The Louisiana Department of Wildlife of Fisheries had to make a difficult decision to put down a black bear after it became a threat to public safety in Port Allen. LDWF Biologist Supervisor Scott Durham says after relocating the bear in the woods over the weekend it returned to the West Baton Rouge Parish town.
“Whenever a bear becomes a threat like that then unfortunately occasionally we’d have to put them down and that’s what we did in this case,” Durham said.
The bear was put down Tuesday night.
Durham says the bear demonstrated dangerous behaviors in his search for human-sourced food and even made its way on to a porch of someone’s home
“We were able to get the bear down out of the tree the original time and it retreated to some woods some forested habitat but it made its way back into the town,” Durham said.
Euthanizing a bear does not happen very often in the state, Durham says the leading cause of death for bears is car accidents when they roam. But when a bear becomes accustomed to human food it is very difficult to change their behavior once they begin seeking food in suburban areas.
“When they’re in the middle of a town potential for conflict or problems gets higher occasionally we have to make this decision. When it comes to human health and safety we have to put that first,” Durham said.
The bear was originally rescued from a tree in Port Allen on Saturday and relocated to the woods. However, the same bear returned to the city and became a threat on Tuesday.
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