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By 1850–1908, gone · one bear's return visit, 2015 · Run B #217
All three stand in Chapman's gone-list of 1880, and the state record since is a record of endings with one documented exception: Chapman lists the panther, the black wolf and the black bear among the animals that went with or before the buffalo, and the catamount and lynx among those already very rare. The Indiana record, sized species by species: Wolves. Gray wolves were eliminated from Indiana by settlers — the DNR-derived summary gives the completion date as 1908, while the general DNR position as carried in secondary summaries is extirpation by the late 1800s; the two datings are printed together here and not reconciled, because the underlying DNR historical record reached does not choose between them. In recent history only one gray wolf has been confirmed in Indiana, a wanderer, and there is no breeding population and no reintroduction program. A central-Indiana trapper's recollection preserved in the Indiana Magazine of History ("Wild Animals of Indiana," from an 1859 fur account) has wolves disappeared from the Marion County ground by 1835 — local testimony, printed as such, showing how early the end came in the settled center. Panthers. The mountain lion — cougar, puma, catamount, panther; Chapman's list arguably carries it twice, as "panther" gone and "catamount" rare — was, in the Indiana DNR's own words, "extirpated from Indiana by the late 1800s." Indiana has no breeding population; the only confirmed modern reports are two southern-Indiana animals, fall 2009 in Clay County and spring 2010 in Greene County, possibly the same wanderer. No confirmed lion record for St. Joseph County or Penn Township stands in the record reached.
Bears carry the fullest arc, because the return touched this county. Black bears were extirpated from Indiana by unregulated hunting and habitat loss — the DNR's text dates the extirpation itself to by 1850, and separately gives the last confirmed report of a black bear in Indiana before the modern era as 1871, a sighting in northwest Indiana which Whitaker and Mumford note was an animal forced south from Michigan by the Great Michigan Fire; the two statements stand together: a resident population gone by mid-century, a last confirmed individual in 1871. Then, on 12 June 2015, Indiana DNR biologists confirmed a wild black bear in St. Joseph County — a young male walked in from Michigan, verified from scat examined by biologist Budd Veverka northwest of South Bend — "the first verified presence of a bear in the state in more than 140 years," and, Michigan DNR told Indiana, the southernmost black bear movement in more than a decade. The bear spent most of the next five months in Indiana, was last reported in the state on 13 October 2015, denned in Michigan, and was trapped and humanely euthanized by Michigan DNR on 9 April 2016 after habituated behavior made it a public-safety threat under Michigan's problem-bear guidelines. That is a visit, not a restoration: Indiana has no resident bear population as of the DNR's current statement, and no bear record seated in Penn Township itself stands in the record reached. The county event is printed at county size because the county is where the state's 144-year absence ended.
Sources: Chapman (1880), Ch. II, p. 340, read first-hand. Indiana DNR, Fish & Wildlife animal pages — Mountain Lion ("extirpated from Indiana by the late 1800s"; confirmed reports 2009 Clay County, 2010 Greene County; no breeding population) and Black Bear (extirpated by 1850 as carried in the DNR text; last confirmed report 1871; June 2015 St. Joseph County confirmation; last reported 13 Oct. 2015; euthanized 9 Apr. Wolf completion dates printed in conflict: "eliminated … by 1908" (DNR-derived summary) against "extirpated by the late 1800s" (general summaries of the DNR position) — not merged. "Wild Animals of Indiana," Indiana Magazine of History (1859 Cole fur account; George W. Pitts recollection, wolves gone by 1835 in the Marion County ground) — printed as testimony, not as a county record.