LAKEWOOD, Wash. -- It took three shots from a tranquilizer gun, but Washington Fish and Wildlife agents finally caught a black bear that eluded them for hours Friday morning and walked across a school playground in a Lakewood neighborhood.
The healthy 4-year-old male, weighing about 230 pounds, has a good layer of fat and brown fur that apparently blocked darts or warded off some of the drug, said Sgt. Ted Jackson.
"We don't know how much got in," he said.
Agents were checking to make sure the drowsy bear recovered before releasing it in a remote area of the Olympics or Cascades mountains, Jackson said.
"We're going to put it far enough away," he said. "Let the drugs wear off and let it go."
A bear had been spotted several times over the past week in the Lakewood-Fort Lewis area.
In August, a bear attacked a civilian Army employee walking his dog in a wooded area of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He was treated by medics for bites and scratches to his abdomen, wrist and thigh. The bear chased the dog. It escaped and was later found off the base.
Landscaper Jacob Anderson said he was in a backyard in American Lake Wednesday when he spotted a bear. He snapped a photo of the bear and alerted authorities, who told him they received reports of multiple sightings. It's not confirmed if it is the same bear wildlife agents shot with a tranquilizer dart Friday.
Lakewood residents near the intersection of Bridgeport Way Southwest and Arrowhead Road Southwest spotted the bear in their yards and started calling 911 about 1:30 a.m. Friday. Wildlife agents responded.
"The bear was jumping from yard to yard along Arrowhead (Road SW)," said Sgt. Ted Jackson, Fish and Wildlife.
Jackson said an officer shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart, but it was able to run off. Agents started tracking it with a dog, going backyard to backyard looking for the animal.
"The dart on a very good day would take effect in five minutes," said Jackson. "This time of year bears put on quite a bit of weight, and the bear was able to jump a couple of more fences. Now we're trying to find it."
The area is just south of Saint Clare Hospital and a few blocks away from Tyee Park Elementary School. Tyee Park Elementary went into modified lockdown and district officials increased staff presence on the school grounds.
Wildlife agents followed the bear down railroad tracks and finally into a creek bed where it was darted a couple more times before it finally went to sleep.
Officers dragged it into a parking lot on a tarp to check it out for side effects from the drugs and chase.
No one was hurt and the bear survived its encounter with suburbia.
"We got lucky," Jackson said.
