It was quite a morning for a 356-pound black bear, who found his way up a tree off Route 130.
He certainly knows how to command an audience, with throngs of onlookers gathering in the surrounding area watching the events unfold.
The excitement began around 5:45 Thursday morning. The bear was spotted in a backyard and police were called. Later personnel from New Jersey's Division of Fish and Wildlife arrived.
A perimeter was established and nearby residents were told to shelter in place. Preparations were made to get the bear safely down, with a net positioned below to break the bear's fall.
The animal was hit with the first tranquilizer dart just before 9:00 a.m., and around twenty minutes later another went in before the bear fell.
Once the bear was down he had an on-scene check up. He was weighed, blood was drawn, and a disease profile was performed before being carted off to be released in the Brendan Byrne State Forest in Shamong Township.
This bear has been tagged before. He was in Vineland last year and has been seen recently up and down the Delaware River.
Experts say this is the time of year the males look for females, and can cover 40 miles in a day. So while he's being taken to forests in Shamong, there is no guarantee this is the last we'll see of him.
This story was reported by KTRK-TV's sister station, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia.
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