California’s repeat offender sent back to wild
Miles deep in the Angeles National Forest, Glendale’s favourite bear might be wondering whether he can make it back in time for trash day.
After snoozing nearly five hours in a Glendale tree, the bear known to his social media fans as “Glen Bearian” and “Meatball” was tranquillized and driven back into the wild.
This is the second time in four months that California Department of Fish and Game wardens have shipped the wayward bear back to the forest. Policy dictates that bears cannot be moved more than about 50 kilometres for a “return to habitat.”
“Based on his history, I think it’s probably 50-50 that he comes back,” Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan said. “I’m go- ing to put it on my big white board: July 15.”
The 180-kilogram male bear was spotted snoozing in a tree on Frederick Avenue around 7 a.m. Sunday, officials said. Glendale police blocked off the street to vehicle traffic as Fish and Game wardens kept an eye on the bear.
“We stumbled out about 9 a.m. and it was up in the tree,” said Brock Hendricks, 20, who lives across the street. “There’s just two officers with rifles outside my front yard. You know, the normal Sunday morning.”
About 11 a.m., Fish and Game wardens fired several bean bag rounds at the bear, rousing him. As Glen Bearian shimmied down the tree trunk, wardens shot him with a tranquillizer dart. The bear managed to scamper two blocks before he was shot with a second dart. He eventually fell asleep on a lawn near a high school.
Wardens loaded him into the back of a truck. Then they drove him back to Frederick Avenue and put him into a cylindrical trap for his trip to the forest.
Given the bear’s online popularity, authorities expressed relief that the operation could proceed without much of a crowd.
“This couldn’t have happened on a better day,” police spokesman Tom Lorenz said. “Because social media did not go live on this, it didn’t go viral and we didn’t have people show up.”
The bear, who has a penchant for meatballs, fruit trees and swimming pools, captured the hearts of some locals as he made a habit of foraging for food in foothill communities in recent months. His popularity only increased when Glendale resident Sarah Aujero, 29, created the Twitter handle The Glendale Bear so that residents would not see the bear as a threat.
“After all these tranquil- lizer shots, they may need to drop me off at Celebrity Rehab . . .,” Aujero tweeted after the bear was caught.
As the bear was moved from the truck into the trap, the Hendricks family snapped several photos of him. Glen Bearian lay under a tarp and breathed heavily with his tongue hanging out.
“Woo, you stink!” said Danna Hendricks, 46, then turned serious. “We’re so sorry, buddy.”
Minutes later, he was on his way.