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More than two dozen California homes have been burgled by a hungry 500-pound black bear. Now, "Hank the Tank" is wanted by California police who say he's become dangerously comfortable around humans.
Since last summer, the unusually large bear has been moving through the Lake Tahoe area in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, a region home to 40 percent of the state’s black bear population. Within seven months, Hank damaged at least 33 properties and entered at least 28 homes, according to a recent blog post by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).
Looks like he is living the high life and getting fat on people food. I think in order to save him they may have to put him in a zoo or wildlife preserve.
Locals don't want him harmed. In Alaska, that bear would have been killed or relocated already.
Was going to say the same. A bear that terrorized the hillside area of Anchorage including the zoo was captured and brought to the zoo in Duluth, MN in 2003 or so. I think the zoo named him terrible or something similar. They caught him right before I moved to hillside area from MN. I should have visited him once I moved back to MN. I think he got traded to another zoo now.
Hopefully they'll be able to relocate Hank. But, if not, there really isn't much of a discussion on whether he'd need to be put down IMO as he's bound to harm someone if he's not captured.
Looks like he is living the high life and getting fat on people food. I think in order to save him they may have to put him in a zoo or wildlife preserve.
I wonder how many zoos get calls about accepting wayward bears. And I wonder if he'd be able to fend for himself in a wildlife preserve, if he's become accustomed to easy pickings around human settlements.
How would the bear know where the boundaries of the preserve are, anyway? What would be the difference between turning him loose in the wild vs. in a preserve? What would be the advantages, if any, of putting him in a preserve? How does that work?
I wonder how many zoos get calls about accepting wayward bears. And I wonder if he'd be able to fend for himself in a wildlife preserve, if he's become accustomed to easy pickings around human settlements.
How would the bear know where the boundaries of the preserve are, anyway? What would be the difference between turning him loose in the wild vs. in a preserve? What would be the advantages, if any, of putting him in a preserve? How does that work?
The "preserve" would need to be fenced. Bears move/follow the food much of which is only seasonally available. Very few free range zoo type enclosures are large or diverse enough to provide enough food year round. They would need to provide supplemental feed.
Poor Hank, that's why there are signs
Don't Feed the Wildlife
It's probably going to cost him his life.
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