Tranquilized Bear Stuns University Students with Fall from Tree
OutdoorHub Reporters 04.27.12
When it rains it pours. If a student at the University of Colorado Boulder were at the right place at the right time, he or she would have had a chance to see two out-of-the-ordinary sights. First, President Barack Obama stepped in for lunch at a local student bar and restaurant, the Sink. Second, wildlife workers caught a 200-pound tranquilized bear on a mattress as it fell from a tree on the university’s campus.
According to university officials, a black bear, estimated to be between three and five years old, wandered onto the campus where it wreaked minor havoc on the buildings and students by breaking into dorm rooms and into a car park. Eventually, it climbed up a tree near a sidewalk and stayed about 15 feet off the ground for two hours.
Colorado wildlife officials were called to the scene where they tranquilized the young bear and caught it with cushy mattresses that were provided by the Rec Center. University Police Spokesman Ryan Huff said the operation went smoothly. “It was really a perfect landing. It is now in a cage and it will be relocated at a higher elevation.”
The Denver Post later reported that the bear was tagged and relocated to a habitat in Boulder.
