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The dog had gone outside rather early and then told me that he'd just as soon stay out until morning came. Sometime after I'd gotten back to sleep, Buddy started to bark. It was his "somebody is out here" bark, not his "don't you dare come into my yard" bark, but eventually I had to get up to see what was going on. I looked out to the back and saw what looked like a large shadow on the back side of my silver maple tree. The shadow was big enough to be a large animal, even a bear. And the shadow moved.
It was too dark to know, so Buddy and I waited ... inside the house now ... for daylight to start to creep in. As the light increased, the bearness of the shadow became more pronounced.With some reservations, I thought it wise to call the authorities. The bear certainly hadn't broken any laws and was quietly napping, but as Saturday morning awakened the local families, I had some concern for the potential interaction of lost bear with frightened parents. After all, my house is a mile from Atkinson's marsh and even if he had known the shortest route there would be a lot of houses to pass getting from here to there.
I don't know quite how to report this,
I said, but I have a
bear in my back yard.
I had called the non-emergency number, but
all the calls go through the 911 center operators. You have
what?
the operator responded. A black bear,
I reiterated.
The bear really hasn't been posing very well.
Soon there was a police officer, and a police lieutenant, and a third officer. After a little while, a fourth. Never have I seen a faster response by the police department, each of them fully equipped with a cell phone camera. They and their phones also provided the invaluable service of figuring out how to make contact with the local DNR warden. (Remember, this is still only about 5:00 on a Saturday morning and regular office phone listings weren't much help.) While we were waiting for the DNR, a contingent of 911 operators and a tag team of patrol officers arrived to have their own pictures with the bear who, fortunately, was content to stretch on the limb and wait us out.
The DNR did arrive, Warden Andy and a couple of wildlife management guys, but they didn't have a tranquilizer gun. Apparently, there wasn't one available anywhere in the entire county. More cell phones. Eventually, a dart gun was located at the closest APHIS office (which I think is Manitowoc). During this time, the police stationed officers on both the Oregon and Dousman Street sides of my block to limit curiosity seekers from wandering in and spooking my bear, uniformed curiosity seekers generally excepted. When the APHIS agent arrived with the equipment, and with a few handshakes and consultations concluded, the DNR began act. It is now around 10:00. Several boxes of supplies were carried into the yard, positions were taken, and the dart was fired into the bear's flank. He was a touch annoyed at that and started to climb higher into the tree. But he gave up on that idea as the grogginess took hold; instead, he tried to take another nap. Tranquilizer darts are what they are and after a few minutes the bear tumbled the 7 feet out of the tree onto the soggy ground. If you have to be darted out of a comfortable tree, a spring day at the end of a long rainy period is definitely a plus.
The animal experts approached slowly, making sure a full 6 minutes had elapsed for the drug to take effect. Then they removed the dart, completed the paperwork, tagged the bear, and carried him to the waiting bear trap for transportation out of the city.
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