A tranquilized mother bear was loaded into a warden’s truck Monday morning by firefighters and California Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel. A dramatic scene unfolded earlier outside Pierson Building Center where the bear and her cub crossed U.S.
Highway 101, back again and climbed a tree near the road. The pair stayed put, agitated, and firefighters and CDFW worked to take them down safely to be relocated. Shawn Fresz, wildlife and land program supervisor for CDFW, who grabbed the cub’s paw with a catch pull, said the environment was chaotic for the bears.
Cars whizzed by and the bears found themselves trapped by a parking lot and the built environment. “Normally we would leave them be,” he said, and wait for them to come down on their own. But in this case, early in the morning on a heavily traveled state highway in a populated area, many dynamic things were going on and they didn’t want to take the risk.
Firefighters from Humboldt Bay Fire used a ladder truck so Fresz could grab the baby cub out of the tree. The mother was tranquilized and about 10 minutes later was taken down as well. Fresz said she fell asleep in the tree, the best-case scenario because they were able to pull her down safely, though they were ready with a catch net, traffic control and personnel if she ran back into the street.
He said they didn’t want to use the tranquilizer on the cub and the ladder helped them get the baby down safely. Fish and wildlife personnel could be seen insp.