The Metuchen Bear That Cancelled Recess

There was a little excitement in Metuchen today — a black bear was spotted walking around town, then climbed up into a tree.

See below, or friend me on Facebook, to see more.

He’s cute as long as he stays up there.

TV crews from Fox5 and newspaper reporters and photographers from the Star-Ledger joined the crowd.

He’s being interviewed because it’s his yard where all the people are gathering. He’s a taxidermist!

I heard the bear made his way through three backyards, jumping over fences and making his way at least 40 feet up the tree in about 10 seconds. So if the bear decides to come down, those people better have a plan about whose house they’re running into!

I guess that branch is strong enough to hold him. Bears probably have a sense about these things.

It was pretty interesting to see him moving around on that branch.

Whenever he moved, the crowd would gasp. Very cool.

He was looking at us, for sure.

Getting comfortable for a nap, I think.

This is a very exciting thing for little Metuchen.

Lots of people taking pictures.

I think he’s up there for a while.

I took this one from another yard. Funny how small that branch seems from down here.

Greg and I went to see the bear after school, so these next pictures were taken around 3 p.m. I think he’ll come down after all the people go home.

There were a lot more people there at 3.

He’s too high up to be tranquilized because the fall would kill him, or possibly hurt someone on the ground. In this shot I was trying to show how high the bear is in the tree. A police officer on the scene estimated he was about 50 feet up.

It was hard to get a shot that showed the whole area from the ground to the bear in the tree with the lens I had.

Grex was most interested in the TV cameras.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

• Tweet

This entry was posted on Monday, June 20th, 2011 at 2:34 pm and is filed under mamarazzi, metuchen and tagged with metuchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

4 Responses to “The Metuchen Bear That Cancelled Recess”

1. Carol Ryder says:

   June 27, 2011 at 1:33 pm

   Wonderful pictures. Hope the bear made it to a safe place.

   Reply
2. Eliza says:

   June 20, 2011 at 8:25 pm

   The story as I heard from my son’s friend, who is on the First Aid Squad so has it pretty first-hand from what the police are saying. A mommy bear and two younger bears who live in the Watchung Reserve decided to go on walkabout. The kids (19ish, but still kids so far as I’m concerned) point out that the bears have as much right to wander around New Jersey as anyone, and that therefore they should not be referred to as escaping from the Watchung Reserve. Anyway, bears decided to go for a stroll. Mommy was intercepted in the Scotch Plains/Clark area, but babies (more like adolescents, perhaps) continued on and probably ended up in the system of abandoned railroad lines. One kid bear has holed up (hmmm…maybe not the right word) in the tree in Metuchen; the other is still unaccounted for and probably went back to the railroad line. If he continues on the course they seem to be set on, I’m predicting Perth Amboy by tomorrow.

   Reply
   • Julie Walton Shaver says:

     June 20, 2011 at 9:38 pm

     Thanks for that update, Eliza. I heard that as of about 45 minutes ago, the bear came down from the tree, heading toward East Chestnut and then disappeared, meaning, the police chasers lost him.

     Reply
3. Mary says:

   June 20, 2011 at 3:36 pm

   Sounds like the name of a children’s book. Now he just has to do something interesting (and not dangerous)!

   Reply