SHEFFIELD - A bear walked into a pasture Monday in Franklin County, but a farmer concerned about his cattle dispatched the animal with a rifle.

The bruin was on Jay and Eva Sheriff's farm about four miles west of Sheffield.

"(Jay) told me to bring the camera so he could take the pictures," Eva said. "He wasn't too excited. He just wanted to take pictures."

They also called a neighbor, Todd Hall, who checked on the bear's whereabouts. He discovered it was close.

"Me and the bear met on a trail," Hall said. "There wasn't room to go either way."

Hall said the bear charged and he shot the animal three times with a .300-caliber Winchester rifle. No license is needed to shoot bears in Iowa.

Hall said Ben Bergman, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources conservation officer assigned to Cerro Gordo County, measured the male bear. The animal was 6 feet, 10 inches long and weighed 300 pounds.

"He was sure fat, man. Oh, he was fat," Hall said.

He added the bear was apparently wild.

"They were convinced he'd never been in a pen or anything," Hall said. "He must have wandered too far south."

The last confirmed black bear sighting in Northeast Iowa was in 2002 in Clayton County, according to www.iowadnr.com. The closest resident populations are in Minnesota, Wisconsin and southern Missouri.

According to the DNR, wide-ranging species, such as black bear, wolves and mountain lions, occasionally show up in Iowa as the animals' populations in nearby states increases.

"Sightings of black bear, mountain lion, bobcat and wolf are more frequent each year," according to the agency's Web site. "Recent bear, mountain lion and bobcat sightings have included young."

The Sheriffs have about 100 cows on their farm. Hall said he has about 75.

"We both have cattle, and we didn't think we needed a bear," Hall said. "There's just no habitat for bears around here."

He has plans for the one that wandered into his neighborhood.

"I'm going to get a rug made out of him for my little boy," Hall said.

Contact Dick Johnson at dick.johnson@globegazette.com.