Mike Gappa was the perfect guy to talk to about Illinois bears.
Last summer, the first report came of a black bear in Bureau County. Cheryl Balensiefen took neat photos, including the one above on Dec. 30. Since then, there's been the one that ran around Jo Daviess County last month before heading back north.
So last week, I reached Gappa, now retired but Wisconsin's top researcher on bears, for a discussion on black bears and Illinois. The column in the Sun-Times is posted here.
I saw a dead black bear cub on RT 83 south of rt 132 near the village of third lake I was very surprised , i could not stop due to the traffic on rt 83 north the last time I was a black bear was fishing near the rock river in Racine County in Wisconsin