grow, Corydon’s bear won’t likely be the only one Hoosiers see. Though black bears are generally shy and not aggressive toward humans, she said people should remain friends with bears at a distance. That means avoiding intentionally feeding the bears, trying to get their attention or approaching them.
“Problem bears are not born, they’re created,” Owens said. “There’s a saying in places that live with bears normally and that’s ‘a fed bear is a dead bear.’”
She said if people intentionally feed bears, they see people as the source of food. That could cause them to become aggressive when they don’t get what they expect and could lead to euthanization.
She said keeping garbage in indoor areas like garages could help keep bears away, as well as putting away bird feeders and keeping sweet, oily, meaty or fishy smelling refuse out of compost heaps.
Rasmussen said male black bear cubs are typically chased off by their mothers between the ages of 15-18 months. He said this prevents other male black
She said the bear sighted in Corydon likely came from Kentucky’s core black bear population in the eastern third of the state. Though traveling such a long distance is unusual, she said it’s not impossible.
They said the bear will continue to travel until it’s finished and may stay or wander back to where it came from. Either way, Owens said the bear isn’t going to be harassed by officials.
“It’s our priority than the bear remains healthy in our state as long as it chooses to be here,” Owens said.