Colorado wildlife officers assisted by University of Colorado Boulder Facilities management personnel on Friday afternoon tranquilized and relocated a yearling bear from just north of the school’s campus and just a few blocks from Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall.
Jason Clay, spokesman for the Colorado Parks and WIldlife northeast regional office, said the agency was notified shortly before noon about male yearling black bear that was up a tree in the vicinity of an apartment complex at 18th and Athens streets, close to Boulder Creek.
“We’re pretty sure this is a bear that had been hanging out in that territory of Boulder, we had some reports over the past week and a half of its being up in a tree at 18th and Baseline (Road) on the other side of campus, on the hill,” Clay said.
“We’d never had any reports of it getting into trash that I’m aware of, or any conflicts,” Clay said.
He estimated that the animal weighed about 50 pounds.
Clay said the bear was tranquilized with a “jab-pole” just after 2 p.m., which caused it to fall from the tree, at which point it was caught with an outstretched tarp.
Not long after the bear was secured in the trailer that would be used to transport it, it was injected with a “wake-up drug,” Clay said.
“After we do that, when it wakes up we make sure that itap breathing properly, and shows no signs of duress,” he said. “This one handled it very well. We doused it with water to keep it cool, and it woke up just fine.”
Watch as a bear in gently falls into a tarp held by officers & a helping hand from two staffers. We appreciate their help in getting this bear down safely!
He ran off a few short feet before lying down with the tranquilizer taking affect.
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE)
A tarp was draped over the trailer to keep the animal calm, and to shield it from the curious, for a drive late Friday afternoon to South Park, where it will be released to make a new home for itself.
Boulder County has seen numerous reports of bears in the city already this season, and earlier this month a bear had to be relocated from Niwot. Bear activity has also been .
“Itap normal that bears are active. They’re looking for food,” Clay said. “Time will tell whether their natural crops have been affected by some of these late spring storms. Itap probably too early to say.
“As they are waking, up they are eating a lot of grasses at first, to get their guts going. But there have been a number of bear reports from Boulder area and the foothills of Boulder.”
