Update: Bear Upstages BearCat

This black bear clings to a tree after being tranquilized by Idaho Fish and Game above the soccer field at Woodland Middle School in Coeur d’Alene this morning. The animal was then retrieved from the schoolyard and brought in to Idaho Fish and Game office for observation. It will be released back into the wilderness. (SR photo: Kathy Plonka)

Update: F&G and school officials waited for the black bear to climb down the tree, which it did. When it was near the ground, the F&G officials shot the bear with a tranquilizer. They are transporting the bear to the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.

SR photographer Kathy Plonka was en route to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office to snap photos of the sheriff’s new BearCat military vehicle, when the SR received word that there’s a 100-pound black bear in a tree near the softball fields at Woodland Middle School, off Kathleen Avenue. School resource officer Tom Sparks saw the bear take to the trees this morning. The bear climbed about 60 to 70 feet up the tree. The resource officer has called Fish & Game. We should have photos this afternoon, of the bear. And maybe the BearCat.

Thoughts?