A young black bear that had been ravaging garbage cans in Sun Valley was trapped Monday morning in the Fairway Road area and given a free ride to new stomping grounds.
"We've had a trap out there for about 10 days," said Sun Valley Police Chief Cameron Daggett. "He's been doing the Monday night, Tuesday morning Dumpster diving and then he'd been trying to get into garage doors and such."
The bear was found at about 7:30 a.m. Monday in a culvert trap set by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Senior Conservation Officer Rob Morris described the animal as a "little boar, 3 to 4 years old and weighing 150 pounds."
The culvert trap is basically a piece of culvert pipe mounted on wheels and equipped with a trap door. Bait is used to lure an animal, and the Sun Valley bear bit on the ruse sometime during the evening.
He was transported elsewhere. Morris declined to say where but said it was at least 50 miles from the place where the bear was apprehended.
"We're really limited to where we can take bears and release them and they won't be a problem elsewhere," Morris said.
After being captured the bear was drugged and tagged so that Fish and Game can determine if he's a repeat offender.
"That's why we're starting to mark these bears," Morris said. "We never like destroying these bears but sometimes they just can't be rehabilitated."
Morris said the culvert trap allows bears to be captured and transported with minimal handling. He said some bears become agitated when captured, charging at the bars or snapping their jaws. But that wasn't the case with this one, who lay down and rested his head in the trap as if he understood the routine.
"He was a pretty docile guy," Morris said. "That was probably one of the most gentle bears I've come across."
While garbage-seeking bears are not unusual in the Sun Valley area, Morris said authorities became concerned about this one after he climbed a fence into a backyard and tried to get into a garage.
Sun Valley Assistant Police Chief Mike Crawford said the bear was one of two or three that have been causing problems in Sun Valley this summer.
"We've had a couple of different areas that have experienced bear issues," Crawford said. "Our big day is Monday before garbage pickup. We ask that residents keep their garbage locked up until Tuesday.
"You know there's more of them out there."
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
This young male black bear was trapped Monday morning in the Sun Valley Fairway Road area. The bear, which was getting into garbage cans and otherwise being a nuisance, was transported out of the area by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
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