Patrol officers spotted the bear at about 1 a.m. and tried to pursue her through the wee hours of the morning, Capt. Aric Wheeler said. She evaded them until later in the morning when she awoke directly across the street from police headquarters at the Park and Ride stop off Camino Entrada.
A green tag could be seen on one of the animal’s ears while it remained perched among the tree branches. Rael said the bear must have been tagged on another trip into the city, and he wondered if it would be set free again following its capture. Ben Otero of the Española district office of Game and Fish later said the estimated 225-pound bear would be released again into the wild. “We have a three strikes policy when it comes to bears entering the city,” he explained said.
About 20 feet up, she became visibly affected by the 1,000 milligrams of tranquilizing serum in her system, no longer gazing at her gawkers but now confusedly gazing toward the rising sun. A back foot slipped and she spun around a branch, still holding on with her front paws.
Down below, Animal Control officers shifted a three-foot-deep air mattress to where they thought the bear would fall. The bear fell, without hitting any other branches on the way down, to the pillowy landing pad.
The bear was tagged a second time and loaded into its cage. Otero said the bear would be injected with some antibiotics then released into the Jemez Mountains. Read more
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