Reply #15: This happened in my city a year ago with a male black bear

[elocs]

that wandered into a city park at the edge of town. This park borders on a marsh and is also near the bluff. This park is also the home of the city zoo which had 2 female bears in heat.

It was a Saturday morning and there were people in the park. The bear was scared to death and in the circumstances did what you might guess--he climbed a tree.

The police just didn't know what to do. It didn't occur to them to evacuate the park since the bear was up the tree and did not appear to want to come down. So ultimately they decided to just shoot it since the closest tranquilizer rifle was in an city some 90 miles away.

As it turns out there was a closer tranquilizer rifle just 3 miles away at the county Humane Society. They received the rifle several years earlier from, yes, the police.

The sad thing is now, after a year of contemplation, the police chief says he would not do anything differently and would chose to shoot the bear again. The bad news is that the zoo bears will go into heat again soon so another male bear may well be attracted to the park.