Bye, Bear!

"Hey, Willow Springs! This is Eagle country. Come get your bear," Mountain View Police Chief Jamie Perkins quipped in an online post. Last week, Chief Perkins took to Facebook to give the community an update on the increased bear activity within city limits. 

"In the past couple months, people have had a love/hate relationship with this young bear," Perkins began. "This summer has been harsh and very hard on the wildlife.  Sightings of bears started around the time summer heat started to pick up."

Howell County News previously reported on the first recorded sighting of a young bear in the tree of a residence behind Signal in mid-June. "For most, this was the first time seeing a bear firsthand and seeing a bear in town," Chief Perkins related. "Luckily, and with the help of many people, this bear was scared out of town." 

Unfortunately, she didn't stay out of town. 

"[It] recently has been seen all over the east side of town," continued Chief Perkins. "Mainly head-deep in trash bags, eating dog food, in chicken coops eating feed alongside turkeys, and tearing down birdfeeders. We know people were enjoying taking pictures of this bear and seeing the beauty of wildlife conservation in our area. We know the bear was only trying to find something to eat and was not aggressive, but a fed bear is a dead bear."

Mountain View Police Department enlisted the help of Agent Matt Franks with the Missouri Department of Conservation. 

"After many attempts to persuade this young bear to leave town, she was having none of it. No matter how many times she was yelled at, pepper balled, or shot with rubber pellets she kept coming back," Chief Perkins said. She even escaped a baited cage without ever tripping the cage's mechanism. 

"Agent Franks was down here every day doing what he could from having to put it down. [He] spent a lot of time out beating the brush looking for the bear himself."

Eventually conservation agents tranquilized the bear after a resident found her in a chicken coop eating eggs. 

Damage Biologist Scott McWilliams said the bear was a healthy, three-year-old female. 

"This is all in an effort to keep this bear wild," wrote Chief Perkins. "If not, we all know the outcome of this beautiful creature. Many thanks to the patient residents who put up with this little bear for the last month and all who reported sightings of the bear. This was key in safely capturing this bear."