Dec. 18: Solo the bear's hibernation could be - forever

DULUTH - Solo, the one-eared black bear, is denned up for the winter with two cubs under a lake cabin near Ely, Minn., blissfully unaware she's hibernating on death row.

A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources plan to kill Solo and relocate her cubs, because she's become too familiar with humans in Eagles Nest Township, is dividing residents, many of whom have put out food for Solo and like having her and other bears around.

While an estimated 25 bears live in the township, many residents readily recognize Solo because of her easily recognizable one ear. The other was ripped off when an adult bear attacked her as a cub, killing one of her siblings, said Township Board Chairman Dan Humay.

Humay did acknowledge there have been complaints that Solo scares people by getting too close to them.

But the township, where some residents have fed bears for decades, just last week adopted a 17-page plan called "Living with Bears ... Coexisting with Wildlife in a Natural Setting."

"Personally, I think it's premature to kill the bear," Humay said. "A number of people are convinced this is not an aggressive animal. It hasn't done anything to merit destruction."

Solo's death sentence also is drawing objections from longtime bear researcher Lynn Rogers, who has a radio collar on Solo and has been studying her habits to find out if people's "diversionary feeding" of bears makes them less likely to break into homes or cause other damage.

The DNR told Rogers in a Dec. 5 letter that reported problems with Solo last summer -- in which she got close enough to some residents to sniff or nudge them -- "may be a direct result of your activities, which have habituated the bear to human presence."

Rogers says it's the feeding and Solo's "trusting personality," not his work, that have led to the close encounters. "This bear just doesn't mind people, but it's not a danger to anyone." Rogers said.

No "Den-Cam" allowed

In November, the cabin owner learned that Solo and her cubs were hibernating under the unoccupied cabin, and that Rogers, founder of Ely's North American Bear Center, wanted permission to place a video camera there and broadcast images on a website.

Instead, the cabin owner asked the DNR to remove the bears. Combined with the earlier complaints about Solo's familiarity, that request led to the plan to euthanize Solo and relocate the cubs, said Mike DonCarlos, the DNR's wildlife research and policy manager.

He said that while the cubs are young enough to learn new habits, the mother's behavior probably can't be changed.

"The bear is willingly approaching people without fear," DonCarlos said. "That's not normal behavior, and that is sufficient cause for a public safety concern. We have to err on the side of caution."

DonCarlos said that Minnesota's wild bear population is "thriving -- in the thousands," and that the DNR typically kills a few dozen a year in the name of public safety. Usually, such decisions are made by conservation officers who respond to complaints of a problem bear, he said, adding that the Eagles Nest situation is "highly unusual," because the problem bear is hibernating.

While the DNR has heard from area residents concerned about its plan for Solo and the cubs, the plan remains in place even though "there's no timeline, and it's not likely [to be carried out] this week."

Pepper-spray reprieve?

The township's plan for coexisting with bears was devised by a 14-member "Community Bear Committee" that met through the fall, Humay said. Its report concluded that while habitually aggressive or destructive bears may need to be destroyed, others, including research and nuisance bears, might simply be "deterred" through coordinated community efforts.

Those efforts could include putting electric fences around gardens, putting barbecue grills and stored bird food inside, and driving problem bears away with loud noises or even pepper spray.

If residents aren't comfortable confronting a bear on their own, they could call a "Bear Help Line" to get in touch with a volunteer trained to drive bears away, according to the committee's report.

Humay said the plan represents a consensus reached, through "grass-roots government at its best." He said it would be a shame if the community isn't allowed to try its plan on Solo.

"Killing the bear might be the expedient thing to do," he said, "but we're eager to see if we can be effective in finding a different solution."

Larry Oakes • 1-218-727-7344