Yep, that's a bear, in Albany
Update Wednesday 5:10 pm: DEC says the bear has been euthanized. Here's video of the bear after it fell to the ground, and a bit more about the timeline leading up to the situation.
Update Wednesday 1 pm: The bear is out of the tree and being taken to a DEC facility in Delmar, its future uncertain. [@HRViccaro - Daily Gazette]
Update Tuesday night: DEC says the bear has been identified as a nuisance bear and will be killed. [TU]
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A young bear got caught in tree in Albany's Whitehall neighborhood Tuesday afternoon. Officers from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the Albany Police Department had gathered to keep watch on the bear, which was shifting a bit in the tree but otherwise not moving.
Word was that the bear had been hit with a tranquilizer gun and officers were waiting for it climb down and/or fall out. (That's pretty much the standard procedure in these situations.) APD spokesman Steve Smith said they'd gotten the first call about the bear after a sighting in the Mt. Hope neighborhood on Albany's South Side this morning, but he had heard the DEC had been tracking it from Bethlehem.
The bear showed up in the tree between Rose Court and Clayton Place around noon (map). It was estimated to to weight less than 200 pounds, and it was high up in an evergreen tree -- maybe 60 feet.
What usually happens when a bear is captured in one of these areas: it's checked out by DEC and if it's in OK shape it's relocated to a more bear-appropriate habitat. (The process isn't always so happy if the bear has wandered into human populated areas on previous occasions.)
It's not all that uncommon for a bear cub to show up in Albany or more urban parts of the Capital Region.
Two years ago there were multiple sightings near the Capital Region core, in places such as Albany, Schenectady, North Greenbush, Rensselaer, and Schenectady. The bears that come along are usually cubs or young bear looking for new territory after leaving their mothers.
Black bear populations in New York State have "increase[d] dramatically in number and distribution" over the last few decades, according to a new bear management plan recently released by the state DEC. And while that's considered a generally good thing because bear populations had once fallen to low levels, the increased numbers are now presenting challenges such as increased bear/human interaction. A clip:
Reducing human-bear conflicts is rightly of great concern to the public and managers, and this plan iterates DEC's 3-pronged approach. DEC uses an integrated approach that seeks to modify human behavior (i.e., through education and outreach and regulation; see also Goal 4), to treat individual black bears responsible for repeated or severe conflicts (e.g., through aversive conditioning or trap and kill), and to manage bear populations (i.e., by hunting; Goals 1 and 2).
A big part of the "education and outreach" to the public is getting people to stop making food available to bears, either intentionally or not. Because, as a State Museum biologist once told us, a bear that's fed by humans often ends up being killed.
Earlier on AOA:
+ Report: Woman stabbed bear in the Adirondacks
+ Don't feed the bears
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Comments
House next door just went on the market last week...curious what a bear stuck in the tree does for resale ;)
... said Rich on May 27, 2014 at 5:24 PM | link
"...and if it's in OK shape it's relocated to a more bear-appropriate habitat."
Are bears that fall 60 feet unconscious typically in "OK shape"?
... said Wondering on May 27, 2014 at 6:14 PM | link
WHY KILL THE BEAR?! It's a cub, for goodness sakes! The past couple of relocations for it may not have been successful but that doesn't make it right to kill it intentionally like what you're about to do now!
Please have mercy on it; just move it further away, away and deep in the Adirondack woods. Give it a chance to live a full life. Have mercy on this poor creature.
... said Edna on May 27, 2014 at 9:42 PM | link
The Humane Society shelter/rescue for wild and domestic animals might be able to take the poor bear. They are located in Forked River, NJ. The name they go by in Popcorn Park Zoo. They have rescued tigers, lions, etc. It is not the bears fault that he is foraging for food in a neighborhood. It used to be his domain.
... said Karen on May 27, 2014 at 11:14 PM | link
Put it in a zoo for crying out loud - the fact that it is a bear and likes people does not have to mean its a nuisance - it may be a very likable bear... for a bear - in a contained environment.
... said Elayna Andreoli on May 28, 2014 at 12:37 AM | link
@Rich - yea #40, that house is beautiful! I took a brochure & I saw like 3 others do the same - guess that answers your question haha
... said Bob on May 28, 2014 at 6:16 AM | link
#SAVETHEBEAR
BLACK BEARS ARE HARMLESS!!!
