Black bear found in yard of Green Bay home
Likely attracted to pet food, garbage

Updated: Saturday, 14 May 2011, 10:30 PM CDT
Published : Saturday, 14 May 2011, 2:01 PM CDT

    Reporter: Mark Leland 

GREEN BAY - A black bear was found in the yard of a Green Bay home Saturday morning.

Surprised Green Bay residents discovered a black bear in the 11-hundred block of Oregon Street on the city's west side around 5:30 Saturday morning.

The 150-pound bear took refuge in a tree in the back yard of a home in the middle of the block.

Neighbors say their dogs started barking earlier in the morning alerting them that something was out of the ordinary.

"A bear! Couldn't believe it, but I don't know where did it come from. We're in the middle of the city why would a bear be here?" wondered neighbor Linda Kurowski. "I thought it was a raccoon is what I thought was going on."

But it seemed Kuroski's dogs knew it was something they hadn't smelled before.

"Yeah, they were barking like crazy, so I don't know. Scary," said Kuroski.

DNR Warden Andy Lundin says the one-year-old male bear was calm and even fell asleep in the tree while they brought in a DNR biologist to shoot the bear with a tranquilizer dart.

As for how it got there? Lundin says it's springtime and they are on the move.

"My guess is just that maybe it followed along the river and made its way into the city somehow going after garbage and I did notice some of the houses around there had like dog food bowls outside and that of course will attract the black bear," said Lundin.

The bear was taken to a public wooded area up in Oconto County and released without incident. But DNR officials warn residents against leaving out pet food or open garbage that might attract wildlife.