Falling in love: New Jersey State Wildlife officials catch a male bear after he was hit with a tranquilliser dart and fell out of a tree in East Brunswick, New Jersey in his search for a mateThe lengths that some will go to for love.
A bear, known as number 6131, was finally captured by wildlife officials after leading them across an entire state in his search for a mate.
The team finally caught up with the male, black bear up a tree in a front garden in East Brunswick, New Jersey. He was brought down with a tranquilliser dart and fell into a net held by Department of Environmental Protection staff.
He has already been found in six towns in the past year and each time released back into a state wildlife park.
Kim Tinnes, a wildlife expert who helped capture the bear, said: 'Probably in the course of a week he's travelling over 100 miles.
'I've got 30 years with the state and I don't think we've ever trapped the same bear so many times in so many urban situations.'
Not quite Cupid's arrow: A male bear, who climbed a tree in someone's front garden, is hit by a tranquilliser dart so he can be returned to a wildlife parkMiss Tinnes first encountered the adult bear in May last year in Parsippany in northern New Jersey. While unconscious, a tag with fitted to the bear's ear, his inner lip was tattooed with an identification number and he was given a tracking collar.
Since then, the team has been keeping track of the bear as he rambles around the state.
The wildlife worker said: 'He's spending so much time on the road he's actually losing weight.'
Bear 6131 weighed only 263 pounds when it was captured last week, having lost 30 pounds since he was first trapped last year.
Soft landing: The team of wildlife experts capture the bear they have been tracking for a yearThe reason behind his journey appears to be that although there are plenty of female bears in the animal's native northern New Jersey because the bear is relatively small for a three-year-old adult, he is unable to compete with the older, larger males that dominate the territory. His neck is scarred with old claw marks from trying.
Experts think that he is on the hunt to find a mate who is so far unchallenged.
Black bears are solitary creatures who seek out a mate to breed and move on.
Miss Tinnes added: 'It's usually a one-shot, two-shot deal before moving on to look for another breeding partner. There's no emotion to it.'
source: dailymail
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