DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says a bear is roaming the Iowa countryside, and warned citizens not to “mess with it.”
The Iowa DNR says it has received at least two confirmed reports of a young male bear, likely 2 to 3 years old, in Grundy County and Butler County over the last three days, with another sighting in Tama County. It’s likely to be the same bear, given the proximity of the sightings.
“We believe this bear is not a cub, and we haven’t had any official sightings of additional cubs with this bear. Young males like this one are known to roam from Minnesota and Wisconsin on occasion looking for females and food, and they can cover quite a bit of area in a short time. It’s possible we will see more this spring and summer. Females wander too, but not as often and typically not as far. So at this time, we do not believe we have a reproducing population of bears in Iowa,” the DNR said in a social media post.
“Give the bear plenty of space and don’t mess with it. That can create problems for both people and the bear.”
Back in 2012, a bear was spotted running across a road in Nora Springs.
