Too high…too low…just right!
A black bear stuck in a tree in Albany drew a crowd of onlookers as the stubborn cub clung to high-up branches even after cops tranquilized it in an hours-long standoff Tuesday.
Spectators filled the leafy upstate block, where local police were attempting to free the young black bear that appeared to have stranded itself in a tree.
The bear first scaled the tree, which was hardly taller than an adjacent two-story home, around 2 a.m., CBS 6 Albany reported. When it was still there well after sunrise, concerned residents notified police.
The police, aided by a crew with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, decided the safest way to remove the bear would be to tranquilize it and relocate it back into the Catskill Mountains.
The officers set up a large net and padding to catch the cub when it inevitably fell out of the tree. They tranquilized it just before noon, but it took almost two hours for the sedative to take full effect, as captured on CBS 6’s bear watch.
The bear climbed higher and continued to lounge in the tree, before it eventually grew woozy over the next two hours.
Finally, one twig that it clung to snapped. The startled bear slowly leaned backwards, like it was trying to figure out what had just happened, before losing its footing entirely and tumbling off the branch — only to land on a sturdier one closer to the ground.
The bear kept a desperate hold on the bark for several more minutes, its hind legs dangling in the air, before it appeared to pass out entirely and fell right into the prepared safety net.
Wildlife officials warned that bear sightings will likely be more common as the annual hibernation period comes to a close.
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