Bear killed by John Deere Combine in Wisconsin
A huge hibernating male black bear was killed Nov. 26 in northern Dunn
County when it was hit by a combine.
Neil Schlough of Boyceville was harvesting corn in a field on The
Pinehurst Farm at about 7 o'clock that evening a few miles south of The
Dunn/Barron county line, just off of County Road VVV, or about 22 Miles
north of Menomonie.
The bear was denning in the field, having dug a hole about a foot deep to
lay in and pulled in debris from the corn stalks in on top of itself.
According to his wife, Phyllis, Neil came upon the bear with the
outside row of his combine head and drove the outside snout into the
animal's neck and shoulder and pushed it about six or seven feet.
She said Neil felt the combine strike something and the outside snout was
pushed up into the air (the combine wasn't damaged).
"He stepped out of the combine and saw that he had hit an
animal," she said. "At first he thought one of our dairy steers over there
had gotten out, went in the corn field, ate too much corn and died."
But it didn't take long for Neil to realize it was a bear, but
It, did take longer to realize how big it was. She said he called her and
Told her he thought it weighed about 300 pounds.
The DNR was called immediately and Conservation Warden Jim Cleven
responded.
A skid steer was taken to the field, and the bear was lifted up so
that it could be dressed out.
"With the lights ... we could see that it was a pretty
big bear," Phyllis said. "But we had no idea until the locker plant put it
on a scale that it weighed as much as it did."
The bear was taken to the Augusta Locker Plant to be prepared for
mounting. It was there that the animal was first weighed and measured.
Field dressed, the bear weighed in at 618 pounds and measured 7 feet
from head to tail.
The Schloughs were told at the locker that they could add 80 to 100
pounds, depending on the size animal, to reach an approximate actual
weight. "So we figure that bear had to weigh at least 700. We figure 700
to 720," Phyllis said.
It's too early to tell if the massive animal will break any
Records since the skull has to be dried for 60 days before it can be
scored.
Phyllis says they believe it has the potential to break the
State mark and will probably break the Dunn County record.
More common DNR wildlife specialist Jess Carstens said, "This is a thing
that, for whatever reason, is happening quite regularly that [bears] are denning
up in the middle of fields - and corn fields seem to be particularly
common due to the amount of debris from harvesting the corn that's on the
ground. There's a little more stuff to pull in on top of them as they
snuggle into the hole that they've dug."
Phyllis reported that they frequently see bears on their land. And
she said she recently saw a sow and cub in a corn
field that was being harvested.
After paying $75 to keep the bear, Neil is having the bear
full-body mounted by Tom Persons, owner of TP Taxidermy.
"He's hardly ever had time to hunt or fish or anything because of
farming," Phyllis said of Neil. " And so, he's going to keep the bear, and
he's going to have it mounted. He's really proud of his trophy.."
She said they were told by Persons that he'll have to use a grizzly
bear form to mount the bear because there aren't black bear mounts big
enough to do the job.
Person reportedly also believes the bear to be 15 to 20 years
old, but a tooth will be pulled during the mounting process to determine
its age..
Phyllis said Neil was recently trying to come up with a name for the
huge animal that will soon occupy a large amount of space somewhere in
their home.
"I thought this was kind of funny. He said, 'I'm going to name that
thing Hercules.' ... I thought Hercules for that bear was a good name.
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Topic: BEAR KILLED BY JOHN DEERE COMBINE IN WISCONSIN............... (Read 4640 times)
