The nuisance bear that ravaged a birthday cake and garbage cans at a Trail Ridge-area home in Macclenny earlier this month was shot and killed by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials, the agency reported today.

FWC biologists tracked the black bear for about two weeks and were able to pinpoint its location using telemetry equipment near US 90.

Due to thick underbrush in the area, it was decided that dogs would be used to track the animal and hopefully run it up a tree, making the bear an easy target for a tranquilizer gun, according to a press release from Karen Parker, an FWC spokesperson.

An attempt last week to sneak up the bear and tranquilize it was unsuccessful.

“We were hopeful that the bear would climb a tree to evade the dogs, making it easy and safe to tranquilize the animal, but that did not happen,” said Ms. Parker. “Instead, the bear became aggressive. To wait for the drugs to take effect would have taken much too long. The FWC officer with the group of biologists and dog handlers tracking the bear authorized one of the handlers to shoot the bear. The animal was killed by a single shot to the head.”

The decision to euthanize the bear was made once he broke into the home in Macclenny.

“This was a public-safety issue. The decision to euthanize an animal is never taken lightly at the FWC,” Parker said.

See next week's edition for more information.