Bye-bye, Bruno: Bear spotted crossing Mississippi
Stray American black bear leaves Illinois behind, headed for southern Missouri
Bruno the errant black bear evidently preferred crossing the Mississippi River to the fame he found in Illinois. (Twitter/@potentiaregere)
By Ted Cox
Bruno the errant American black bear, who charmed Illinoisans with his trek down the western edge of the state from Wisconsin, crossed the Mississippi River earlier this week headed for Missouri.
Joe Hartsock of Pleasant Hill in Pike County shot video of a bear crossing the Mississippi Tuesday night and posted it on his Facebook page. WGEM-TV in Quincy reported the story Wednesday afternoon.
That location was consistent with the last stories reported on the bear, nicknamed “Smokey the Bear ‘Bruno’” by Illinois State Police after they joined in helping the bear cross Interstate 72 near Barry Monday afternoon.
According to WGEM, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources reported the bear had reached Island 464 in the Mississippi near Clarksville, Mo., but at the time the department could not confirm if he continued on across. Clarksville is the site of a Missouri State Game Refuge on the river.
IDNR spokeswoman Rachel Torbert said Thursday that the bear had been spotted in Elsberry, Mo., just south of Clarksville.
The department originally said the bear crossed from Wisconsin, where there’s said to be a population of 29,000 black bears, into northwestern Illinois on June 10. It crossed the Mississippi into Iowa, but then returned just south of the Quad Cities two weeks ago, when it began to attract serious notice.
The American black bear is the smallest of the bears on the continent and the most common, with a total population estimated at 600,000, but they’re a rarity in Illinois, driven out of the state by pioneers in the late 1800s. They’re protected under a state law enacted in 2015, however, that also moved to protect cougars and grey wolves.
IDNR counseled that the bear was unlikely to be a danger unless molested and advised residents to leave it alone and give it a wide berth — especially after it was harassed Father’s Day weekend by a crowd of about 300 in Henderson County.
Stephanie Fitzsimons, a large-carnivore biologist for IDNR, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier this week that many people were not observing the department’s request to maintain a distance of 100 yards — the length of a football field — between themselves and the bear : “I understand that people want to see the bear, and that’s OK, but there are too many,” she said. “Please take your pictures and then leave.”
Even so, Bruno remained on his best behavior as a lone tourist in a strange land. “This bear hasn’t even touched a garbage can,” Fitzsimons said. “It is a timid species, but you don’t want to provoke it. This is something we haven’t seen before. We’re not quite sure what it’s thinking.”
IDNR originally speculated that the bear left Wisconsin looking for a mate — with none to be found in Illinois. According to the Post-Dispatch, there’s a bear population in southern Missouri, where Bruno might finally find some companionship.