GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (via WOOD TV) — For the black bear that wandered into a southeast Grand Rapids' neighborhood Sunday, the trip south was a long way and one hard fall from home.
The bear was spotted up in a tree off Horton Avenue SE Sunday morning. Eventually, he fell from the tree after being shot by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources with a tranquilizer dart. Crews then drove him back up north where he belongs.
It is the second time in a little more than a year that a black bear has been spotted in the city of Grand Rapids. One ended up in a tree on the city's West Side in May 2018.
“You have a line that goes right across Muskegon, Big Rapids up to Bay City, Saginaw, where we don’t really have many bears down (south of that line)," DNR wildlife biologist John Niewoonder explained. “(But) in recent years they’ve been coming south, even in to the Grand Rapids area, a little more regularly."
The DNR says that's likely because of a thriving black bear population in the Cadillac and Baldwin areas.
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