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A long, pink tongue poked out
through a hole in the locked metal crate, stretching to
lick a teaspoon of strawberry jam.
The sweet snack was the last for the 1-year-old female
bear before a team of Department of Fish and Game
wildlife biologists released her into the wild near
Sagehen Creek Field Station not far from Truckee
Wednesday.
While the bear was enjoying the treat, a state wildlife
veterinarian, Pam Swift, cautiously opened the door and
poked the bear with a long pole equipped with a syringe
containing the sedative Telazol.
The shot quieted the young animal before moving her to
an artificial den the biologists had prepared in the
woods.
Caught in September by Fish and Game
personnel after its mother was killed by a motorist in
Truckee, the juvenile bruin was taken to a wildlife
rehabilitation facility at the department's North
Central Region Headquarters in Rancho Cordova.
Over three months, the orphaned bear more than doubled
its 40-pound weight before being returned to the Truckee
area.
The bear is the first of several that state wildlife
officials expect to release in the Tahoe area this
winter.
Once the sedative kicked in, the biologists carefully
removed the bear from the crate and onto a blanket,
where they checked its vitals and attached a transmitter
to one ear that will be checked by radio twice a month.
The team placed the tranquilized bear on a sled and
transported her by snowmobile to the den, a plastic dog
igloo buried in the snow on a north-facing slope next to
a large fallen log.
"It's great bear habitat," said
biologist Jason Holley after placing the bear inside the
den and covering it with fir branches.
The move went smoothly, and the biologists said they
think the juvenile bear has a good chance of surviving.
"She's got a good shot at becoming a wild bear," Holley
said. "It's the best chance of survival we can give it.
Very few animals qualify (to be re-released.)"
When spring comes, the biologists hope the young bear
will find plenty of food, including logs filled with
grubs, berries or a deer carcass, and stay far from
human habitat and its garbage cans.
"We want to keep her as wild as
possible," Swift said.
But with Highway 89 only a few miles away, and a record
70 bears killed by motorists in the Truckee area in
2007, the chance remains that the bear could meet the
same fate its mother did, Holley said.
"She could get hit by a car," the biologist said.
The wildlife experts said they hope the bear will stay
in the den when the expected storms move in this
weekend.
"It's the best situation," Holley said. "If she wanders
too far, it could be detrimental - but it's up to nature
at this point."
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