TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A 350-pound black bear that perched for hours in a tree, causing a Mother’s Day spectacle last spring in northern Michigan, was killed by a hunter, authorities said.
“It makes me sad, because I was just envisioning it living peacefully in the forest somewhere, thriving as a bear does,” said Ashlea Walter, who was among dozens of people who watched in May as authorities responded to a bear in a Traverse City neighborhood.
The bear was killed four months later in September in Emmet County, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
“We have a few designated relocation sites and then let it go, and it’s on its own to be a bear,” said Stephen Griffith, a state wildlife biologist. “And yes, during the bear season, obviously some of them fall prey of a hunter.”
The bear’s arrival on Mother’s Day caused a stir. Spectators sitting on front lawns and in chairs held phones up to take pictures and video of the bear in a tree.
The bear fell asleep for hours after being shot with tranquilizer darts, then fell out of the tree and landed on a mattress — a soft landing that was supplied by Walter.
The bear was transferred on a tarp and released miles away in the wild.
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