A bear previously reported in Kirkland was captured by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife after he was found late Thursday in a tree in the Totem Lake neighborhood.
The male black bear is now being held by Fish and Wildlife in Fall City, according to Sgt. Kim Chandler, who had been tracking the bear on a map ever since it was first reported near the Microsoft Campus in Redmond a month ago.
“Everybody was calling it in,” he said.
Days later, it was reported near the Lake Washington Institute of Technology. The next day, it was reported at Juanita Beach Park before being spotted days later at the Arrowhead Elementary School and then at the Inglewood Golf Club.
For the next three or four days, Chandler said, the bear was reported near Cedar Park Christian in Bothell before moving back down into Kirkland, where it was reported near the Fred Meyer gas station along 120th Ave NE, then by the apartments behind the QFC off of NE 124th Street.
Despite the dozen reports made by residents, not one of them described the bear as being aggressive, who Chandler said mostly rummaged through people’s garbage or tipped over bird feeders for the food.
Then on Thursday at 11:15 p.m., Chandler was informed by Washington State Patrol that the Kirkland Police had found the bear 12-15 feet up a maple tree near the Fred Meyer.
“I said ‘Keep him up there,'” he said.
Arriving with another officer from Fish and Wildlife, Chandler said they prepared the drug for the bear, which would cause him to lose muscle strength but maintain consciousness. Fearing the bear would fall out of the tree once the drug took effect, they requested KFD assistance. Firefighters from Station 27 drove over with a ladder truck, but by the time they arrived, the bear had already begun to move in an attempt to climb down the tree. When it finally fell, the officers and firefighters, along with Chandler, were able to partially break the fall with a net.
Administering another dose of the drug to the bear, they placed it in the back of Chandler’s pickup truck, who drove it to where Wildlife had a cage for it.
“That’s one of the fastest trips I’ve made to Fall City in a long time,” Chandler said.
He said they fitted the bear with a GPS track and released it late Friday.
The bear had no eartags to indicate prior captures. As to why the bear was roaming through Kirkland, Chandler said most likely the bear was “opportunistic,” taking advantage of the lack of competition for food.
“One of the reasons they come here is all the other spots are already taken,” he said. “Bears are very territorial.”
KPD Spokesperson Mike Murray said it’s the first bear captured in Kirkland in at least 30 years.
