TRAVERSE CITY (WWJ) - A 350 pound black bear that captivated Traverse City residents when it scaled a neighborhood tree last year is dead after it was legally hunted.
As reported be the Traverse City Record-Eagle, the bear was killed by a hunter in Emmet County back in September.
Bear hunting season began in Lower Northern Michigan on Sept. 9 and ran through Sept. 9 with a second hunt period from Oct. 6-12.
“We have a few designated relocation sites and then let it go, and it’s on its own to be a bear,” Stephen Griffith, a wildlife biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, told the Record-Eagle. “And yes, during the bear season, obviously some of them fall prey of a hunter.”
Some residents, like Ashlea Walter, were sad to hear the news which came months after the bear drew crowds of onlookers after it climbed up a tree in a Traverse City neighborhood over Mother's Day weekend.
“It makes me sad, because I was just envisioning it living peacefully in the forest somewhere, thriving as a bear does,” Walter said, adding that she was one of the dozens of people who watched authorities safely tranquilize and relocate the bear.
Traverse City Police, Department of Natural Resources scientists and conversation officers and Traverse City Light & Power employees had all grouped together to get the roughly 350 lbs. bear down from its perch.
According to DNR Wildlife Assistant Mike Kowalski, they were first notified of the early morning neighborhood loiterer just before 7 a.m. on Sunday, May 14. By the time the DNR arrived at the scene, Traverse City police had blocked off the area and the bear had scaled a 30-feet tree.
Over the next few hours, curious onlookers and concerned neighbors gathered around the operation as crews worked to get the bear down.
Around 1 p.m., the bear finally fell asleep after it was tranquilized with several darts. The bear tumbled and landed "butt-first" on a mattress provided by a local resident.
The bear was given the all-clear and safe relocate to another area about an hour to an hour and a half away.
The black bears are not an uncommon sight in Northern Michigan, it can be dangerous when they roam in neighborhoors or come into contact with humans.
According to the DNR, black bears are very active when they begin leaving their dens and looking for food in late-March to early May.
As for why people hunt bears, Elijah Keller, Vice President of the Michigan Bear Hunters Association said its a combination of sport, for meat, and for population control.
"It's a multifaceted thing," he told WWJ's Brian Fisher, in an episode of The Daily J podcast. "One: Yeah, I mean simply bear meat's outstanding. In the U.S. we have a rich history of bear hunting, and it was the preferred game meat on the frontier. This culture's starting to come back."
"And, yeah, now we do have to do some population control on them. Not only to the carrying capacity of the land, but the carrying capacity of the population of bears with humans in regards to conflict."
To be clear, experts say aggressive attacks by black bears on humans in Michigan, and elsewhere, are extremely rare.
For more information about bear hunting in Michigan, check out the 2023 Bear Hunting Regulations Summary online at Michigan.gov/Bear or view it in the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app — available in the Apple app store or Google Play for Android devices.
Learn more about black bears in Michigan at this link.