From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, By Doug Smith
Mark and Pam Rosenow were driving just north of Grand Marais along Lake Superior's North Shore when they spotted it.
A caribou.
"It crossed right in front of us on the highway. I couldn't believe it," said Mark Rosenow. "It was a caribou. I'm absolutely, 100 percent positive."
Caribou used to be common in northeastern Minnesota, but the last herd disappeared in the 1940s. There are some caribou across the border in Ontario, and officials think this one strayed south.
Darin Fagerman, conservation officer with the Department of Natural Resources stationed in Grand Marais, said he has received a second report of a caribou sighting since Rosenow reported his last month.
"It would be unusual, but it's not unheard of," said Ed Boggess of the DNR's Fish and Wildlife Division. "Occasionally a caribou will wander down from up north."
Rosenow, 43, is chief of police at Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport and was vacationing along the North Shore last month when he and his wife spotted the caribou. Rosenow said he has an undergraduate degree in wildlife biology.
"I know my animals," he said. His wife also immediately identified the critter as a caribou, he said.
"I've been going up there since I was a kid; we've seen moose and bobcats, but never anything like that," Rosenow said. "It was just amazing."
