Yelling “TIMBER” is usually reserved for when trees are set to fall, but what about things that fall out of trees?
I only ask because it seems very appropriate to yell the word watching this tranquilized black bear clumsily tumble down through a bunch of tree limbs. It’s hard to explain with words, but there’s just something entertaining about a big ol’ bear falling out of a tree like a rag doll.
Believe it or not, this exact same situation happens more often than you would think. The typical order of events follows a pattern of 1) bear wanders into neighborhood looking for food, then 2) bear ends up in tree, followed by 3) bear gets tranquilized out of said tree. That same sequence brought us this timeless, classic video of a bear getting tranq’d out of a tree and bouncing off of a trampoline.
And from the makers of “trampoline bear” comes “tarp bear. This bruin, aligning with most other bear tranquilization occurrences, was wandering around a Washington neighborhood looking for food and found itself in a sticky situation. The presence of the dangerous animal locked down an elementary school in the surrounding area, so authorities acted fast to take care of it.
What’s the fastest way to get a bothersome bruin out of a tree? Well, if you can, popping the thing with a tranquilizer shot usually does the trick… you just have to make sure something is there to catch it on the way down. Sometimes it’s a trampoline, and sometimes it’s a tarp held by a bunch of different people that likely had second thoughts as they watched the bear fall from the sky.
If you thought, “There’s no way a tranquilized bear could fall out of a tree with any gracefulness,” you would be correct. This bruin came crashing through the limbs of the tree like a ton of bricks, and hit the tarp pretty hard. Fortunately, there were enough people standing around the tarp to manage the weight.
They eventually got the bear in the tarp and secured onto a vehicle. Wildlife officials relocated the bear to the place that was more suitable… and I’d love to know what the bear was thinking when it woke up. Has to be the closest thing to blacking out after a wild night at the bars that a wild animal could ever experience.
Check it out:
Look out below! A black bear will be relocated after it was tranquilized and fell from a tree in a neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/F6gHWnMXG1
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) May 19, 2024
