PENSACOLA BLACK BEAR CAPTURED

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says a black bear showed up in an Oak Tree near one of the busiest intersections in Escambia County yesterday. The 2-year-old male black bear was spotted about 30 feet up in an oak tree near the McDonald’s on Fairfield Drive and Pace Boulevard. As Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies secured the scene an FWC biologist shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart and it eventually fall into the brush and grass below the tree. The animal was not injured and biologists tattooed and ear-tagged the bear, which weighed about 150 pounds. Conservation Commission spokesman Robert Klepper said it will be released into a more suitable habitat.