Makoons

maria May 18, 2011 20 Comments

Has anyone seen the little bear on Park Point? I first saw it last Saturday by the water pumping station. We surprised each other and ran our separate ways. Then today I was driving back from the Park Point Airport and saw him (?) again, at 41st Street, inspecting a garbage can. I pulled over to take a picture. He sort of hid in the shade on someone’s front stoop (!). The photo looks weird because I had to brighten it way up to make the bear visible.

How did this bear get onto the point? How long has he been there? How old is he? He’s Newfoundland-sized. Will he swim to Wisconsin where the accommodations are less urban? Does the Park Point Community Club have a bear relocation program?

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20 Comments

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago 

This bear probably strolled over from Wisconsin during the winter. I saw the biggest black bear I've ever seen in my life last summer on Wisconsin Point.

What's up with the title of the post? Macoons? What's a macoon?

maria

about 14 years ago 

It means bear cub or small bear in Ojibwe. And I spelled it wrong the first time; now edited.

NateL

about 14 years ago 

My wife also saw it on Saturday as it was exiting the gate at Sky Harbor.

Kerc

about 14 years ago 

Do bears eat rabbits? It could solve that problem in a jiffy, if the foxes already haven't.

vicarious

about 14 years ago 

I saw him/her peeking through the fence at Sky Harbor about two weeks ago.

Bad Cat!

about 14 years ago 

I used to live on the point - 6th house after the bridge. The year before I moved in (maybe '95, '96?), there was a black bear & cub hanging out on the tree in the back yard. For some reason I remember a DNT article about it (Paul?).

Lisa

about 14 years ago 

Per my airport source it has been there for at least a few weeks and maybe longer (overwintered perhaps). Bears are not an unusual sight at the airport - almost yearly I hear tales of one climbing the fence.

There is the thought this is a yearling bear....

There are also 4 fox kits [and parent(s)] living near the taxiway. The DNR helped out when one of the kits got a fishing lure stuck in its paw - notified by the airport folks. The fox have been denning down there for a few years. Good for keeping the rabbit population in the area down.

wildgoose

about 14 years ago 

I like seeing Ojibwe on PDD.  Maybe we need a little language glossary post to link back to, you know, for northcountry languages and slang.  

I'm pretty sure I saw a wild dog coming back from the cities on I-35, near Sandstone.  It looked like a fox but the coloring was hard to see in my headlights, plus it would've been a huge fox, so then I thought wolf, but it was too scraggly for that, plus the tail seemed wrong, so maybe a coyote?  A feral house dog? It was gone in an instant, leaping across the freeway a quarter mile or so in front of me and then it was gone.  

As for Maria's Makoons, I'm wondering if the ice would've been stable enough for it to cross in March or whenever they wake up?  If there's a big bear den on Wisconsin Point, then why not on Park Point?  And it's true the rabbits do seem to be coming into line, what about Lisa's idea about a resident yearling? I'm asking.

ParkPointAl

about 14 years ago 

Bears aren't that uncommon on Park Point.  One ran through my back yard a couple years ago, and wound up being shot by the police at 12th street beach (the s-curve).  And they don't necessarily need good ice to cross over.  Black bears are excellent swimmers.

dbb

about 14 years ago 

Anyone taking odds on when DPD will shoot this one? 

I recall seeing my neighbors field-dressing a bear in the street by my apartment that had been shot in front of Fitgers maybe eight years ago. Not sure how they ended up with it, other than general hillbillyness. Also not sure that tossing the offal into the storm sewer was an appropriate decision, but that didn't stop them.

Makoons

about 14 years ago 

This article scared me momentarily as that's my name. I was like, "PDD is talking to me."

Angieboo21

about 14 years ago 

Oh my gosh he's back! I live on 32nd and a few months ago I swore I saw a bear go across my yard. I called the police to make sure his mother wasn't around to hurt anyone. Haven't seen him in a while. Such a cute thing.

Bad Cat!

about 14 years ago 

My mother (from the Twin Cities) saw the Park Point bear this weekend - she called 911. Seriously.

She was upset that the 911 dispatcher told her to just not bother it and she'll be fine, so I pointed out that black bears are generally harmless and will likely run away if you approach them. She told me that a bear is a bear and it didn't matter what type it was, they were all dangerous. I told her that if a grizzly bear was loose on Park Point, there would be a markedly different response.

bk gullsgate

about 14 years ago 

Every creature needs a name...

