'Cape Cod Bear' Could Be Sign Of Things To Come

05:18

June 27, 2012

This June 11, 2012 photo, released by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, shows a tranquilized black bear captured by officials in Wellfleet, Mass., on Cape Cod. (AP)

A 180-pound black bear's epic tour of eastern Massachusetts came to a somewhat undignified end in Brookline on Tuesday when environmental police shot him out of a tree with tranquilizer gun.

The 2-year-old male has been in the public eye since Memorial Day weekend, when he evidently swam the Cape Cod Canal and wandered all the way to Provincetown.

Two weeks ago, state wildlife officials on the Cape apprehended the bear and relocated him to Central Massachusetts. It was case closed, until he showed up on June 26 in Sherry Levanthal's backyard.

Radio Boston's next guest says all of us in the Boston area might want to get used to such encounters as the commonwealth's burgeoning black bear population pushes east.

Guest:

Tom O'Shea , assistant director of wildlife at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife

More:

Officials Haul Off ‘Cape Cod Bear’ In Brookline
Bear’s Cape Cod Tour Comes To An End

This segment aired on June 27, 2012.