Black bear in Athens, Alabama

[bamarammin87]

Black Bear

"Animal control agents had to euthanize a black bear in Athens last night.

People who live on elles drive spotted the 250 pound bear Saturday evening.

Athens Police and a wildlife officer responded to the scene. They were able to chase the bear up a tree.

As they were waiting for someone to respond with a tranquilizer gun, the bear came down.

That's when officers made the decision to euthanize the bear.

Wildlife officials say this is the same bear that was reported on sunday near cotaco."

I wish they hadn't shot the bear. They didn't say it got agressive or anything, just that it climbed down the tree. They first spotted it last week about an hour away. I believe it was more than one bear. Anyways thats pretty kool for my part of the country. I hope theres more of em! We do have a population in south AL near the coast, and we have a population in the very top right corner of AL, but this is a pretty big deal for around here! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[GC]

To the unknowing that bear seemed a terrible threat, poor ignorant beast (and I'm not talking about the bear!). Missouri is getting a pretty good population across the southern half of the state now. I called one while coyote hunting one winter day. That was very, very, cool! There was one about 1 mile from my house for several days about this time last year. Two were killed by bow hunters that felt "afraid" last year in the area I deer hunt. That is total BS IMHO! Another was killed about 20 miles from here breaking into a shed, presumably for the dog food stored there. An Arkansas man was hunting turkey here in Missouri and killed one he originally claimed was attacking him. He later confessed it was just wandering around camp looking for some food. Several years before that I spoke with a Conservation Agent as I was checking a turkey into a wildlife check station and he told me to be cautious about a very large and aggressive bear in the area I was turkey hunting in. It had raided several camps and kept some guys in their truck overnight as it ate all their food in the coolers outside the tent. There was one about a month ago near my house that treed right beside the highway and the Conservation Agent had to call the Highway Patrol and Sheriff's Department to get the traffic moving on the highway so the bear could come back down. The crowd got pretty big as people were stopping to gawk at it. The Forest Service campgrounds in the areas I hunt in the National Forest all have warnings about bears and feral hogs posted in them. There was a bear in northern Missouri that had been hanging out for quite awhile until it wandered over the line into Iowa. An Iowa Conservation Warden killed it because it got into someone’s trash can. He sure is a smart protector of wildlife... idiot. I know our Conservation Department has trapped several dozen and relocated them as problem bears. Several of those eventually were killed because they wouldn’t stay away from rural homes, attacked livestock or pets. We have them, and hopefully people will get more accustomed to them so they don’t shoot everyone they see.