September 5, 2017 at 3:32 p.m.
Engle sets trap after black bear mauls heifer
Chris Engle’s father, Donovan, found the heifer’s carcass about 50 yards from the barn. “It was licked clean,” Engle said. Black bears don’t usually go after heifers, according to the DNR. In fact, they are omnivores, like humans, and a more typical diet consists of fawn or dead animals in the spring; and berries, acorns, hazelnuts, and ants in the summer. (photo by Kristen J. Kubisiak)
The 300-pound heifer, owned by dairy producer Chris Engle, was one of three on a 2-acre paddock adjacent to Engle's farm and the only one killed - and eaten - by the uncharacteristically bold black bear.
"The heifer was in a small pasture that (abuts) the farmyard," Engle said. "My father found the carcass about 50 yards from the barn; it was licked clean."
Engle, who milks 33 cows 12 miles north of Frazee, also works at the Perham Stockyards one day each week - that was where he was when he learned about the calf.
"My father called me at work and told me what happened," Engle said. "Then the DNR came out to verify that it was a bear that killed and ate the calf. After that, we moved the other calves into the barn from the pasture."
Engle estimated the worth of the animal was about $600.
Like the calves, the other animals on Engle's farm are kept on paddocks; the cows are on an 80-acre parcel about a mile from the farm site and mature heifers on a 30-acre parcel of wooded pasture closer to the farm.
Although bear sightings in Becker County are not unusual, Engle said encounters with livestock are pretty rare. Until this incident, the type of damage bears have caused on Engle's farm have been limited to fences on the perimeters of his three paddocks.
"One time a bear lifted a gated right off of the hinges and threw it to get it out of his way," Engle said. "But a bear has never done anything like this... the bear actually crawled under a fence to get close to these heifers."
Greg Henderson, a wildlife technician at the Minnesota DNR office in Park Rapids, Minn., came to the dairy farm Tuesday, July 22 to confirm what Engle already suspected.
"I verified it was a bear that killed the calf," Henderson said. "We have a couple of different ways to determine if it is a bear...there are certain things a bear does that a wolf does not. For example, bears go for the entrails and rip them out - that is what happened in this case."
Although it is hard to know much more beyond the type of animal that caused the depredation, Henderson said it's pretty likely that the bear that killed this heifer was male.
The DNR set a live trap for the bear in hopes of catching the animal if it returned to the farm. Henderson said that when a wild animal causes damage to a landowner's property or livestock, they also have the right to dispatch of the animal themselves.
Henderson, who has worked for the DNR for 15 years, said the department does receive a number of bear reports each year, but usually they involve property damage.
"Maybe a bear will rip down a bird feeder or get into a garbage can," Henderson said. "It's not at all a common occurrence to receive a report of a bear that gets into a farmyard."
Earlier this spring, however, a bear in northern Becker County went so far as to take two beef calves out of a farm building.
"That was the first time I'd ever heard of a bear doing something like that," Henderson said. "Generally bears are very reclusive and stay away from humans as much as possible."
Black bears also tend to be omnivores, like humans, and a more typical diet consists of fawn or dead animals in the spring; and berries, acorns, hazelnuts, and ants in the summer.
"They are opportunistic feeders," Henderson said. "Calves and livestock aren't something they are interested in taking the risk (to eat)."
Henderson said the black bear that ate Engle's calf has probably moved on; the trap doesn't seem to be attracting any animals except for raccoons.
Engle said he waited for the bear with his deer rifle late Tuesday night, after Henderson's visit. Around midnight he said his dogs started barking. He shined his spotlight into the darkness and a bear was revealed.
"I took a shot at him," Engle said. "I don't know that I hit him, but I haven't seen him - or any signs of a bear - since then."
Still, Engle said he hopes to keep the trap set up for a couple of weeks - or at least until the DNR tells him they feel there is no longer a threat.
"But there is always a threat," Engle said. "We could take the trap away and the next night he could come back."
Henderson said Frazee is considered to be on the fringe area for bear habitats, but lately there have been more sightings.
"We will be trying to get a feel for the population and see if something is going on," he said. "But I would say this is probably a freak incident."
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