Bear tranquilized after climbing tree at University of Colorado dorm building

Screen Shot 2012-04-26 At 4.33.48 Pm My parents have been seeing a lot of bears recently near their house in Boulder, Colorado. The detail shown here is from a larger photo of a doped-up bear falling from a tree onto a mattress. He was discovered in the Williams Village university housing complex, which is surrounded on all sides by residential areas.

"It was really a perfect landing," said Ryan Huff, spokesman for the CU Police Department.

Bear tranquilized after climbing tree at CU-Boulder's Williams Village dorms

(Thanks, Steve Silberman!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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bklynchris

Is it just me or does this video make for fantastic admissions marketing? Everyone is good looking (gorgeous, actually), clean green environment, not a single “um, like, you know” in the entire interview, sunny, and bears falling out of trees onto mattresses.

CU now on the college list for the larvae, along with University of Maryland was it? The one with the kickass band.
Damien

The authorities tranq-darted a bear for peacefully occupying a tree — had they run out of pepper-spray and rubber bullets?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Do you know how many college students would be thrilled to be pumped full of drugs and be filmed dropping thirty feet onto a mattress?
- llazy8
  
  I think the term is ‘auditing’ the tree.
http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

You have drop bears over there too?
- http://twitter.com/britt_in_situ Britt L.
  
  Came here, ctrl+f’d for “drop bear”, and wasn’t disappointed. Bravo.
  - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
    
    Heh, someone had to ask : )
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Dmd/100001983804144 Dan Dmd
  
  We have jackalopes, too.
BarBarSeven

That photo needs to win all the awards. AWESOME!
That_Anonymous_Coward

Sometimes trying to pledge a frat goes wrong…
mccrum

I’ll just leave this here then:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7761231905389466400
AttilatheBlond

So, did the bear hear that CU was doing bear studies or was he looking to crash a kegger?
Dani4a

Heads up that you linked to the Colorado Daily version of the article. The CU Independent (the student newspaper) broke the story and took the photo. http://www.cuindependent.com/2012/04/26/bear-tranquilized-in-tree-near-will-vill/34196/
CoquiELF

Drop bear tumblr is cracking me up http://bearflop.tumblr.com/
- Cowicide
  
  My God, this is what happens when a bear event of this magnitude happens within a college campus known as a “party” school. This bear is gonna be famous. (Colbert Report here he comes…)
Cowicide

I love that little picture in the post. I found a higher res version it was screenshot from…
lonestarlmk

Ironic…the buildings right next to William’s Village are the Bear Creek Apartments. I rollerbladed past there this morning just as the guy in the big white hat was taking out his rifle. I figured it was just another tree’d mountain lion. Guess I missed the chance to see Bear Drop live.
Hanglyman

I’m surprised, that’s actually pretty far into town. The bear even had to cross the highway (probably under it, there’s an underpass right along the road that WillVill’s on). It’s surprising nobody noticed it earlier. I’ll have to watch out for bears when I go on those late night walks.
- http://twitter.com/Sn1ds STV MRCR
  
  Sounds like your town needs some sort of bear patrol.
  - freshyill
    
    That would mean a bear patrol tax.
- tedrock
  
  That bear could’ve gotten to that location by following the creek and using the bike path underpass… I doubt it crossed this highway.
  
  Also, this is more common than you might think… we had a mountain lion on campus here at the University of Colorado Boulder last year. It was in the Kittredge are of campus.
  http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19047621
  
  There is actually a great meme making the rounds around here today combining that great photo of the bear falling with the reaction shot of a student who got to meet Obama on Tuesday at a local bar;
  http://dailycamera.tumblr.com/post/21859767884/the-cu-independent-snagged-a-great-photo-of-the
skeptacally

before this, i had only seen the still shot.

i had preferred to think that the bear was flying away in search of the next “pic-a-nic basket.”

“go, bear, go!” i thought.

reality has come crashing down… nearly as hard as the bear.