For the second time in a week, a bear was reportedly spotted in northeast Iowa.
The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office took a report Friday, May 18, 2012 of a black bear about a half-mile north of West Union on Highway 50.
Deputies found the bear about a half-mile north of North Fayette High School in West Union, Iowa.
Students were kept inside local schools while Sheriff Marty Fisher used an ATV to turn the bear back north.
“Deputies then escorted the bear two miles northwest of West Union when it then continued traveling northwest into a wooded area,” said a spokesperson for Fayette County.
The Iowa DNR was notified.
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Bears are uncommon, but not unheard of, in Iowa – as three men near the town of Ridgway can attest.
Tom Marhoul and Travis Zidlicky were locking the plant at Hovden Oil just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 15, 2012 when they spotted the bear.
As the bear headed south across a field, Terry Hovden snapped photos of the animal.
The sighting happened near Ridgeway, about 11 miles west of Decorah.
The last reported bear sightings in northeast Iowa were in 2009 and 2010.
(ABC affiliate KCRG contributed to this report)
