Overview
- Police, animal control and state conservation officers shut Second Avenue and nearby blocks after a black bear climbed a maple tree in a residential Albany neighborhood.
- An officer fired a tranquilizer dart late in the morning and the bear dropped into a padded safety net that crews had set up below.
- Local TV video showed the sedative taking close to two hours to fully work before the animal lost its grip.
- Police reopened the streets after the removal, and officials said the DEC planned to take the bear to a preserve or relocate it to the Catskills once it was fully sedated.
- The DEC estimates New York has about 6,000 to 8,000 black bears, and encounters in upstate cities occur several times each year as animals emerge from winter dens.