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for those of you unfamiliar with the area, Paramus is highly developed and chock full of shopping malls. This is what happens in a state where the bear hunt is repeatedly canceled by antis.

VIDEO: Paramus visit rough for bear
Friday, April 25, 2008
Last updated: Friday April 25, 2008, EDT 8:58 AM
BY MICHAEL GARTLAND
STAFF WRITER

Page 1 2 >>
The black bear roaming around Paramus on Thursday probably came to the borough from the north along the Saddle River, a state wildlife official said after helping to subdue the animal.


DENIS NILAND / SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
20 minutes after being shot with tranquilizer bullets, the roaming bruin went down.
"He probably came down through the drainage," said Kelcey Burguess, a biologist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife. "It's an odd situation."

Burguess and Joe Burke, a wildlife technician, helped subdue the male bear with the help of three tranquilizer darts, two dogs and about 15 law enforcement officials.

The bear weighs about 400 pounds, and Burguess estimated that it is 3 or 4 years old.

Paramus police first learned about the bear at 8:10 in the morning when a resident on the west side of the borough called headquarters after seeing it in her back yard.

Police said the bear traveled from her yard on Purdue Court to Jonquil Court, and then eventually to Dunkerhook County Park.

Initially, Paramus patrol officers tracked the bear and closed off some local roads. Bergen County police and officers from Ridgewood and Fair Lawn also responded to the scene. But by midmorning, as helicopters circled above, the law enforcement officials lost the bear in the woods.

Paramus Deputy Police Chief Richard Cary said the department contacted federal officials to order the helicopters away.

"We asked them to give us a no-fly zone," he said. "We just wanted to prevent it from becoming a threat."

By noon, the bear resurfaced in the park. Law enforcement officers from Paramus and the county again responded, but it was Burke and Burguess who fired the shots that put the bear to sleep.

Before they did, their dogs — two black-mouth yellow curs from Texas — chased the bear down and kept it at bay.

"They surrounded him," Burguess said proudly. Burke then fired two darts at the bear, and Burguess shot one. "It took about 20 minutes before he went to sleep."

As the bear lay about 30 yards from a park path, it didn't take long for reporters, photographers and parkgoers to start rubbernecking around what became a festive scene.

Dorice Stancher, a substitute teacher from Hawthorne, was riding her bike in the park when she stopped to check out the commotion.

"My mom told me to beware of the bear. I thought it was kind of funny," she said. "I was making jokes about it, but I guess it could have been more serious."

Stancher said it wasn't the first time she had seen a wild animal in the park. Last fall, she said, a coyote or a wolf chased her there. In January 2007, a coyote bit a student at Paramus Catholic High School, which is near the park.

On Thursday morning, as the bear hunt proceeded, students at the school were kept inside.

Burke said incidents like the one in Paramus are more common in the northern part of Bergen County. Rarely do towns like Paramus or Ridgewood get bear scares such as the one on Thursday, he said.

Stephen Wyder, the animal control officer in Ridgewood, said bears that wander into residential areas usually are fleeing from older, stronger bears.

"It's a territorial thing," he said.

On Thursday, the bear in Dunkerhook Park was sound asleep as law enforcement officials loaded it onto a small trailer attached to the back of an all-terrain vehicle. It was hauled to a truck with a large metal cylinder in the back, and then five men hefted it inside the tube.

Burguess said the wildlife division would run blood tests on the bear, check it for parasites, tattoo it for identification and then release it on nearby state-owned property.

Staff Writer Michael J. Feeney contributed to this article. E-mail: gartland@northjersey.com

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After long search, large black bear in Paramus is shot with tranquilizer




By John Soltes
Editor-in-Chief

PARAMUS (April 24, 2008, 1:05 p.m.) — The mascot of Paramus Catholic High School is the “Paladin,” one of Charlemagne’s fellow knights of distinctive virtue. But on the morning of April 24, the high school, which has a total enrollment of 1,592 students, could have been coined the Paramus Catholic Bears, for spotted near the backyard property of the private school was a wayward black bear milling about.


Photo, Bergen County Office of Emergency Management
Black bears (like the one above found in Paramus) sometimes make their way from Western New Jersey to the suburbs of the East.
Paramus Catholic students — of whom there are 54 who live in The Leader's coverage area — were greeted with a notification that the large bear had been seen near the campus, but the school day would continue as usual, said Paramus Catholic President James Vail.

The black bear is most likely an older male that moseyed its way east from Western New Jersey, according to Larry Herrighty, assistant director of the State Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife.

And to find itself in Paramus, New Jersey's marketplace hub with malls, highways and McMansions at every turn, the results could have been scary.

Around midday, reports indicated that the bear had been shot three times with tranquilizer darts, and that he was sleeping soundly. This came after news that nine Paramus police cars had been tracking the bear's every move.

The first cause for concern occurred when early morning reports mentioned that Bergen County Police had been dispatched because two bears were sighted near Paramus Road and Grove Street.

The two bear allegation was soon dropped by officials, who later believed it was simply one bear on the loose.

“We try to have the police keep the bear in one location,” Herrighty said.

Normally, the procedure is to get the bear into a single location for enough time to tranquilize it and transport the animal to the nearest state property, Herrighty said. “Normally, chasing the bear up a tree will effect that end,” Herrighty said.

The problem was that the Paramus Police reported that the bear was so large that he wouldn’t climb a tree. So, instead, authorities decided to monitor the animal for awhile.

According to reports, the bear had walked near the property of Paramus Catholic High School and was making its way toward Oradell.

Herrighty said that although the incident was unusual, it wasn't uncommon. Sometimes, mature male bears will wander away from their normal stomping ground, traveling the greenbelts along river systems.

“Unfortunately, heading east leads them to suburban and urban areas,” he said.

Now that the bear is caught, it will be released to the wild and not destroyed, Herrighty added.

Mabel Aragon, a Bergen County spokeswoman, said a county phone alert was sent to residents of both Paramus and Ridgewood. Approximately 80 percent of those who were called answered the phone. At the end of the message, residents with further questions were asked to call 211, the state's brand-new, never-been-used-before alert system.

Aragon said the alerts were sent to some 930 phone numbers. If anyone would like to add their mobile phone or an additional number to the new county alert system, click here.

Check back to The Leader for more updates throughout the week.



Note: Updated at 3:05 p.m. on April 24, 2008