Laura Bond, Reporter
07-02-2008
After making numerous
appearances around Ruston on Tuesday, a roaming black bear was anesthetized and
transported out of the city by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries. Sightings of the bear were reported at the Fairfield Inn, Durden Street, around the post office and right off McDonald Avenue, where the bear was finally captured shortly before 4 p.m.
“When we got there he ran back into the woods,” Ruston Police Lt. Curtis Hawkins said. “We kept him within a 2-3 block area until Wildlife and Fisheries got there and got a good tranquilizer dart in him. After he was shot by tranquilizer, he wandered into Roberts Park on Mississippi Avenue, where the tranquilizer took its effect.”
John Hanks, a wildlife biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said the bear was a 3 or 4 year-old male weighing approximately 140 pounds with an Arkansas tag on his ear.
The tag indicated he was from that area and either he or his mother had been caught before. Bears can travel up to 20 miles a day, and this one was likely in search of a home range, Hanks said.
“A lot of times they’ll leave (town) on their own, but he happened to go the wrong way,” he said.
Hanks said after the bear was shot with a tranquilizer dart, it took him 7-8 minutes to go down. The bear was then placed in a culvert trap and loaded into a truck, Hanks said, to be transported to a wildlife management area or wildlife refuge at an undisclosed location.
Hawkins said throughout the ordeal, which began around 7 a.m. Tuesday, approximately 40 people teamed up to search for, manage and transport the bear, including those with the fire department, city utilities and animal control.
At one point Tuesday morning, Hawkins said the Ruston police had cornered the bear in a tree, but were advised by Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents to let him go, with the idea in mind he would wander out of town on his own. After more sightings, however, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents were brought back in.
Reflecting on the day’s events, Hawkins commented, “We were glad to bring this to a successful end where no citizens or officers got hurt, and the bear didn’t get hurt.”
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