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Rio Rancho gets bear scare
Wandering bruin tranquilized, removed to mountains
Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune
Tribune
A hard-traveling black bear gets ready today for a trip back to nearby mountains after being tranquilized this morning in a Rio Rancho office building.
Photo by Steven St. JohnTribune
Tribune
A black bear that was found today in Rio Rancho, was cornered and tranquilized. It will be released into the mountains.
Smart Box
Avoiding bears
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish offers some tips for people living near black bear country on how to avoid encounters:
• Remove bird feeders. Bears see them as sweet treats, and often will look for other food sources nearby.
• Keep garbage in airtight containers inside your garage or storage area. Place garbage outside in the morning just before pickup, not the night before. Occasionally clean cans with ammonia or bleach.
• Never put meat or sweet-smelling food scraps, such as melon, in your compost pile.
• Don't leave pet food or food dishes outdoors at night.
• Clean and store outdoor grills after use. Bears can smell sweet barbecue sauce and grease for miles.
• Never intentionally feed bears to attract them for viewing. If you intentionally feed a bear or cause a bear to become a nuisance through negligence, you could be cited and fined up to $500, and the bear may eventually have to be killed.
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A hard-traveling black bear found its way into a Rio Rancho health clinic this morning, terrifying the few workers inside before being tranquilized by state Game and Fish Department officials.
Around 7:30 a.m., the wandering, 125-pound male bear somehow triggered the automatic doors at the Presbyterian Medical Group building at 3715 Southern Blvd., just west of the busy intersection with Rio Rancho Boulevard.
The bear, estimated to be 2 to 3 years old, retreated into a side room while Rio Rancho Police and animal control officers evacuated the area, according to a news release from the game and fish department.
The bear then retreated further, into a restroom, where Game and Fish officers Darrell Cole and John Martsch sedated it with a tranquilizer dart.
It went down within a minute.
"I guess if you're going to be darted with a tranquilizer, you might as well get it done in a hospital," Cole said in a news release.
The bear was removed from the clinic on a stretcher and transported to the Game and Fish Department's Albuquerque office, where it was weighed and inspected.
The animal was released later this morning in the Manzano Mountains.
Cole said the bear may have made its way into Rio Rancho from the Jemez or Manzano mountains after being displaced by its mother or a more dominant bear, according to the news release.
"This happens occasionally," said Game and Fish department spokesman Dan Williams said of the wandering bear. "Normally, when you see a bear in a populated area like this, it's looking for food."
Game and Fish officials tagged the bear so they can identify it should it wander back into populated areas, Williams said.
