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X-WR-CALNAME:DNR confirms black bear report in southern Indiana
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Indiana (East)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260914T000233Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_36635972350219
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20160718
DESCRIPTION:The Indiana Department of Natural Resources today confirmed the
  presence of a black bear in and around Corydon in southern Indiana.\n\nTh
 e bear was first reported around 9 p.m. Sunday. Indiana Conservation Offic
 ers received a call from a Harrison County homeowner of a bear going throu
 gh the caller’s garbage.\n\nConservation officers\, sheriff’s deputies
  and local animal control officers responded but did not locate a bear. On
  Monday morning\, the bear was observed by several people\, including cons
 ervation officers\, in areas near State Road 62 and later in Corydon.\n\nT
 he sighting comes roughly a year after a black bear wandered into northwes
 t Indiana from Michigan. That bear was the first verified presences of a b
 ear in Indiana in more than 140 years. After spending several weeks in Ind
 iana\, the bear returned to Michigan.\n\nYoung black bears are known to di
 sperse in the springtime as they seek new territory in which to settle. Th
 e bear is most likely wild and swam across the Ohio River from Kentucky. K
 entucky has an expanding bear population.\n\n“We’ve anticipated this p
 ossibility and our staff has been preparing\,” said Linnea Petercheff st
 aff operations specialist with the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife.\n\nBla
 ck bears are shy by nature and tend to avoid human contact. Attacks are ra
 re. Black bears are non-aggressive in most instances and prefer fleeing fr
 om humans when given the chance. DNR wildlife biologists offer the followi
 ng bear awareness tips:\n\n– Don’t intentionally feed bears. If a bear
  becomes accustomed to finding food near your home\, it may become a “pr
 oblem” bear.\n– Eliminate food attractants by placing garbage cans ins
 ide a garage or shed.\n– Clean and store grills away after use.\n– Don
 ’t leave pet food outside overnight.\n– Remove bird feeders and bird f
 ood from late March through November.\n– Don’t add meat or sweets to a
  compost pile.\n– If encountering a bear\, don’t run. Shout\, wave you
 r arms and back away slowly.\n– Collect and remove low-hanging or fallen
  fruit from fruit trees.\n– Eliminate meat\, cooking oil\, fish or fruit
  odors from near your home. This includes fish-meal fertilizers.\n– Coll
 ect and remove any ripened vegetables from your garden.\n\nIndiana DNR enc
 ourages citizens to report bear sightings to dfw@dnr.IN.gov or by calling 
 (812) 334-1137 during regular business hours. Photos or videos can be sent
  to the same email address. The maximum file size is 15 MB.\n\nDNR wildlif
 e biologists will monitor the bear to determine whether to allow it to rem
 ain where it is or trap it and relocate it to a more suitable environment 
 for a bear. That decision will be based on whether the bear exhibits nuisa
 nce behavior and continues to come into close contact with humans.\n\nThe 
 DNR has a protocol in place should the bear become a nuisance\, according 
 to Josh Griffin of the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife.\n\n“It’s best 
 if people just leave the bear alone and let it be a part of the natural en
 vironment\,” he said.\n\nAs European settlers began arriving in the 1700
 s in what is now Indiana\, black bears were found throughout the territory
 . Loss of habitat and demand for furs of all sorts led to the bears’ dem
 ise in Indiana.\n\nAccording to the book “Mammals of Indiana” by John 
 O. Whitaker\, Jr.\, and Russell E. Mumford\, the last confirmed report of 
 a resident wild black bear in Indiana was in 1850. Whitaker and Mumford re
 port a bear sighting in northwest Indiana in 1871 but note it was forced s
 outh from Michigan to escape a series of fires known historically as the G
 reat Michigan Fire.\n\nBlack bears are now listed as an exotic mammal and 
 protected under Indiana Administrative Code 312 9-3-18.5 (b-1)\, which pro
 hibits the killing of a black bear except by a resident landowner or tenan
 t while the animal is “destroying or causing substantial damage to prope
 rty owned or leased by the landowner or tenant.”\n\nSouth-central Indian
 a is hilly and heavily forested with large tracts of public land. Harrison
 -Crawford State Forest and O’Bannon Woods State Park occupy about 26\,00
 0 acres in the area. The Hoosier National Forest also occupies large swath
 s in Crawford and neighboring Perry County.\n\n“It is possible black bea
 rs may re-establish populations in the southern half of our state\,” sai
 d Sam Whiteleather of the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. “Education ef
 forts on how to deal with nuisance black bears would be conducted to help 
 ensure black bears are enjoyed from a distance.”\n\nTo view all DNR news
  releases\, please see dnr.IN.gov.
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SUMMARY:DNR confirms black bear report in southern Indiana
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.in.gov/event/dnr_confirms_black_bear_report_in
 _southern_indiana
CATEGORIES:Press Releases
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