Rating:

0.0 (0 votes)

HUACHUCA CITY - A wildlife manager euthanized another bear Thursday.

The young male black bear was wandering around Quail Ridge RV Resort when somebody called 911. The Arizona Game and Fish Department has received about 100 bear calls since July.

Dennis Lewis was the person who called 911.

"You had a lot of the people that really enjoyed it," Lewis said. "It was like a free show."

Gary Miller has been at Quail Ridge RV Park since 1985. He has never seen a bear in the area.

"I like at the zoo," Miller said, "where they're behind a moat or something like that."

The bear was shot with a tranquilizer then euthanized.

It was first seen on a Fort Huachuca golf course. Arizona Game and Fish officers moved it to the Santa Rita Mountains, according to Mark Hart with AGFD.

"Imagine if you were plucked out of your neighborhood and put in a strange place," Hart said. "You'd probably want to get home too."

The Monument Fire in 2011 and lack of winter rain have limited the bears' food supply.

Game and Fish workers relocated 4 bears from the Huachuca Mountain area and 3 have been put down. Sonora, Mexico police shot a bear when it left its new home in the Patagonia Mountains, according to Hart.

A bear went 70 miles back toward the Huachucas after being moved to the New Mexico state line.

The Huachuca Mountains still have 35 to 65 bears, according to Hart.

The animals will start hibernating later in November but might return in the spring, according to Hart.

Earlier this year, Game and Fish authorized 5 extra permits to archery hunters. None of them were successful.