HELLAM TOWNSHIP — A bear that had been spotted around Hellam Township for several weeks has been successfully trapped Tuesday and relocated by members of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, a spokesperson confirmed.
The bear, a juvenile, spent most of its visit to Hellam Township snacking on birdseed left outside several homes in the area, the Game Commission said.
But when the bear turned its attention to bee hives and began destroying those, Game Commission Warden Justin Ritter set a trap to capture it.
One night after setting the trap, the bear was captured.
Ritter was called away from the York County Envirothon at John C. Rudy Park to pick up the bear Tuesday morning. He then drove it back to Rudy Park to show off to the students gathered there before it was examined and released.
The students didn’t get to watch the examination — it would have been too stressful for the bear, Ritter said — but they did get to see it stick its tongue through a hole in the trap to get a sip of bottled water, Envirothon coordinator Kim Young said in an email.
Wardens then moved the bear to a quieter part of the park, where it was sedated and examined before being moved to a rural part of Perry County, where it was released back into the wild.
