Up a tree: An emergency worker eyes up the bear in its perch high up in a suburban treeA bear came back to earth with a bump after it got stuck up a pine tree while foraging for food.
Police used a tranquiliser gun to stun the two-year-old California black bear, which tumbled more than 15ft into the front garden of a house outside Los Angeles.
But the fall was softened by a tarpaulin that caught the bewildered 100lb cub - nicknamed 'Yogi' by onlookers - and it was bundled back into the wild before the effects of the knockout drug wore off.
The three-hour drama began in Porter Ranch, California, when Barabara Erickson, 71, spotted muddy paws on her patio carpet before seeing a bear staring at her from the pine tree outside her front window.
Within minutes, there were about 40 firefighters, police and animal control experts gathered in the garden trying to work out how to bring down the clearly distressed animal.
'I told the first guy, "Don’t you dare kill him",' said Mrs Erickson.
'Everyone's in the bear's corner. It’s sad to think what's going through the animal's mind right now. It’s become a circus animal,' said neighbour Mark Shapiro, 63.
The bear falls out of the trees after it was shot with a tranquiliser dart and suffered no injuriesAfter eventually coming up with a plan to fire a tranquiliser dart, two officers from the Fish and Game Department stood by with shotguns in case the bear tried to bolt and a half-dozen firemen held a big yellow tarp directly under the tree.
Although black bears are not normally dangerous to humans, the watching crowd was warned to move back.
After being hit by the dart, the startled bear scampered a few feet higher.
Ten minutes later, the groggy creature finally slipped from his perch and fell, limbs splayed, to a soft landing below.
LA city firefighters and animal control officers carry the sleeping animal off in a hammockThe sedated bear, his urban adventure over, was returned to a more natural habitat in the surrounding mountains and released about 30 minutes later on Wednesday lunchtime.
The black bear population has grown from 10,000 to 38,000 over the last twenty years and they are increasingly drifting into built-up areas looking for food and water.
Three weeks ago, a 200lb black bear was tranquilised and lowered with a harness after it got caught up a tree in another neighbourhood north of Los Angeles.
The bear's mini adventure carried on in the back of a van. He was transported back to the mountains west of LA, where he was released source: dailymail
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