... said Lauren Jensen on May 28, 2014 at 9:23 AM | link
This bear needs to be dispatched. It isn't an awful thing. It has a history of wandering in to populated areas. If they don't kill it next time it might kill or injure someone or just get hit by a few cars on the highway. If they release it and it comes back and kills or injures a person then everyone will be asking why it wasn't put down the last time it did this. There is no win for the authorities on this one, or the bear sadly. What sucks is that with all the media outlets announcing the exact location a crowd gathered in mere minutes. Had they not done that they may have had a chance to wait the bear out and tranquillize it. I do think they should have waited until they had a better shot with a more precision firearm. Putting a slug in a 175 pound bear 60 feet up a tree was stupid, borderline inhumane. No hunter would take that shot and given the animal was not an immediate threat I don't understand that call at all. If you want to see these bears survive these situations don't announce the location and release the story once the bear has been removed! As for a zoo, I think if the bear could talk he'd say he'd rather be dead.
... said Walker on May 28, 2014 at 10:57 AM | link
Tell me please, where on Earth is mankind's (peoplekind's?) domain? Every time this happens, there's so little concern for human beings at risk, and the ever-present argument that, after all, we are encroaching on the animal's territory. WHERE is OUR territory? We are a part of nature, too.
... said Karen on May 28, 2014 at 2:01 PM | link
The bear was on a long suburban and city gallivant and how many people, animals or pets did it maim, harm, growl at or chase? ZERO.
Now, how many people have been maimed, harmed, growled at or chased by loose dogs down at the Normanskill Farm (outside the designated dog park)? MANY.
Point being, you are many times more likely to be harmed by someone's untrained, unleashed dog than you a black bear wandering through your neighborhood.
... said J on May 28, 2014 at 2:26 PM | link
I was watching the news this morning and all day, I have been wondering if the bear knew that this was his " third strike " via DEC regulations and that now he must be killed, even though he has done no harm to a person, animal, or property. He did however maybe get hit with a car, and was shot, but never retaliated...simply a harmless creature
... said John on May 28, 2014 at 8:23 PM | link
As someone who lives in the neighborhood where the bear was I don't see it as a problem; why not just tranquilize the bear (again) and relocate it up to Newcomb, Speculator, or Keene Valley?
Is KILLING this animal really the logical choice?
... said Drew on May 29, 2014 at 12:40 PM | link
Asking about mankind's domain, you have to be kidding. We adapt and encroach in every kind of environment we can get our grubby little hands on. If the human race wasn't so "industrious" things like this wouldn't happen. There is a natural need for species to integrate due to the limited space available on Earth. There are over 7 billion of us running around. True the Black Bear is the most prolific species of bear worldwide but if you look at a map of the most populated places for the Black Bear you'll see it lives around wooded areas and in Canada. My suggestion to anyone who doesn't care to integrate with this species is MOVE. Your ability to adapt to new surroundings is a little easier than the Black Bears' ability. And this tragedy of the bear being seen "wandering near a school", where aren't there schools nearby? It's what we do. We erect institutions of learning then ignorantly kill off the "threatening" species around us.
It's a bear. It was doing what bears do best - being a BEAR! The bear has no malicious intent. It goes to where the most plentiful resources are, which just so happens to be where the humans are. No surprise we did what we do best - being inHUMANe. We're full of malicious intent. We create back stories cautioning of danger and determination so we can sleep at night after shooting Black Bears out of trees. We're Number 1! But we keep forgetting that we too are animals.
... said RG on May 29, 2014 at 3:58 PM | link
I realize this article is from last year but three years ago I was visiting my brother on E. Schodack Rd, in E. Schodack. I was pruning some roses and heard some rustling. I looked across the street (which is one lane in each direction and fairly narrow) and spotted a young bear not far from me at all. Fortunately he stayed there. I didn't realize bears were in the area.
... said Cindy on Aug 14, 2015 at 8:42 PM | link
My suggestion is for bear barricades between bears, bikes, cars, houses, and people!
... said mg on Aug 17, 2015 at 7:04 AM | link