Castle Creek Outfitters
Minnesota Black Bear and Whitetail Guide Service.
Pardon for Solo? Bear living under lake cabin could be moved to a sanctuary
The fate of Solo, the one-eared black bear that has been hibernating with her two cubs under a northern Minnesota lake cabin and spreading anxiety among townfolk, may be settled soon.
The Department of Natural Resources said today that it is contemplating a proposal brokered by a legislator to move the bears from the lake cabin near Ely to the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary near Orr.
State Rep. David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake, said the sanctuary will accept the bears, sparing Solo a potentially deadly fate at the hands of the DNR and sparing the neighbors any further worries about their safety.
Assistant DNR Commissioner Bob Meier said the department will consider the move and could have a decision after the holidays. A permit from the DNR would be required in order to have the bears moved from the unoccupied Eagles Nest Township cabin to the sanctuary, Meier said.
Typically, bears that have become a nuisance, are destroyed, Dill said.
And relocating Solo into the wild wouldn't work, he said, because "the bear has been socialized, more or less" by the accessibility of food from humans and "it's used to people, coming up to people. It's not good."
Meier said the DNR's overriding concern is the public's safety, and "black bears are wild animals, and they are dangerous, just like any other bear."
The responsibility for Solo's uncertain future, Meier said, rests with people who have "given it a name, treating it like a pet, when it's a wild animal."
Township Board Chairman Dan Humay acknowledges complaints from citizens that Solo scares people by getting too close.
Even so, Humay said, "it's premature to kill the bear. 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 drew objections from longtime bear researcher Lynn Rogers, who has a radio collar on Solo and has been studying her habits to find out whether 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.
The cabin owner has asked the DNR to remove the bears. Combined with the earlier complaints about Solo's familiarity, that request led to a plan to destroy 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.