Black Bear in Iowa

Was out turkey hunting after work this Friday. Got awful windy and the rain was on its way so before dark I started my mile and a half trek back to my Camry. I was walking the edge of a CRP burn when I came to the main trailhead and looked across to the side of a ridge and noticed a large object on the side of a tree. At first, as bears aren’t common in Iowa, I thought someone was out monkeying with a tree stand, which I thought was odd, but whatever. Then as I made my way towards the tree I noticed the mass was black and trying to slide around the tree to the backside of it. It was hairy and I suddenly thought it was a Bigfoot. I got my camera out and popped a picture quick. When I got home, I studied it and realized it was a black bear. After I took the picture. I walked down the trail about 200 yards and looked back and noticed on the side of the tree there was another one up there, smaller and it had a brown coat, not so black. Figure it must’ve been the bear’s cub. Also, I haven’t reported it to the DNR, and was wondering if I should.

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I urge you to either remove your post or edit out the location. Sadly, someone is going to take this information and go shoot said bear. Bears are NOT protected in Iowa and it is open season on them year around.

I will, I just wanted people to be aware of where it was, I’m not sure on bear demeanors, especially with cubs.

Trying to add another pic, the one on here is zoomed in.

thats pretty cool. bears are generally more afraid of you then most people are of them. just to see that is cool. if there is a momma bear with a cub…there’s gotta be a daddy bear somewhere around???

only time i’d be a bit nervous is if you got between mom and the cub. generally speaking a bear would hightail it out of there if they sense a human nearby.

as for reporting it…..couldnt hurt!!!! my guess is if there is any activity at this gun range it will move along!!

Gonna try again, pic not zoomed in with no annotations.

Huntindave wrote:

I urge you to either remove your post or edit out the location. Sadly, someone is going to take this information and go shoot said bear. Bears are NOT protected in Iowa and it is open season on them year around.

why are they not protected????? more curious then anything!!!

Looks like the site isn’t liking my picture this morning. I’ll try again later.

glenn57 wrote:

why are they not protected?

That would be a question for the Iowa DNR. Actually it is a question for the Iowa Legislature. There was a bill going thru the legislative process, to protect bears in Iowa, bit it failed to “get thru” in this years session.

You can “go to the bank” that someone will attempt to shoot the bear and/or it’s cub, just to say they shot a bear in Iowa. They will also feel like it was a great accomplishment on their part.

Huntindave wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>glenn57 wrote:</div>
why are they not protected?

That would be a question for the Iowa DNR. Actually it is a question for the Iowa Legislature. There was a bill going thru the legislative process, to protect bears in Iowa, bit it failed to “get thru” in this years session.

You can “go to the bank” that someone will attempt to shoot the bear and/or it’s cub, just to say they shot a bear in Iowa. They will also feel like it was a great accomplishment on their part.

SAD!!!!!!!

Huntindave wrote:

I urge you to either remove your post or edit out the location.

Steven, fyi I took the location out of your post.

Dave, thanks for the heads up! Learn something new every day here.

-J.

Test. Keep getting an error posting to database.

Called the DNR and let them know. I guess in order to conceal location, if your in Iowa and turkey hunting or mushroom hunting, watch out for a bear. Be safe!

If a species population is pretty much non-existent then they don’t bother about writing them into laws. For example there’s no laws in Illinois about hunting or protecting elk. But, if you did shoot an escaped elk in Illinois, the environmental groups would make your life hell.

That would be pretty pathetic if someone would just go and shoot it because they can. Though it wouldnt surprise me. Thanks Dave for pointing that out because there is always some idiot out there. Black Bears are pretty harmless, but can be a nuisance for sure. You dont want to get between momma and her cubs however it wont end well for you. My youngest and I were deer hunting and we came face to face with momma bear and her 2 cubs. I told him to just stand still and they will leave. About a minute later they were gone.

didn’t a guy down in Iowa shoot a moose for that same reason, cause he could??? maybe I’m wrong

CaptainMusky wrote:

That would be pretty pathetic if someone would just go and shoot it because they can. Though it wouldnt surprise me. Thanks Dave for pointing that out because there is always some idiot out there. Black Bears are pretty harmless, but can be a nuisance for sure. You dont want to get between momma and her cubs however it wont end well for you. My youngest and I were deer hunting and we came face to face with momma bear and her 2 cubs. I told him to just stand still and they will leave. About a minute later they were gone.

X1000!!!!!!

Mike Schulz wrote:

didn’t a guy down in Iowa shoot a moose for that same reason, cause he could??? maybe I’m wrong

No. The dnr said we couldn’t shoot the moose. Where did you hear this? Or were you just throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what stuck? Dnr put it down because it had a brain infection and was running through fences and doing tremendous crop damage.

Steven Krapfl wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mike Schulz wrote:</div>
didn’t a guy down in Iowa shoot a moose for that same reason, cause he could??? maybe I’m wrong

No. The dnr said we couldn’t shoot the moose. Where did you hear this? Or were you just throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what stuck? Dnr put it down because it had a brain infection and was running through fences and doing tremendous crop damage.

I personally know Mike well, NO he’s not thrown sh!t against the wall. Why be sarcastic

it was many years and no I wasn’t throwing anything at the wall… like I said I might be wrong…

Just saw some “good Samaritan” rescued some kittens to the pound and turns out they were bear cubs. People are idiots! I’m sure Mom is pissed!

CaptainMusky wrote:

Just saw some “good Samaritan” rescued some kittens to the pound and turns out they were bear cubs. People are idiots! I’m sure Mom is pissed!

WOW!!!!!!!!!!