Photo by Alexi Reibman
Brian McGrory had an excellent column in the Globe today questioning the decision by Brookline police to shoot tranquilizers at a bear 50 feet in the air and then letting it plummet to the ground without any attempt to soften the fall.
Turns out there were actually two bears in the area this week. And experts say we could see more.
Plus we all know about the influx of coyotes in recent years. Or what about the tick-carrying creature in this photo which was spotted near Newton South High School this weekend?
Which brings us to the question of how we react in general to wildlife What’s acceptable or not when our fellow creatures start hanging out in our back yards, playing fields and recreation areas?
According to the article, it wasn’t the Brookline PD, but rather the Environmental Police who decided to shoot the bear. It doesn’t matter that they shot it with a tranquilizer, because an unbroken fall alone from that height [50′ plus] should have been anticipated to likely kill the bear. Guess they don’t have an IQ Test to join the Environmental Police. Newton needs to prepare for the inevitable similar situations. Hopefully in a more humane [and intelligent] way.
What goes up must come down, but not via a 50 plus foot fall. This was wrong and I am surprised the EP actually did this. The better idea would have been to clear out all the spectators and just wait until the bear decided to come down on his own. At that point, they could have safely tranquilized the animal and then moved him out.
As long as the bear was up the tree, he posed no threat to anyone. This was sad.
The bear didn’t seem to be affected by the drop according to this article. And while cushioning a 180lb bear may be a trick, perhaps the Environmental Police could learn from their counterparts at the University of Colorado who managed to do this.
Maybe we all need to be better educated about how to live with all our neighbors. There must be a balance between being respectful (in an informed way … i.e. that all animals do not necessarily benefit from being given the same considerations one would a human) and being over apologetic for development.
I was puzzled and on some level amused by the thinking that went into this. I tried to picture the hypothetical next move had the bear settled into a notch in the tree as the tranquilizer took effect. How exactly does one extract a sedated bear from a tree?
I remember that when Newton was visited by a moose, officials were reluctant to tranquilizer it while it roamed near populated areas lest it bolt into traffic, etc. after taking the first dart but before the the sedative kicked in. As I recall they only fired at it after they tracked it deep into Hammond Woods. Would a bear get far, angry, or dissappear into woods if tranquilized on level ground?
@ Greer, thanks for your link to the cushioned landing that the bear in Colorado get. But did you see the other Youtubes? Hilarious. Like the trampoline bear in Montana?
mr goldsmith-(or anyone else) I see that you are an active and interested Newtonian- do you have any information about the particulars of the June fatal accident at charlesbank and Nonantum rds?I feel so bad for the young mans family, and the incident seems to have been completely forgotten-regards-Richard Belkin, [email protected]