A young black bear caused quite a stir in Detroit Lakes Tuesday morning when a dog treed it in a residential neighborhood, and conservation officers tranquilized it after it wandered too close to the Middle School-Roosevelt Elementary School complex.
It all started when Lola, a German shorthair pointer, thought she had treed the biggest raccoon ever in her backyard at 410 Bowling Avenue. “She was barking around 5 a.m. so we let her out, and saw her chase something up the tree,” said Kayla Holton.
“My husband went out to check and saw a bear.” She and her husband, Josh, have lived in the house about five years.
Josh was trying to get the excited 4-year-old dog to come inside, but Lola was having none of it.
She was running around barking at the base of the big oak tree. The bear was in a crook in the tree about 15 to 20 feet up.
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The backyard is completely fenced. “I have no idea how it got in,” she said. “I called the police and they called the DNR.”
The bear meanwhile, “was up there yawning, then he fell asleep,” she said. After napping for much of the morning, the bear climbed down and ate out of the Holton’s birdfeeder. He then walked up and peered into their house through the glass storm door.
“He came right up to the door, that’s what scared me,” she said.
Adding insult to injury, the bear then pooped before climbing the fence and running off.
“It’s not something you wake up to every morning,” she said. Of course, not everyone did wake up. The Holton’s 1-year-old Doberman Pinscher, Stig, was sleeping and missed it when the bear first appeared.
City police officers were first on the scene, and they were relieved by DNR officers, said Detroit Lakes Police Sgt. Robert Strand.
Deputies, Fish & Wildlife employees and city street crews, among others, helped keep people safe during the incident.
Conservation officers and law enforcement kept a close watch on the bear all morning.
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About mid-morning, after leaving the Holton’s yard, the bear decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.
He proceeded several blocks to a backyard near Roosevelt Avenue and Central Street.
Officials stopped traffic for several hours in about a three-block radius of the bear, who had found a new tree just across from the Detroit Lakes Middle School playground.
School officials were notified and a Code Yellow was called to make sure students and staff stayed inside.
A White Earth conservation officer was in town, and he happened to have a tranquilizer gun in his car, but he didn’t have the necessary medication, Strand said.
A local veterinarian could supply the drug, but was at a loss as to the correct dosage. So Strand called the Red River Valley Zoo and found out the right dosage for the bear, which looked to be about 125 pounds.
“The DL vet had the drug on hand, we got the dart filled, and we got permission from the DNR to tranquilize the bear,” Strand said.
The tribal officer was able to shoot the tranquilizer into the bear, and as the bear climbed down the tree, the tranquilizer took effect.
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“White Earth (conservation officers) took the bear and released it on the reservation,” on the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, Strand said. The incident was over by early afternoon, and according to Strand, the bear came around approximately two hours after being tranquilized and was seen walking into the Tamarac woods.
It’s not unheard of for a bear to wander into town. It’s at least the third time it’s happened since he’s been on the force, Strand said.
“They’re hungry and looking for something to eat,” he said. “They’re spending more time now eating than sleeping.”
The relatively warm winter and early spring caused bears to wake up from hibernation before nature had much food to offer them, said Rob Baden, DNR wildlife manager in Detroit Lakes.
The young bear was likely a male on its own for the first time, he said.
“It’s probably the first time he’s been away from mama,” he said. They are generally kicked out of the home at age two. “It’s kind of like a teenager going to college for the first time, he’s got to learn,” he said.
The young bears spread out after they leave home, and because this area is where forests meet prairie, “it’s the edge of their range,” Baden said. “It’s one of the reasons we get a lot of young bears dispersing out here.”
Bears are hungry this time of year, and the best thing homeowners can do to avoid nighttime visitors is bring food inside, including bird feeders, he said.
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The bear wasn’t the first wild animal to visit the Holton’s fenced-in back yard on Bowling Avenue.
“A few years ago we had a fox in there,” Kayla said. “But we just opened the gate and he left on his own.”
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By Nathan Bowe and Brian Basham
