DNR teams with City of Mt. Pleasant to safely relocate bear

A 150-pound black bear that wandered into a Mt. Pleasant neighborhood and climbed a tree directly over a white-picket fence was captured and safely relocated to a northern Michigan swamp Tuesday.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources partnered with Mt. Pleasant police, firefighters and city workers to isolate the male bear in the tree and then tranquilize and tag the animal before transporting it about 60 miles away to the Houghton Lake area.

With a crowd of residents watching from a safe distance, the tranquilized bear fell unharmed about 18 feet into a thick pole vault pad borrowed from Mt. Pleasant High School.

“Sometimes bears wander in and out of developed areas, but this one was so far inside the city limits that we thought it best to intervene and take the bear out of this situation in a safe manner,” said Mark Boersen, a DNR wildlife biologist who participated in the effort. “Eventually, he would come down out of the tree, probably at night, but removal is the safest situation for people and their pets and the bear. Everything worked out well.”

Tuesday morning, Mt. Pleasant police and DNR Conservation Officer Michael Lator responded to reports of the treed bear near Fancher and Mosher streets, a residential area north of Central Michigan University. The DNR’s Wildlife Division was called in to tranquilize and transport the bear. Assisting in that effort were Boersen; Scott Larsen, the DNR’s state wildlife veterinarian; and Brian Piccolo, a DNR wildlife biologist and field operations manager.

The City of Mt. Pleasant provided a bucket truck to help biologists discourage the bear from climbing further up the tree. The animal was then tranquilized with a dart rifle. Once the bear was safely down from the tree, biologists did a medical workup of the animal – finding it healthy – and attached an identifying red ear tag.

It wasn’t immediately known where the bear originated, but Piccolo said it likely ventured over from the Chippewa River corridor, which is about a mile and a half west of the neighborhood.  

The capture and relocation come three weeks after the DNR confirmed a bear sighting in the Carleton/Flat Rock area in southeast Michigan’s Monroe County. While the vast majority of Michigan’s more than 12,000 bears live in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula, it’s not uncommon to see them in mid-Michigan and even occasionally in southern Michigan.

“In a general sense, you may encounter a bear anywhere in the Lower Peninsula,” Boersen said. “Obviously they’re less likely as you go south. But people in the Lower Peninsula should not assume that they would never have a bear come in their yard.”

He added that bears are covering long distances to find new sources of food and, soon, mates.

“Bears are actually getting into the breeding season now. So you could find a bear just about anywhere in the state," Boersen said. "You don’t have to be in the backwoods. Just because you live in the city doesn’t mean you won’t encounter wildlife there.”

To live harmoniously with bears, Michiganders should take down bird feeders, especially in the spring and summer, clean grills after use, don’t leave pet food outside and wait until collection day to put out their trash.

Note to editors: Accompanying DNR photos are available below for download. Caption information follows.

• Bear in tree: A pole vault pad borrowed from Mt. Pleasant High School was set up to cushion the fall of a black bear from a tree in a Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.
• Police assist: Mt. Pleasant police and other city workers helped the DNR remove the bear from the tree.
• Tranquilized bear: The male bear was shot with a tranquilizer dart before falling about 18 feet unharmed into a pole vault pad.
• Bear on pad: The tranquilized bear fell safely on a pole vault pad and was transported about an hour north and set free in the Houghton Lake area.