Bureau County Bear Captured
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009
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By Jeff Dankert
perureporter@newstrib.com
Lindsay Welbers
ntprinceton@ivnet.com
A black bear found hibernating in a drainage ditch Tuesday near Neponset was tranquilized and taken to a rehabilitation center in southern Illinois.
The bear is likely the one reported and photographed by residents this winter in western Bureau County, said Sgt. Robert Frazier of the state Conservation Police.
A farmer was driving a four-wheeler through a field, saw the bear in a drainage ditch a quarter mile from the road, and called authorities, Frazier said.
Four conservation officers joined two employees from Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley to tranquilize the slumbering bear just before noon, Frazier said.
“We were able to walk up to it tranquilize it,” Frazier said. “It didn’t even wake up. It was very low-key.”
A zoo employee fired the tranquilizer gun, Frazier said.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officers met Illinois officers in Rockford and loaned them a culvert trap, a tubular contraption used to trap and transport bears. Officers loaded the drowsy bear into the trap-on-wheels.
“They gave it another drug to reverse the sedative,” Frazier said. “We got it to the destination last night but it was still kind of groggy.”
