PHOTO: Black bear captured in Siloam Springs, moved to forest

A black bear wandering through Siloam Springs was caught Friday and moved to the forest.
A black bear wandering through Siloam Springs was caught Friday and moved to the forest.

A black bear wandered through several Siloam Springs neighborhoods on Friday morning before it was captured by Arkansas Game and Fish officers.

Siloam Springs dispatch received a call about the a bear in the 900 block of West Alpine about 8 a.m., according to Holland Hayden, city communications manager. The bear ran to the 700 block of West Jefferson Street, where he climbed a tree, said James Harris, Siloam Springs animal control manager.

The bear climbed down from the tree and ran to the 900 block of West Jefferson Street, where wildlife officers sedated him with tranquilizer darts, Harris said.

The bear climbed another tree and went to sleep. Game and Fish Commission officers retrieved him and relocated the bear to the Lake Wedington area of National Forest, Harris said.

Harris estimated that the bear weighed between 75 and 100 pounds. Capt. Brian McKinzie, of the Game and Fish Commission, said the bear was a young male. McKinzie said the animal wandered into town because bears tend to move a lot during June, July and August. He said it isn’t uncommon for a bear to come into a town, but it doesn’t happen every day, either.

“(It’s) a really pretty animal and appears to have a great demeanor,” McKinzie said.

McKinzie said that Siloam Springs animal control, the police department and fire department were all very helpful in capturing the bear.

Harris said he heard a report of a bear sighting in West Siloam Springs, Okla., on Thursday, and assumed it was the same animal that wandered into Siloam Springs.

“He just made a wrong turn and got in the wrong area,” he said.

Harris said that it isn’t common for bears to come into the area, but said he did know of one other incident about nine years ago when a bear came into Siloam Springs and was captured by Game and Fish.

“It’s not super common, but they’re around,” he said.

Keith Stephens, chief of communications for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said there is a population of about 5,000 bears in Arkansas, mostly located in the northern part of the state. Smith said that the bear captured in Siloam Springs was most likely a yearling, which is about the age that mother bears start pushing their offspring away.

Stephens said the Game and Fish Commission gets quite a few calls about bears this time of year. Bears tend to stay in rural areas and follow rivers and creeks, but every once in a while they try to get an easy meal in town from sources such as trash or dog food, he said.

He said the bears aren’t a danger to the public because they’re scared of humans. Anytime a bear is captured, the officers try to make it a bit of an uncomfortable situation so that bears learn to stay away from people in the future, he said.

“We want them to stay out in the wilderness,” he said.

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