PANAMA CITY — A nearly 350-pound black bear will be back in the wild by the time the morning newspaper hits your steps, despite being tranquilized and falling about 40 feet from a tree through a tarp suspended over the ground Monday morning.
A biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart around noon Monday. When the drugs took hold about 10 minutes later, the bear fell from the tree at 1204 Clay Ave. through the tarp the Panama City Fire Department hung underneath it to break the bear’s fall.
The bear was breathing and appeared unharmed, said FWC spokesman Stan Kirkland. Within minutes, the bear had been loaded into the back of a pickup truck and was on his way to the Apalachicola National Forest, where he was to be tagged and released to recover from the tranquilizer.
“I suspect he will have a hangover,” Kirkland said.
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Kirkland said the bear likely swam from Tyndall Air Force Base to the St. Andrews neighborhood. He was spotted as early as 10 p.m. Sunday, Kirkland said, but officials left him alone until this morning, when they decided he was too close to several major roads and Oakland Terrace Elementary School, Kirkland said. Otherwise, they might have let him be.
“I wouldn’t say it was trapped up in a tree,” Kirkland said. “It climbed up in a tree, and it would’ve come back down on its own.”
James Cavalieri, who lives nearby, said he saw a big bear just after midnight Monday about five feet outside of his window standing on his neighbor’s roof. He called police because he initially thought the bear was a prowler, he said. The officers who responded decided to wait and see if the bear would leave, which, assuming there was only one bear in St. Andrews Monday, he did.
“It’s just very frightening to have a bear in a residential neighborhood,” Cavalieri said.
Nobody was hurt, Kirkland said, thanks to the efforts of Panama City police and firefighters, who were “Johnny on the spot,” and the assistance of the Freeman Electric Company, which allowed the FWC biologist to use a bucket truck to get close enough to shoot the bear with the dart.
“We’re just thankful today ended like it did and we were able to relocate the bear,” Kirkland said.
Check back Tuesday for a video.
