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Scary Bear’s-Eye-View Ends Well
By Nate | October 11, 2007
You’re a black bear. You’re on the trail of something tasty, just following your instincts, when you suddenly realize that you’ve wandered onto something like a long, strange rock, and now there are all these scary creatures charging at you from ahead and behind. What do you do?
What one bear did, on a Saturday afternoon last month in Truckee, CA, was jump. Off the edge of a bridge.
As reported in Sierra Sun, and KGO-TV, on September 15 the black bear had wandered onto the Rainbow Bridge, a long arch bridge crossing a rocky ravine about 100 feet below. The bridge may have been clear when it started crossing, but before it could get across, it found cars on either side of it. Then this 250-lb bear did what may have been the most natural option, scrambling up and over the railing.
Happily, that wasn’t the end of the story. The bear clung onto the edge of the bridge, eventually easing itself into the open top of an arch. It would be another 21 hours before the bear was safely off the bridge.
Meanwhile, a growing number of individuals and organizations came together in a coordinated effort that included members of the Lake Tahoe BEAR League, Truckee Animal Control, Nevada County Animal Control, California Highway Patrol, and rock and tree climbers. They strung out safety netting beneath the trapped bear, then shot it with a tranquilizer dart…and waited.
As written in the Sierra Sun article:
“We thought it would take 15 minutes - no it took forever,” said Executive Director Ann Bryant of the BEAR League of the wait for the sedative to take effect. ”He kept lifting his head up - he was really fighting it.”
It finally required a tree service professional lowered over the bridge’s edge to nudge the woozy bear off the arch and into the net. Again, from the Sierra Sun article:
“Then I yelled, ‘It’s a good time to give him a nudge — she’ll just fall in there,’” Bryant said of the tense moment. “[He] just pushed her with a pole and a boot and the bear tumbled into the net.”
From there, the captured bear was slowly lowered to the ravine below, where it staggered away to rest and is presumably still alive and healthy today.
It’s a dramatic and gripping story, and I think it exemplifies so many of the qualities of Being Bear: Connecting with other people, improvising, making it better together, even taking a bear’s-eye-view.
As for the black bear itself, it was definitely embracing its instincts…which you could say is what led it off the edge of the bridge in the first place. On the other hand, those same instincts are what kept it from falling and kept it safe at the top of the bridge’s arch. Maybe it looked to the sky and knew that help would be on the way?
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Here’s a big thank you to Town of Truckee Animal Services for use of the photos: Dan Olsen, Manager, and Robert Brooks, Photographer. Here are a few more:
Topics: Blogs & Articles, Good News |
October 12th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Great article & pics! Wow.
October 12th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Thanks Jonathan. I’m very grateful to Mr. Brooks for the pics. They really show what a tough spot that the poor bear was in!
You can also go to the Sierra Sun and KGO-TV articles (links in the post above) to see more: The former has a nice slideshow, and the latter a 2 minute video news clip.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I am very happy to see that this wonderful bear was lowered to the ground safely, and to hear that she is in good condition.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Right on, Chris! And here’s hoping she’s steering clear of bridges for a while.