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One of the crucial prolific thieves within the South Lake Tahoe, Calif., space was “safely immobilized” by tranquilizer dart and apprehended Friday morning, in line with state officers: a 400-pound black bear that the general public had come to know as Hank the Tank.
The captured bear was accountable for at the very least 21 DNA-confirmed residence break-ins and in depth property injury in Tahoe Keys relationship again to early 2022, the California Division of Fish and Wildlife stated in a information launch. The bear shall be transported to an animal sanctuary in Colorado this week.
Based mostly on visible observations made by residents throughout a string of rummaging and ransacking incidents relationship again to 2021, the general public initially thought “Hank the Tank” was one male bear. However the bear that was captured on Friday, a feminine recognized to the state as 64F, is considered one of three bears accountable for among the space break-ins that had been attributed to Hank.
“I assume all of them technically are ‘Hank the Tank,’” Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman for the division, stated. She stated the “different Hanks” haven’t “offered themselves as issues” this yr in Tahoe Keys, a gated neighborhood about 190 miles northeast of San Francisco.
This feminine Hank, nevertheless, was lively, at-large — and “exceptionally giant,” in line with state wildlife authorities.
For over a yr, this Hank had terrorized members of the neighborhood, ripping off display doorways and components of storage doorways, rummaging by way of rubbish bins, climbing stairs and scratching up vehicles, prompting dozens of calls to the police. At one residence within the space, Ms. Traverso stated, Hank ripped off siding in order that she may entry a part of the home from beneath.
Bears are “extremely adept with their fingers,” able to opening latches and doorways, Ms. Traverso defined. “They know what fridges appear to be, and so they know what’s in them.”
The typical black bear within the Western United States weighs 100 to 300 kilos, in line with the Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife. In ransacking houses and rummaging by way of trash cans, Hank realized that she may shortly entry hundreds of energy without delay. Her three cubs, together with one believed to have been severely injured by a car, accompanied the bear on current break-ins, and so they have been additionally captured on Friday, the authorities stated.
The state wildlife division hopes to rehabilitate the three younger cubs by sending them to the Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, about 200 miles west of South Lake Tahoe. The division stated it supposed to launch the cubs again into the wild.
Their mom shall be moved this week to the Wild Animal Sanctuary close to Springfield, Colo., the place she’s going to dwell in a 300-acre habitat that’s fairly much like the surroundings she knew in California.
“The one distinction is, we ship the meals,” stated Pat Craig, the founder and government director of the sanctuary, including that Hank was anticipated to reach there on Tuesday.
Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado welcomed Hank to the state on social media, saying she “turned out to be Henrietta the Tank.”
Hank’s circumstances are “fairly uncommon,” as most “drawback bears” are euthanized, Mr. Craig famous. He estimated “anyplace from 300 to shut to 1,000” are put down every year in the USA.
The California Division of Fish and Wildlife stated in its assertion that it pursued “an alternate resolution” for the bear they name 64F, or Hank, “given the widespread curiosity on this bear.”
Even so, Ms. Traverso stated that, ideally, wild animals “stay wild ceaselessly.” She urged folks residing close to areas inhabited by bears to safe their rubbish, to select up fruit that falls from bushes and to chorus from placing out hen feeders. People are the “controllable issue,” she stated.
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