Bear Tranquilized in Waterbury

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is relocating a small bear that was the talk of Waterbury on Tuesday afternoon. 

A 2-year-old bear showed up in an otherwise quiet residential neighborhood and climbed up a tree on MacArthur Drive. 

DEEP environmental conservation police jabbed  the 200-pound bear with tranquilizer as it was climbing down and sedated it pretty quickly.

After the animal fell a couple feet from the tree, crews loaded it into the back of a pickup and moved it to a new home.

Mark Ring of Waterbury Animal Control says the bear, just 2 years old and about 225 pounds, will be tagged and released in a state forest. He would not specify as to which one.

Even though local animal control officials say they get lots of calls about bears, those who live on Gail Drive and MacArthur Drive were clearly surprised that the bear had made himself comfortable in a backyard tree. 

In the last year, there have been 3,300 black bear sightings in the state. Of those, only two were in Waterbury.

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