Bears are a rare occurrence in Door County, but wildlife experts said there could be up to 20 on the peninsula at any given time. Photo courtesy of Snapshot Wisconsin taken in Clark County.

It’s not unusual for driftwood, alewives, carp and even huge logs to wash up on the shores of Green Bay, but one property owner south of Egg Harbor found quite a surprise on the rocks on Monday – an adult black bear, seemingly washed ashore on the beachfront property south of Egg Harbor.

Andy Hanks of Door County Pest Control got a call from a property owner with an odd request. 

“I’ve got a bear on the beach, can you remove it?” the man asked Hanks.

Though Hanks deals with a lot of odd requests in his line of work, he said disposal of a black bear is out of his league. 

“A lot of people call me and think they see something, but it’s nothing,” Hanks said. But he offered to go to the house and take a look and confirmed it was a black bear. “I told him I wouldn’t remove it because the Department of Natural Resources would probably want to look at it.”

Hanks shared two photos of the bear, which we are not sharing due to the animal’s deteriorated condition. A large chunk of the bear’s hair is washed away on its back, exposing the skin. A call to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was not returned as of Wednesday morning.

Hanks estimates that the bear weighed a couple of hundred pounds. His best guess is that it has been dead for a couple of weeks, and that it likely drowned and floated ashore.  

“It was in a populated area, and if there’s a bear roaming around a place like that, a lot of people are going to see it and be talking about it,” Hanks said. 

Bears are typically scared of people and are found most often in swampy areas or secluded forests. Sightings in Door County are rare, but a bear was reported roaming around Peninsula State Park in September of 2024. Randy Johnson, the DNR’s large carnivore specialist, estimated in 2024 that up to 20 bears are on the peninsula at any given time. He said this could range from a few resident bears, as well as transient bears moving through the area temporarily.

Bears have made a comeback in Wisconsin, growing from a population estimated at 9,000 in 1989 to 23,000 today, according to the 2025 bear hunting season report from the DNR.