A bear climbed two utility poles Sunday near Douglas, prompting officials to close the nearby highway.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department, Douglas Police Department, Cochise County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Border Patrol responded to U.S. Highway 191, where a 200-pound bear had climbed two utility poles on the edge of town near Douglas.
"This happens occasionally," Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said in an email. "They have a knack for getting into unusual places, like atop the (18-foot) border wall or in abandoned stock water tanks."
About a dozen people who were watching the bear scattered as it climbed down the first pole, Game and Fish officials said on a Facebook post Monday. Officials used their patrol vehicles to haze it west after it climbed down from the second pole. The bear could have been electrocuted had it climbed higher, the Game and Fish department said.
Officials believe it was spooked up the first pole by increasing traffic in the area at daybreak. They believe the bear came from the Mule Mountains, between Bisbee and Douglas.
As officials were responding to the bear on the utility pole, Arizona Game and Fish Tucson officials cleared a 300-pound male bear from Highway 82 between Sonoita and Patagonia after it had been fatally struck by a car.
Bearizona Wildlife Park in Williams, Arizona received 15 inches of new snow in the last 48 hours and the 1-year-old grizzly cubs made the most of it. Hanna, Sky and Crockett love playing every day, but they took it to a new level with all the fresh snow stuff on the ground. These grizzlies were rescued in the spring of 2020 near Dupuyer, Montana and have thrived in their new surroundings in Northern Arizona.
