Traverse City Bear Sighting

Yesterday I received a phone call from my mother in law telling me that there was a bear in Traverse City perched up in a tree. I sent a text over to my friend Alex Piazza (photo below) who works as a reporter for the Record Eagle, to see if he had heard anything about this. Sure enough he was already at the scene covering the story. I got the address and headed over to the where the bear was providing entertainment for hundreds of Traverse City residents. When I arrived, law enforcement officials made the crowd stand back to a safe distance because they were about to tranquilize the bear. From that point it took about 45 minutes for the DNR to take any action. In the meantime, about 20-30 of us where standing around waiting for something to happen, when a lady came up to me and said, “You know, all they need is a big bucket of honey and a fish to get him out of the tree.” I smiled, maybe even chuckled a little bit, then tried to focus on the bear. I kid you not, she said the same phrase to me 5 more times between when they tranquilized the bear until he was on the ground. Once the bear was on the ground, it took off into the neighbors backyard. My adrenaline was pumping at this point, so I made my way into the direction of the 200 pound Black Bear. The next thing I know I am standing face to face about 20 feet apart from the cute faced bear. I tired to take a photo, out of focus of course, and then took off like a mad man in the direction I first came. I then circled around the block to get behind a cement fence where I was safe and out of harms way, which I don’t think I was ever in any “real” harm because that bear was getting tired at this point. So I took some photographs as you see below and as I was walking back to my car, a lady next to me yells, “You know, all they needed is a big bucket of honey and a fish to get him out of the tree.” I continued to walk…

To read a more factual story, check out Alex Piazza’s story in April 22, 2010 edition of the Traverse City Record Eagle.