A bear that climbed up a tree in a residential neighbourhood in Port Perry on Friday morning was brought down by a team from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF).
Video footage from the scene showed the animal tumble out of the tree and into a tarp being held up by crews on the ground. It appears the bear initially tried to crawl away, but was captured by staff.
A spokesperson for the ministry confirmed the bear was sedated.
“I understand they got quite a good dose of the drug into the bear,” Jolanta Kowalski told CP24 by phone.
Police received multiple calls about the bear after residents spotted it on Ella Street just before 7 a.m.
According to Durham Region police Const. George Tudos, officers quickly responded and located the bear running through the surrounding neighbourhood. The bear later climbed a tree.
“The bear didn’t seem too agitated. I am sure he was scared and just wanted to get away from all the humans around here,” he said.
The bear was loaded into a MNRF vehicle after the fall. Tudos said that the bear will be taken to a ministry facility where it will be cooled down and given time to recover from the effects of the tranquilizer before being relocated to a forested area near Bancroft.
“They are putting bags of ice and water on the bear and just trying to cool it off,” Tudos said. “The bear is stressed. He had three shots of tranquilizer and they were concerned about the body temperature.”
Tudos said the bear is a year or two old and weighs about 180 to 190 lbs.
He said that it is the third time in a last two years that Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry staff members have been called in to deal with a bear in a residential area in Durham Region.
He said that the other two occurrences also ended with the bear tranquilized after climbing a tree.
“Just once in a while bears lose their way and come into the city,” he said.
A total of eight police officers and four or five firefighters participated in today’s rescue, according to Tudos.
