Things didn't
look good for the young black bear
Bear in a bucket,
saved by
determined conservation
officer
Doug Smith,
Minneapolis Star Tribune
June 24,
2006
Things didn't look good for the young
black bear.
It was exhausted, thirsty and nearly
asphyxiated by the plastic bucket stuck firmly over its head
when Randy Hanzal found it last Saturday near Floodwood, Minn.
But the 42-year-old Hanzal, a
Department of Natural Resources conservation officer for only
two years -- and a bear hunter himself -- was determined to
help the 1 ½-year-old, 100-pound bruin.
Carefully.
"The claws were the biggest concern,"
said Hanzal, who patrols the Brookston area just northwest of
Duluth. When he initially encountered it, the bear was lying
on the ground, and Hanzal got both his hands on the bucket.
"I yanked one way and he yanked the
other way," Hanzal said, but the bucket wouldn't budge. "I was
astonished," he said. "It was like it was part of his head. He
got up and started walking, so I followed him."
For more than four hours.
Finally, Hanzal considered giving up.
"I thought I was going to have to
shoot him," he said. "I felt bad; it was just doing what bears
do: rummaging for food, and some idiot left this bucket in the
woods."
So the officer made one last-ditch
effort.
"I lassoed him and wrapped him tight
around a telephone pole in a ditch," Hanzal said. "I kept
talking to him the whole time, so he knew I was there and I
didn't startle him."
Finally, the bear lay still, and
Hanzal cut the bucket off with his knife.
"I don't think he would have lasted
much longer," he said.
Then Hanzal sliced the ropes. The
dazed bear sat there for a few minutes, took a drink of water
from the ditch and eventually "took off like a herd of
horses," Hanzal said. "He seemed fully recovered."
DNR conservation officers often are
called to dispatch injured animals.
"It was nice to save one," Hanzal
said.
Randy Hanzal can be contacted at the
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and thanked for his
efforts "above and beyond the call of duty".
US
Mail:
DNR Information Center
Attn: Randy
Hanzal
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN
55155-4040
Email:
info@dnr.state.mn.us
Subject: Attn: Randy Hanzal
Happy 4th Of
July!
We at NWHS, would like
to wish all readers living in the USA, a Happy 4th of July
holiday. If you are enjoying your holiday in the woods and
forests, please be cognizant of the surrounding wildlife.
Drive slow enough on the woodland roads to avoid any
animals darting out in front of you. They have no idea of what
an automoble is.
Also, if you are using fireworks, be aware of
the danger of a forest fire. Wildlife is counting on you to be
careful enough to not start a fire. The woodlands may seem
like your holiday playground, but it is their 24/7
home.
