RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — A young black bear that found itself high in a tree in the middle of Russellville on Tuesday apparently had wildlife officials wondering the same thing as everyone else: How did he get there?
The bear was a male cub born this year, and Spencer Daniels, bear coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said that makes his solo trip into town especially unusual.
“This time of year, that’s very odd,” Daniels said. “He should be with mama.”
Daniels said Game and Fish commonly gets calls in May and June about yearling males wandering through neighborhoods after separating from their mothers. But this bear was much younger. At his age, Daniels said, he should still be following his mother closely.
Instead, he seemingly appeared on his own in a Russellville backyard on North Inglewood Avenue.
Wildlife officials checked with neighbors and police for any sign that an adult female bear had also been seen nearby. Nothing turned up.
Daniels said the cub appeared healthy and had been eating recently. If its mother had been killed by a vehicle, hunter or some other cause, he believes it would have happened fairly recently.
Even then, he said, cubs normally stay somewhere near the area where they became separated from their mother.
“Again, it’s odd,” Daniels said. “The location is odd.”
Game and Fish were called in by Russellville Police after they first verified the presence of the furry visitor around 9 a.m. on Tuesday. The challenge was figuring out how to retrieve a small bear that was perfectly comfortable staying above everyone else.
Daniels said his first choice was also to avoid tranquilizing the bear.
With a cub that small, Daniels said, there are added concerns about drug dosage, possible reactions and even the relative size of the dart itself.
So Daniels went up after him.
Using climbing gear normally used while checking bear dens during the winter, Daniels climbed the tree and tried to secure the cub with a catch pole.
The cub was not particularly interested in cooperating.
“He was a little bit too squirrely for me,” Daniels said.
Each time Daniels got close to securing him, the bear backed away. Eventually, the cub climbed farther out on a limb where Daniels couldn’t safely follow.
Plan B became the tranquilizer dart, which worked.
Daniels said the dart hit cleanly, the cub had no bad reaction and officials were able to get him safely out of the tree and reverse the medication.
Getting the bear down solved the first problem. The next one has to be solved by the cub itself.
Daniels said there unfortunately isn’t a way to replace the protection the cub would normally receive from its mother.
“He should be able to find his own food,” Daniels said. “It’s more of a concern of whether he can stay away from larger male bears.”
Daniels said the cub does have a chance of surviving on his own, though he acknowledged the odds are not as good as they would be if the bear were still with its mother.
As strange as seeing a bear in a Russellville tree might seem, Daniels said it doesn’t appear to be part of any surge in bears wandering into town.
The area does have a healthy black bear population, but the number of calls involving bears passing through neighborhoods has remained fairly normal.
Most happen in late spring and early summer, when young males strike out on their own and occasionally find themselves passing through somebody’s yard — or running into somebody’s dog.
That last part frequently explains the tree.
Daniels said a black bear’s instinct when threatened is often to climb. So a bear traveling through a neighborhood can suddenly find itself treed when a dog gives chase.
And if a bear does show up in your yard, Daniels’ advice is simple: don’t try to solve the problem yourself.
“The best thing to do is just leave it alone and give us a call,” he said.
For Russellville’s wandering cub, at least, the unexpected trip into town ended with a ride back to much more bear-friendly surroundings.
