Photos: Bear roams into downtown San Anselmo
Police said the male bear was between 200 to 300 pounds. He was about 40 feet up the tree late in the afternoon and was not aggressive.
San Anselmo was on alert Thursday after a resident spotted a bear in a tree near downtown.
David Allen-Hughes, head of the Ross Preschool, notified police at about 4:30 p.m. after seeing the animal near his home in the area of Tamalpais Avenue and Cedar Street.
“I called dispatch and they didn’t believe it,” said Allen-Hughes, who said police and firefighters arrived on the scene within five minutes and closed off the street promptly.
Allen-Hughes said the bear displayed no signs of aggression but became agitated when news helicopters started circling overhead.
“It looks tired and thirsty,” he said. “Its tongue keeps hanging out.”
The Central Marin Police Authority urged residents to stay out of the area and to refrain from calling 911 about the bear.
“The area has been secured and there is no immediate threat to the public,” the agency said. “We are working with various wildlife response teams to help resolve this incident with minimal risk to the animal.”
Police spokesperson Margo Rohrbacher said the male bear was between 200 to 300 pounds. He was about 40 feet up the tree late in the afternoon and was not aggressive, but officers were making noise to keep him from coming down until California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers arrived to assist, she said.
“We are just maintaining the status quo until they arrive,” Rohrbacher said. “We want the public to be safe and the bear to be safe and be taken care of properly.”
Allen-Hughes said he was first alerted to the bear when he received a text message from his neighbor who just moved in next door.
“He asked me ‘is it normal that there is a bear in my tree?’” Allen-Hughes. “I said, uh no.
“We were a little bit nervous. The bear is not in its normal habitat,” he said. “I know I don’t want to be the one stopping it if it comes down the tree.”
Capt. Patrick Foy with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement division said seeing a bear in downtown San Anselmo was a spectacle.
“There are bears in Marin and Sonoma,” Foy said. “The farther north the more dense their population is. So, Marin is not a common place for a bear, but it’s not unheard of.”
He said the unexpected call required the department to summon a responding officer from outside the area who did not have tranquilizing equipment on hand. The agency was working to get a biologist to help but said it preferred to “haze” the bear out of the tree naturally.
The plan worked and the bear came down on his own at about 7:45 p.m., according to an online update issued by police. The bear entered open space near Mount Tamalpais with “the encouragement of first responders … where he will hopefully remain.”
UPDATE: Black bear was steered thru yards to the base of Mt. Tam safely w/o use of tranq. It put a hole in a fence on the way out. Bear was a 150/200 lb adolescent (1-2 yrs old) male who left home to set up his own territory. He took a wrong turn into @SanAnselmoCA and was scared pic.twitter.com/Jguzwa0KCO
— Lorenzo Morotti (@Enzomorotti) May 14, 2021
Residents are asked to keep outdoor trash cans and pet food indoors or in a closed garage for the next day or two. If the bear is spotted, residents are asked to keep their distance and call 911.
Bear sightings have been rare in Marin since unregulated killing reduced the black bear population in the Point Reyes area around 1901, according to the National Park Service.
In 2003, a male black bear was sighted in several parts of the county. His presence was confirmed with the help of park scientists through hair samples.
That bear made appearances in the seashore as well as the Mount Tamalpais watershed, where he was spotted 15 to 20 feet up a dead tree at Bon Tempe Lake.
Bear sightings were reported throughout the seashore in 2010 and confirmed by the presence of scat and tracks found in the area.