What’s the visiting bear up to in this sweltering southwest IL heat? The latest update
READ MORE
Bear sightings in the metro-east and southern IL in 2021
Today it is a report of another big cat. This spring and summer, it was all about black bears visiting our region
Expand All
Another black bear sighting reported in southwestern Illinois. Here’s the latest
Another bear sighting in southern IL, this one about two hours southeast of Belleville
What’s the visiting bear up to in this sweltering southwest IL heat? The latest update
What’s the latest on bear sightings in southwestern Illinois? Here’s what we know
On sweltering days such as Friday when temperatures approached triple digits, what do American black bears do? Find a cool place to beat the heat, of course.
That’s exactly what Illinois Conservation Police Officer Don Schachner thinks the visiting bear in southwestern Illinois was up to Friday.
“Kind of think like a dog so to speak,” he said “If they’re an outside dog they find those low cool places sometimes under a porch or deck and dig a little hollow out. If the bear was Monroe County, for instance, he’d get in or around a sink hole with the cooler air out of the sun.”
Schachner described it as finding a microclimate.
“They’ll find a spot in the forest, in a pond, in a marsh or in a spring where it might be a few degrees cooler. They’ll seek those types of spots out and lay low in the day time unless something pushes them out,” he explained.
As of late Friday afternoon, Schachner said he had not heard of any additional confirmed bear sightings.
Later Friday, the Franklin County Emergency Management Agency reported a new sighting at Rend Lake.
``The bear that is temporarily visiting Franklin County has been observed today at Rend Lake on the south/west side of the spillway,” the agency said on its Facebook page.
A black bear sighting was first confirmed in Monroe County on June 10, then Clinton County on June 12, then Washington County on Tuesday, then on Thursday and again on Friday in Franklin County.
Schachner has said he believes it is the same bear, likely a wandering young male.
On the flip side, Schachner has dealt with several unsubstantiated reports, typically ones that come third hand. One such report was in Millstadt and another at Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo. The Millstadt report came third hand and, for the one at Annbriar, the bear was actually confirmed in Clinton County the same day.
“Some of them, I’ll be honest, we didn’t check them out,” Schachner said. “The problem is it’s third hand. Nothing else came in related to those. Some of them, it’s like this one isn’t worth looking into it. At the golf course, I didn’t put a whole lot of stock in it. When you don’t get it directly from somebody, the person who claimed to have seen it ... I think a lot of it is wishful thinking on peoples’ parts.
“We had a couple others that were scattered out and about, where it was like, that’s not really following the route the bear is taking.”
Schachner noted another alleged sighting at the Randolph County Conservation area, close to the same time the bear was confirmed spotted in Clinton County.
“There were two girls on horses, and the horses were scared .... supposedly they saw a bear. But that came third hand,” Schachner said. “That was kind of one of those you have to take with a grain of salt. People can spook themselves out pretty easily. I got a text message from a site worker, and he had gotten the report from someone. He didn’t get it first hand and didn’t have names. It was kind of a situation of here you go, take this for what it’s worth.”
Schachner did say they have not received as many unconfirmed reports as he expected.
“Some of the reports are worth checking out, and others you’ll spend all day chasing your tail. Fortunately, we have not had as many as I anticipated. It hasn’t been too bad, thank goodness,” Schachner said.
This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 6:06 PM.