Where I come from, it’s hard to imagine a group of bears casually walking around town.
Hell, I’m fully convinced that if there were a few bears walking around my hometown, they’d close schools and tell everybody to lock themselves in their bathrooms.
Nevertheless, this isn’t all that rare for several parts of the country, and that even includes the New England area.
Believe it or not, the black bear density is fairly high in the Northeast since the states tend to be pretty small and hunting opportunities can be limited. In fact, bear hunting is outlawed in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and was only just recently reinstated in New Jersey. This means you’re bound to have some run-ins with bears in urban areas… and that’s exactly what’s happened recently.
According to Boston.com, a group of bears (or possibly one bear, it hasn’t been confirmed), were seen roaming around Foxborough and Attleboro, Massachusetts, as well as Pawtucket, Rhode Island recently.
The bear in Pawtucket was spotted roaming around, and began to make its way up a tree in the area.
Resident Chris Bertrand told the outlet:
“He then made his way to my street, finding one of the only trees in the area.”
The bear was reportedly a young male, weighing 170 pounds.
So, the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) made it’s way in to tranquilize and capture the bear.
After an hour of waiting, the group eventually had to tranquilize it…
And that’s when the creature fell out of the tree, and it was all caught on video.
Bertrand continued:
“Watching it fall was surreal.”
Environmental Police Officer Harold Guise said in a press conference:
“Bears are really tough animals. We think of people, but all wildlife is just so much tougher than a human.
When you spend your whole life climbing trees, you’re gonna take a fall from time to time. So we weren’t that concerned about the fall.”
Gee, you’d think they’d get a trampoline or a tarp, throw down a mattress, maybe something to break the fall?
Nevertheless, he seems to be doing fine.
They took him to Buck Hill Management Area in Burrillville, Rhode Island, where the bear has plenty of room to roam.
