Bear shot after wandering into town

A 160-lb. male three-year-old black bear was shot and killed in town last Thursday by Fish and Game officials after they were unable to drive the animal back over the interstate, trap it or drug it.

Conservation officer Bob Sellers said the incident began early Thursday morning with a call from an individual who spotted the bear while walking his dog on North 13th East Street near the interstate. Several other calls spotting the animal came in but it wasn't until 9:30 a.m. when Sellers and fellow F&G Conservation officer Jeff Day received a call locating it on North Third East Street near the interstate.

They found the bear near some abandoned vehicles in a field. "He'd stand up and sniff, then go hide again," Sellers said. He and Day called F&G offices in Boise, which sent down a bear trap and an officer trained to use a tranquilizer dart gun.

"We tried to set the bear trap up close, but apparently got it too close," Sellers said. "I was just going to babysit him until he got into trap, but he spooked and ran west," into the pond area of a citizen's home.

An attempt to tranquilize the animal failed when the dart gun malfunctioned.

At that point the bear began running through some yards on 10th Street.

"We were kind of hoping he would tree and we'd get a shot at him," Sellers said, but the animal tore through a fence and then ran back to the interstate.

"By that time the county deputies and city police showed up, and then we started having a lot of civilians showing up. It was getting hard to control the crowd and things were becoming a danger to both the bear and the crowd. Plus people were starting to slow down on the interstate. It was getting to be a mess, so we were running out of options."

At that point, officials decided that for the safety of the civilians, the bear needed to be put down, and was subsequently shot by the officer from Boise with a shotgun.

The bear's pelt will be used as part of Fish and Game's Information and Education program.

Sellers said it was a sad thing to have to kill the bear.

"How he got into town I don't know. Possibly through a culvert under the interstate. If he'd been on the other side of the interstate, we'd have tried to push him north.

"It was just a bad situation with an animal that we really couldn't just back off and let him wander around. It was a bad situation that ended up badly for the bear, but nothing else, thank goodness."

Sellers, who has worked in the area for years, said he couldn't remember a bear coming into town before. Moose, elk, deer, "and we've even had some reports of cougars we couldn't confirm," have been spotted in town, "but it's been a long time for a bear."

Food supplies in the hills are considered good for bears right now. "What brought him here, I just don't know," Sellers said.