Wildlife Officers Use Fire Engine To Get Bear Out Of Tree
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4/AP) - Wildlife officers in Colorado Springs are relocating a bear who wandered into the southeast side of the city.
The bear climbed up a tree in the neighborhood and settled in.
Officers tranquilized the bear in an attempt to get it to fall out of the tree, but because of how it was sitting, it simply feel asleep.
The bear weighed between 150 and 200 pounds. State wildlife division spokesman Michael Seraphin says a wildlife officer and firefighters put a harness around it. Then they lowered the bear to the ground as it dangled from the ladder.
Tranquilized bears usually fall out of trees and are caught with a tarp or are low enough for wildlife officers to climb up and retrieve them.
This bear was tranquilized twice, but the first dart only made it climb higher. After the second, it fell comfortably asleep in a crook in the tree.
"I thought it wasn't real, but when I felt it, I was like 'Wow!' I think now it is real," a young witness said.
It is now heading to Trindad or Westcliffe to be released.
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