WIOTA - "If you're going to be around the Stamm boys, you have to know your hunting," exclaimed Cathy Stamm with a laugh. That's why there was no doubt in her mind about the large black object she saw in the middle of the road near the country home she shares with her husband, Gary, approximately two miles east of Wiota.
She had just crossed the bridge by the East Wiota Church on State Hwy. 78, expecting to make a routine left turn onto Stewart Road. Instead, she saw a black bear standing on all fours about 40 feet in front of her.
"The bear stopped and looked at me before it walked off," she said. "It couldn't be anything else but a bear," she remembers thinking. "It had a pointy nose and the legs were too sturdy for it to be anything else."
Stamm reports she felt better about it when her husband and a few friends later found tracks they determined had to be those of a bear. "I didn't think I was imagining this," she concluded.
The Feb. 25 sighting is not the first time for such an event to occur in the Wiota area. Chuck Dearth of Monroe owns land not more than two miles from the Stamms. He possesses a trail camera image of what he and others are "99.9 percent sure" was a bear in April 2007.
"I took it over to the Argyle Rod & Gun Club, and they were pretty certain it was a bear," Dearth said. "I don't know what else it could have been."
Sightings of large predator animals have been increasingly frequent over the past few years. A cougar sighted near Milton (eventually shot in a Chicago suburb) was the most recent confirmed sighting of the species until a hunting dog treed an adult male near Spooner on Mar. 4, 2009.
Department of Natural Resources staff attempted to tranquilize the animal in order to take a blood sample and attach a radio collar, but were unsuccessful. Wildlife Biologist Ken Jonas said they tried to use the minimum amount of immobilization agent to prevent the animal from falling from the tree and harming itself. However, the animal leaped from the tree and disappeared into the heavily wooded area.
Cougars (also called mountain lions, pumas, or catamounts) were last seen in Wisconsin during the early part of the 20th Century. Recently, their presence has been documented in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
Sightings of bobcats and wolves are becoming more common as well. Area coyote hunters report seeing wolves on occasion, one of which was mistaken for a coyote and shot recently in Lafayette County. The DNR estimates the wolf population in Wisconsin has reached 537 animals.
Rather than migrating into southern Wisconsin from the North, as are wolves and bears, bobcats are believed to be moving into the state from the west, primarily from Iowa.
Bobcat populations in Iowa have increased substantially since the early 1980s, leading state officials to remove them from the threatened list in 2003. Iowa Department of Natural Resources studies show that bobcats can travel great distances, with males traveling farther and more quickly than females.
Collisions with cars caused the deaths of two bobcats in southern Wisconsin within the last year, one on State Hwy. 23 between Dodgeville and Spring Green and the other near Arlington in northern Dane County. The bobcat found dead near Arlington carried an ear tag placed on the animal by the Iowa DNR.
While bobcat populations in southern Wisconsin are believed to be small, 477 animals were harvested in northern Wisconsin in 2007.
Individuals observing any of these animals are encouraged to report the sightings to the DNR at 1-888-936-7463.
- Lee Fahrney can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
She had just crossed the bridge by the East Wiota Church on State Hwy. 78, expecting to make a routine left turn onto Stewart Road. Instead, she saw a black bear standing on all fours about 40 feet in front of her.
"The bear stopped and looked at me before it walked off," she said. "It couldn't be anything else but a bear," she remembers thinking. "It had a pointy nose and the legs were too sturdy for it to be anything else."
Stamm reports she felt better about it when her husband and a few friends later found tracks they determined had to be those of a bear. "I didn't think I was imagining this," she concluded.
The Feb. 25 sighting is not the first time for such an event to occur in the Wiota area. Chuck Dearth of Monroe owns land not more than two miles from the Stamms. He possesses a trail camera image of what he and others are "99.9 percent sure" was a bear in April 2007.
"I took it over to the Argyle Rod & Gun Club, and they were pretty certain it was a bear," Dearth said. "I don't know what else it could have been."
Sightings of large predator animals have been increasingly frequent over the past few years. A cougar sighted near Milton (eventually shot in a Chicago suburb) was the most recent confirmed sighting of the species until a hunting dog treed an adult male near Spooner on Mar. 4, 2009.
Department of Natural Resources staff attempted to tranquilize the animal in order to take a blood sample and attach a radio collar, but were unsuccessful. Wildlife Biologist Ken Jonas said they tried to use the minimum amount of immobilization agent to prevent the animal from falling from the tree and harming itself. However, the animal leaped from the tree and disappeared into the heavily wooded area.
Cougars (also called mountain lions, pumas, or catamounts) were last seen in Wisconsin during the early part of the 20th Century. Recently, their presence has been documented in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
Sightings of bobcats and wolves are becoming more common as well. Area coyote hunters report seeing wolves on occasion, one of which was mistaken for a coyote and shot recently in Lafayette County. The DNR estimates the wolf population in Wisconsin has reached 537 animals.
Rather than migrating into southern Wisconsin from the North, as are wolves and bears, bobcats are believed to be moving into the state from the west, primarily from Iowa.
Bobcat populations in Iowa have increased substantially since the early 1980s, leading state officials to remove them from the threatened list in 2003. Iowa Department of Natural Resources studies show that bobcats can travel great distances, with males traveling farther and more quickly than females.
Collisions with cars caused the deaths of two bobcats in southern Wisconsin within the last year, one on State Hwy. 23 between Dodgeville and Spring Green and the other near Arlington in northern Dane County. The bobcat found dead near Arlington carried an ear tag placed on the animal by the Iowa DNR.
While bobcat populations in southern Wisconsin are believed to be small, 477 animals were harvested in northern Wisconsin in 2007.
Individuals observing any of these animals are encouraged to report the sightings to the DNR at 1-888-936-7463.
- Lee Fahrney can be reached at (608) 967-2208 or at fiveoaks@mhtc.net.
