A black bear that wandered into a subdivision north of Cheyenne on Friday was shot and killed by a neighbor with a hunting tag. It was the second bear that had wandered into the area in three days.
Another black bear was captured Tuesday after it was seen nosing around the east side of town, then tried to hide in somebody’s barn.
Watching someone walk out and shoot the bear Friday upset some of the people who live in the area who say it wasn’t a sporting hunt because the bear never had a chance.
"I’m all for hunting, but when a bear is holed up in somebody’s yard, that’s not really hunting,” Josh Ligenfelter told Cowboy State Daily.
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak said a deputy responded to the report of the bear and that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department also came out to handle the incident.
The neighbor of the property owner where the bear was had a valid Wyoming black bear tag, and the owner gave him permission to come over and shoot the bear, Kozak said. The neighbor got to keep the bear.
Wyoming’s spring bear hunting season is currently open, and the Cheyenne area is included in Wyoming’s black bear hunt Area 35, according to a Game and Fish Department hunt area map.
It’s legal for someone to shoot a bear during an open season in a hunting area he has a tag for, with permission from the property owner if the bear isn’t on public land, and Game and Fish confirmed that Friday’s shooting was a “legal take.”
‘Doubt It Was 10 Feet’
A neighbor who wished not to be identified sent an email to Cowboy State Daily regarding the bear being shot, and described the incident as upsetting.
“The bear wandered to a neighboring property and my neighbor went in the house, came back out with hunter orange on and a rifle, walked up to where the bear was hiding, and shot it dead,” the neighbor said. “Point-blank range, doubt it was 10 feet."
Other neighbors recalled hearing two shots, and then seeing the bear’s carcass being hauled to a pickup by the hunter and men who were perhaps sheriff’s office and Game and Fish personnel.
Spotted That Morning
Laramie County resident Bryan Vining told Cowboy State Daily that he lives a considerable distance from the subdivision where the bear was shot, but he’s certain the same bear passed through his property early Friday morning.
“I’ve never seen a bear out in our neighborhood before,” he said.
The bear was walking south and wasn’t posing any threat to his livestock, Vining said.
“He just turned and headed east, and I let him go,” he said.
Isaac Suptin, who lives adjacent to the property where the bear was reportedly shot, told Cowboy State Daily that he also saw the bear that morning.
He said he reported it to authorities and was told that the bear would probably be left alone, so long as it wasn’t bothering livestock, pets or people.
Ligenfelter said he watched the bear for a time, and it appeared to be lost and trying to find a way out of the subdivision.
“It was basically stuck,” he said. "There are fences all over the place."
Another neighbor, JoAnna Dewald, told Cowboy State Daily that the subdivision is “a stone’s throw from Interstate 25.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
