Authorities in South Lake Tahoe in California have launched a special trapping effort to trap a 500-pound black bear known as “Hank the Tank”.
Hank is, according to authorities, “readily identifiable due to [his] exceptionally large size and dark coat with a lighter muzzle”.
The average weight of a black bear in the western US ranges from 100lb to 300lb, according to the Washington department of fish and wildlife. Hank appears much larger.
Since last July, Hank has broken into at least 28 houses in and around the Tahoe Keys area. Described as “extremely food-habituated”, Hank has also caused extensive property damage in more than 30 documented cases. Local residents have filed at least 102 police reports about Hank.
“It’s easier to find leftover pizza than to go in the forest,” said Peter Tira, a California department of fish and wildlife spokesperson, according to the New York Times.
Authorities have used a combination of deterrents including loud sirens, dry-firing their tasers, which creates a “clicky-clack noise that the bears hate”, and beanbag rounds. However, none of these methods have proved successful.
“This is a bear that has lost all fear of people,” Tira said. “It’s a potentially dangerous situation.”
Ann Bryant, executive director of Bear League, a California-based wildlife rescue service, noted that it remained unclear how Hank acquired a human palate but affirmed that “he didn’t get fat like that eating berries and grubs”.
On Friday, the South Lake Tahoe police department responded to reports of the bear inside a house. Hank had broken in through a small window and squeezed inside.
Police banged on the outside of the house until he emerged and left through a back door. The authorities noted that residents could apply for a bear box, a locked container that campers typically use to protect food, for a fee.
As efforts to trap Hank repeatedly fail, authorities have said they may need to consider euthanizing the bear, which they said was their “last option”.
Earlier this year, authorities removed a bear trap after someone spray painted “Bear Killer” on it.
“He just sits there and eats. He doesn’t attack them. He doesn’t growl. He doesn’t make rude faces … Why should this big dummy die?” Bryant told the Times.
