“Are you coming in now? There is a bear stuck in a tree on Bissell and Cooper in Oil City.”
I received this text at 10:05 a.m. this morning from my colleague Sally Bell who was listening to the scanner in the office. “The fire department is trying to get him.”
I was just finishing an assignment and heading back in. Oops – pull a uey – as we used to say in Rhode Island. I turned my car around and headed back across the river to the Northside. Now most of the time things like this don’t pan out. “Oh you missed it!” is a phrase that ranks up there as the most heard things I’ve heard over the last nearly 20 years. It’s there right after “take my pictures” and “Don’t take my picture!”
But today… well, today I got there and there it was, a bear in a tree. I little illegal backing up to find a parking space and I was good to go.
It was a little guy. If it weren’t for the sharp claws and teeth, I might have even been able to take him in a wrestling match since I had a good 80-100 pounds on him. (I wasn’t interested in testing my theory however.)
I arrived shortly after the Game Commission conservation officers so it was a little while before there was much action. It appeared the little guy was tired and perhaps sleeping a little. Noises and movement below caught his attention as he looked around.
When Jason Amory got into the bucket of the Oil City ladder truck I knew what he was going to do. Try to scare the little fella back down the tree. He didn’t want to tranquilize the bear because that would be very difficult to get him down and dangerous for the bear who could fall out and serious injured itself or die.
Jason started shaking the branches and it looked like it was going to work.
He started down. He made it down to one of the crotches in the tree. Jason still rattling branches. The bear looked around to see where he wanted to go.
He then went up the other part of the tree that Y’ed off from the trunk.
At this point, I imagine Jason’s shoulders dropped and he had a few expletives right there on the tip of his tongue.
OK, Plan B.
The firefighters hooked up the water to their aerial hose and set the nozzel on a light stream/spray setting and sent water up over the top of the bear and down he started again.
Now, they had a scared, wet bear that wasn’t sure where to go. Probably all the people with cell phones and cameras out standing around below wasn’t giving the bear much in the way of confidence. He hesitated and then made it to another branch trying to stay out of the way of the water.
Jason, what are you thinking now?
They repositioned the spray and kept at the guy.
And down he went. Now the plan was to try to get the bear to go in one particular direction. They thought it would be the best to shoo him through the neighborhoods back into what might be called a more suitable bear neighborhood with more trees and far fewer houses and people with cell-phones.
But the little bear went in the exact opposite direction and about 20 feet later right up another tree.
Again, I don’t know what he was thinking but I imagine it was something along the lines of “Oh, c’mon dude!?!”
This tree wasn’t over the road and the bear wasn’t as high so it was decided to dart him with a little sleepy time mixture. An expert shot was made into the bears hind quarters and thankfully the bear decided to go down instead of up higher.
He made it to the ground with a Forrest Gump style wound and was getting a little sleepy even as he made it to the ground. (Don’t wait for that million dollars, bear. Forest never got it either!)
And he still headed off in the wrong direction. But seconds after this photo was made the little guy was out like a light.
The game commission officers did a really nice job keeping the bears health in mind the whole time. They then rounded up the tranquilized bear and took him back to the woods. The one-year-old bear is capable of surviving on his own without his mother. It is actually this time of year he’d be kicked to the curb by mom as she started seeking another mate to have another baby or two to get into mischief next year. The Oil City fire department was also doing a good job keeping people safe and directing traffic around the area for the safety of both humans and the bear. I felt bad for the bear being scared, but was impressed that the idea of killing it wasn’t discussed.
For me, nearly 20 years as a photojournalist in NW Pa. surprisingly this was my first treed bear. Fourth bear story in just two years working at the Derrick and News-Herald, but first one in a tree.
I love my job.
More photos can seen at http://www.thederrick.com/gallery/featured/photo-gallery-treed-bear-in-oil-city-neighborhood/collection_427f705e-1a3a-11e7-b65d-db208ca767e9.html
