ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996                TAG: 9606050030
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: FAIRLAWN
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER 

BEAR-LY A PROBLEM

Larry Crane used a sign-shop's ladder Tuesday to capture the last of three black bears that climbed up a tree in the Fairlawn area of Pulaski County.

Crane, a wildlife biologist with the state department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said he was able to use a tranquilizer dart to get the mother bear down from her perch about 20 feet up in a white oak. The sow was shot with a dart and began climbing down the tree, Crane said. She fell the last three or four feet and landed on her rump without any injury.

"We hoped the cubs would follow her down and one did," Crane said.

When that cub, 3 months old, got close to its mother, the biologist and others were able to grab it.

The remaining cub, however, had climbed even higher in the tree, Crane said. The cub was clinging to the tree about 80 feet above the ground; getting to it was a problem, Crane said.

But a local sign company lent an extension ladder to the effort and the cub was brought out of the tree safely, Crane said.

The bears probably were spooked by a dog or person and climbed the tree for safety, Crane said.

The bears-in-the-tree episode started Monday and continued Tuesday, drawing a small crowd of spectators both days. The drama ended at a farm near Peppers Ferry Road and U.S. 11, just up the road from Radford.

Crane took the bears to an area in Giles County in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. It was the second such trip for the mother, who had been relocated there once before when she wandered to Pulaski County, Crane said.

The cubs, born in February, were new to Crane. Their mother, however, was tagged by Crane in February and was captured before that in November.

Crane said he expects the mother to stay in the forest this time because she has cubs.

"When a sow has cubs, she can't travel very far or fast," Crane said.

Crane cut short the telephone interview by quickly explaining the bears were lying in the sun and needed to be moved quickly. He also said after relocating the sow and her cubs in the forest, he was headed to another bear call in Montgomery County.

LENGTH: Medium:   53 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. About 80 feet up an oak tree, a 
          3-month-old male cub meets face to face with Larry Crane, wildlife 
          biologist with the state department of Game and Inland Fisheries. 2.
          With the cub a little groggy from a shot of tranquilizer, Crane is 
          happy the ordeal is over. 3. Crane and Joe Watson (center) watch as 
          Lowell Sale extends a ladder up to the stranded cub. color.