Authorities did all they could to ensure a soft landing for this black bear up in a tree… and yet it still fell hard.
It’s not out of the norm for bears to wander into populated, residential neighborhood. Especially in an area like Albany, New York, which is located within close proximity to the Catskill Mountains. This young black bear likely walked into this neighborhood looking for some food, and quickly put itself in a pickle.
Residents in the Albany neighborhood first noticed the bear up in the tree around 2 a.m. this past Tuesday. As more and more onlookers saw the wild animal, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation got more and more calls. Only hours after it was first spotted, police had blocked off parts of the area for the safety of those in the community.
Thanks to that safety concern, officials were called to the area to safely remove the bear from the tree (which is easier said than done). With many in the neighborhood gawking and gazing at the massive bear stuck up in the tree, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officials went to work.
DEC wildlife biologist Jeremy Hurst told WRGB that they would have preferred to let the bear come down on its own, but because it was such a busy area, and because they were concerned the black bear wouldn’t find its way back to the wild, they went the tranquilizer route:
“So there’s a lot of decision making that goes into this scenario. As I mentioned, the best case scenario is we let the bear leave on its own. That’s safest for the bear. Ultimately, the decision was made to immobilize this bear as the most expeditious and maybe the safest way to get the bear out of the area.”
Safe for everyone in the area… but might not have been the safest for the bear, considering how it fell. After being hit with the sedative, it actually climbed higher into the tree, which then led to it hitting a lower branch rather hard before ultimately falling down into the netting officials were holding below:
Not exactly a graceful fall, but you can tell the black bear was doing everything it could to stay up in the tree.
Once the wildlife official had the bear tranquilized, they got to work on relocating the animal. It was eventually transported to the nearby Catskill Mountains, and was released back into the wild after it came to. CBS 6 Albany actually got a video of the release, and posted it on their social media:
No surprise that it got a move on out of that release crate.
That young black bear had a rather hectic 24 hours. But it’s good to see that everything worked out. The Albany neighborhood doesn’t have to worry about an apex predator running around in the street anymore, and this black bear has one heck of a story to tell for the rest of it’s life.
I’d imagine it start with something like, “So there I was, up a tree, and all of the sudden, this bumble bee stings me right in the butt. Next thing you know, I’m somersaulting down 20 feet into a makeshift trampoline.”
