Ok, not a deer ....but.... a Black Bear has came down from Michigan and was first identified in ST. Joe County, it has been moved west SAYS our DNR and was sighted in LaPorte County near Michigan City. It was first tracked Near Muskegon by Michigan officials, then Id'd by taking a dump in a driveway north of South Bend...today it was Id'd by tracks found near Springville just off the Toll Road in Laporte county....the DNR is working to track its movements and are predicting it will continue westward based on terrain features says our DNR....this is the first confirmed wild Black Bear in Indiana since 1871....

Black Bears once considered native to Indiana are now listed as an exotic animal which prohibits the killing except by a resident landowner or tenant while the animal is "destroying or causing damage to the property owned or leased by the landowner/tenant .....

ooops... I very seldom ever go to the other forums....anyway's... there is a BOLO on this critter...

I know some people are afraid of it and there may not seem to be enough wilderness for it to live without human encounters, but personally I’d like to see it live and thrive in Indiana. First one since 1871. That’s just seems kind of “special” to me. I guess I’m a sap, I don’t know how else to articulate what I mean. I hope it’s not killed off right away while just moseying around not harming anything, but I’m sure there are guys in the woods with guns right now hoping they get a chance (excuse) to kill it. Reminds me of the story in December about the first mountain lion in Kentucky since before the Civil War was treed by dogs and immediately “dispatched” by a Department of Fish and Wildlife officer because it was dusk and he didn’t want to lose track of it in the dark.

Pretty cool, can't believe it's the first in that long. Seems like it could and should happen more often. Now that it's here let's bring it lots of friends, haha.

I probably could have ended this debate a few years ago if I only had a camera on me... My buddy and I were driving to go turkey hunting and we were around Switzerland/Jefferson County line and I know it was a black bear I saw running through a field as it was getting light out... It was big, black, and ran just like a bear...

I had always figured the first official sighting would be in this area and would have never guessed in South Bend in a million years as I knew Kentucky did have bears in the Eastern part of the state but did not know that Michigan had any....

90% of Michigan bears are in the UP, but yes they have them. It could have been a stray from Soldier Field tho.

No word on its whereabouts as of today(at least in the papers)... I hope it dosnt move into the National Lakeshore...I do my runs there, I'd hate to become bear scat as Timothy Treadwell did :0(

I saw it was around the Michigan City area yesterday. Raided a bee hive and got into some trash cans.

Steelhead run may look like Alaska w guys packing shoulder rigs while they ply the creeks.....

I saw my first bear track in the UP while deer hunting ... knew I wasnt in the corn fields of Indiana at that point....until now lol .... I'd love to see the critter

as of recent, the bear has hit a honey farm twice east of Michigan City ripping open bee hives and doing some damage and it was spotted a tad further north near the Michigan line too hitting a blueberry farm....

The critter was spotted again Thursday as it rummaged thru a garbage can(imagine that)near Johnson road and Trail Creek in Michigan City, just south of US 20 not far from a public fishing area for trout/salmon(Ive fished there before)... a couple watched it just 10 ft from their bedroom window around 3am Thursday....it tore into the garbage, ate its fill then went back in to the woods behind their house.....The DNR still expects it to move north back into Michigan as mating season comes around which stares around July 1st.....

Hey, Jeff.... I know that area very well, drive by there often. The bear would've had a big-time a little later in the year when the salmon are running