Catching of black bear a community effort
BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer

JOHN DUNPHY Sayreville police sergeants James Michko and Ray Szkodny tend to the black bear after it was tranquilized and brought down from a tree Monday.

SAYREVILLE — Call it a bear-raising adventure.

A black bear that appeared in residential areas and even came near a borough school property Monday morning was ultimately caught by police and relocated to a preserve, but not before it could stir up concern in the community.

It was sometime around 6 a.m. that police began receiving calls from residents claiming to have spotted a bear roaming around Sayreville. When Sgt. James Michko came to work an hour later and heard of the calls, he thought people might just be seeing things in the dim dawn light.

“My first inclination was that it was a big black dog running around and these people think it’s a bear,” he said. “That’s usually what happens.”

“Once I saw the bear, then I believed them,” Michko added.

The now well-documented chase between Michko, Sgt. Raymond Szkodny and the 242-pound, 2-year-old bear, which at one point almost climbed onto the Garden State Parkway, has drawn much attention due to the unusual setting for a bear sighting. Officials said this bear is the first to be spotted in Sayreville.

Michko located the bear and chased it for about a half hour, confronting it not 10 feet away off Bordentown Avenue near the Holy Trinity Church and day care center, where Michko was ultimately able to scare the bear up a tree.

A resident of Sussex County, Michko said bears are a lot more common where he lives.

“I have a deck [at my house],” he said. “I’ve had a bear a number of times come up and lie down by the sliding-glass doors, like it’s actually watching TV with us.

“I respect them; I’m not afraid of them,” Michko added.

With the bear contained, the next several hours would be spent getting him down. For that process, officials called in Kelcey Burguess and Patrick Carr, biologists for the Black Bear Project at the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Borough Business Administrator Jeffry Bertrand, who came out to assist in the bear containment, said Burguess and Carr informed the increasing throng of people about what needed to be done to get the bear safely to the ground.

Bertrand said they lined up four possible outcomes once the bear, which had climbed 40 feet up the tree, was tranquilized: the bear could lose consciousness and try to get out of the tree, possibly falling, something they had prepared for with a net below; the bear could attempt to climb even higher into the tree; or it could attempt to climb onto one of the branches and possibly fall.

But it was the fourth possibility that panned out, as the bear would instinctively cinch himself between two branches.

Carr and Burguess then made use of the borough’s brand new bucket truck to get up to the bear, where they could secure it for a descent from the tree.

“We’d previously had great discussions on the validity of buying a bucket truck,” Bertrand said. “Nobody ever envisioned one of its first uses would be for that.”

Once secured, the bear was safely lowered to the ground by police, wildlife officials, public works employees, and even Bertrand himself.

“The B.A. [Bertrand] took off his suit, loosened up his tie and went in,” Michko said. “That makes us feel good. He did a terrific job out there.”

Michko added that many other people, including off-duty officers and Borough Council members, also came out to lend a hand.

“It was really nice to have everyone out there,” Michko said. “The whole town basically helped. If they didn’t pitch in physically, they were there spiritually.”

Ultimately, the bear was weighed, and a baby tooth was extracted for DNA research, and then the bear was transported to Six Mile Run State Park in Franklin Township.

The bear was also tagged for identification, should it wind up in unfamiliar surroundings again.

According to Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection, the young bear, referred to as a sub-adult, is in excellent condition and on his own once again. She said that, at that age, it is customary for male bears to leave their mothers to venture out on their own.

“They typically follow stream corridors, like the Raritan Bay,” she said.

Though the bear was not a threat once it was tranquilized, every safety precaution was implemented.

“All bears, like a lot of wildlife, have the potential to do damage,” she said. “That’s why we always encourage people not to go near wildlife if they see it.”

With the bear out of the neighborhood, everyone is taking a deep breath and taking in everything that just happened.

“It was more of a community effort than an actual police event,” Michko said.