"Somebody seen him hangin' around ... 'Dylan-the-Bear' in the long black coat ..." in respect to Dylan's 70th birthday.

This bear looks like a young yearling with a distinctive white spot on his chest, and yes there often are bears found on the Point. Not too many years ago Mama Bear and two cubs fed on the berries of the neighbor's Mountain Ash tree and the cubs 'played' on our deck and tree stands.

It took a whole weekend to tranquilize and cage  the bears...no tranquilizer guns in the immediate area; no stun guns yet in use I suppose ... and the bears had a ball.

The DNR's attempt to cage the bear is a long story about DNR's not too expert wild animal control and too long to tell,here ... yes it was a circus indeed!

Now chalk that up, right? ... it's Dylan the Bear, from here ... cheers.

wildgoose

about 14 years ago 

I just love Sam Cook, personally and as a writer.  But I noticed today in his piece in the Duluth News about this Makoons/Little bear that he doesn't mention that it appeared here on PDD 12 days before the DNT ended up covering it.  

Bear hanging out on Duluth's Park Point

Now in Sam's case this may be just a coincidence, but in the case of other media outlets "borrowing" ideas from PDD shouldn't they mention the source of their idea or information?  I mean, bloggers always do that here, right?  If I'm listening to the news and someone says something on a Sunday morning talk show they will quote the person but they always source the quote, too.  I know that apparently some at DNT consider PDD a competitor, and it probably is in many ways, but so are other news outlets.  If they take a story from WDIO or Business North wouldn't they source it to them or at least say "according to published reports."  

If this is a threadjack, let me know (it wouldn't be the first time) and I'll move it to it's own thread.  I think it's something that should be talked about and I'd like to hear what others say.

PS I like BK's idea of naming the bear.

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago 

The newspaper could have found out about this bear any number of other ways. And it's not like any information was lifted from this post for that story. Sam Cook did his research; all we did here was mention it first, thanks to Maria.

"Bear hanging out on Duluth's Park Point" is not really a scoop PDD is interested quibbling about. But it is a good post, so thanks for that, Maria.

Wildgoose, we'll only consider your comment a threadjack if a bunch of people feel like they have to argue about this. 

By the way, when I read the DNT article this morning I realized how stupid my first comment was. It's quite unlikely the bear "strolled over from Wisconsin during the winter." Bears hibernate. Duh. 

Basically, we throw out knee-jerk reactions around here and the paper does actual reporting. Sure, sometimes we look into particular subjects in great detail, but generally we don't. I'd say Sam Cook doesn't owe us a tip of his hat on this one. The DNT has acknowledged PDD numerous times in the past; I doubt there is any effort in their newsroom to avoid mention of our beloved little blog.

But we appreciate that you've got our back, Wildgoose.

Lithis

about 14 years ago 

The Wannabe Birder on Area Voices posted photos of the Dylan the Bear on the same day as this post: Also on Park Point .... He alluded to the bear the day before in Amazing pictures (in the last paragraph).

Barrett Chase

about 14 years ago 

What Paul said. There's absolutely no reason for Sam Cook to mention PDD.

As for how the bear got there, bears can swim, right? It isn't that far across.

Paul Lundgren

about 14 years ago 

Yeah, the DNT article and ParkPointAl above both note that bears are good swimmers. Other critters wander over on the winter ice, but it's not likely this bear was doing anything but slumbering back in January. It could have strolled through Canal Park and across the Aerial Lift Bridge, but a lazy swim from Wisconsin Point is almost certainly what happened.

GORDON & CARO LINN

about 13 years ago 

New to this site, Caro found this website through a friend.
We have seen several bears down here.
We saw a fairly Large Black Bear 2 falls ago eating apples from our little Apple tree in the front yard here at 740 S Lake. THEN YESTERDAY (8 June) we saw a yearling walking up our back porch right next to the window where we watched him. Then climb over the fence into the neighbors yard we got some (grainy big foot quality)photos that Caro will try and upload "He" (for lack of going up and taking a closer look) looks really healthy and active Super fun to see him yesterday.  Now if I can just see lake monster or bigfoot my bucket list will be complete.

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