Bear Taken (Caption) from Eau Claire Leader-Telegram April 27, 1978
This black bear, weighing about 380 pounds, was killed after it was tracked down north of Stanley. It was determined the bear had killed two heifers on the Larry Romanowskis farm, Route 2, Stanley. From left are merle Karge and his son, Kevin of Stanley and Conservation warden Gregory Langrehr of Thorp – courtesy of Thorp Courier (me).
Story Headline: One bear in 10 years is too much
Stanley – If Larry Romanowski, who farms at Route 2, Stanley, doesn’t see another bear for 10 years, it won’t be too soon.
Romanowski lost two, 200-pound heifers last week when a large black bear strolled into his barn and killed the 2-mont-old calves by breaking their backs.
The bear was later tracked down and shot. It weighed about 380 pounds, according to Department of Natural Resources personnel.
The bear carried one of the heifers from its stall and ate part of it in back of a machine shed. Romanowski said two other heifers, about the same size and in the same pen, received claw wounds but appear to be recovering.
“I was lucky, in a way,” he said, “that I had taken 28 head of young stock out of the barn into the pasture two days before.”
According to Romanowski, the bear came into the barn through an open door and made its way into a feed room. Romanowski said they were able to trace the brear’s movements in the barn by its tracks.
Romanowski said he discovered the carcasses outside the building the next morning and said it must have been around 4 a.m. when the bear was in the barn.
He then called a friend, Don Klisiewicz of Stanley, who owns several hunting dogs. Klisiewicz then contacted Bob Prokup of Gilman, and with several other men and 13 dogs, took to the bear’s trail.
Because no dogs are allowed to be used in hunting bears in that area, the men had to obtain permission from the DNR to track the bear.
Romanowski said they tracked the bear for about 10 miles before they found it in a beaver pond in the town of Taft, about two miles into the woods.
He said the bear apparently had tired, and that two bullets had struck the bear earlier that morning.
Gregory Langrehr, DNr conservation warden from Thorp, cut the dead bear open to determine whether it was the animal which had killed the heifers. In its stomatch was hair from the calf which had been dragged from the barn.
The DNR sold the carcass to Merle Karge of Stnaley. The head and hide of the bear weighed more than 100 pounds, Romanowski said.
Romanowski pointed out that it was the first bear he had observed in the Stanley-Gilman area in more than 10 years. “I saw of couple of tacks a year ago, but this is the first one I actually saw in a long, long time,” he said.
The DNR reported there have been numerous incident, late this summer, of property damage caused by bears—and also more sightings than usual.
Conservation agents have noted the poor crop of pin cherries, choke cherries, raspberries and blackberries—usual food for bear. Also, reports of bears knocking over bee hies in the Thorp area have been received.
Romanowski said he believed this particular bear was probably on a killing spree because it didn’t eat much of the heifers.
He pointed out two inches of fat on the back and sides of the bear and three inches of fat on the belly.
“That’s not a sign of a hungry bear,” Romanowski said.
Back Story: My editor at The Thorp Courier, Jack La Gasse, heard chatter of the police scanner radio in the office about this bear killing two calves. When he mentioned it to me, I was ready to load the camera and head out to find where it was being hunted. He told me to wait because they had not yet found the “killer” bear. Wise man.
When I headed to the Karge farm near Stanley, the game warden was there and posed for this image with Merle and his son. It was real news that not only appeared in our paper but was also printed in the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.
