Bear in tree captured in Port Perry

Staff with the Ministry of Natural Resources, along with police and firefighters, were successful in capturing a bear spotted in Port Perry on Friday.

Durham Regional Police said the bear was found in a residential neighbourhood in the area of Rosa Street and Paxton Street about 80 kilometres northeast of Toronto.

READ MORE: Moose on the loose charges Sudbury police cruiser, runs wild around city

Authorities said the bear had climbed a tree and was brought down just before noon.

“Our staff were able to get up the tree, they used a ladder and use something called a poke pole, because the bear was quite far up in the tree,” MNR spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski said.

“They were able to chemically immobilize the bear and there were a lot of other first responders, police at the bottom of the tree to catch the bear in a tarp.”

READ MORE: Bear wandering in east-end Toronto shot and killed due to safety concerns

Police had earlier issued a warning to residents in the vicinity to stay indoors. There have been no reports of any injuries.

“In this case, because of the way the bear reacted, we knew it was young and scared,” Kowalski said.

“So, because it’s a wild animal, if it were to come down out of the tree before it was tranquilized, it could have knocked someone over.”

VIDEO: Black bear spotted in tree in Port Perry

1:00 Black bear spotted in tree in Port Perry, Ont.

Officials side the bear, which appeared to be a young male, will be relocated 80 kilometres away in the Bancroft area.

Neighbourhoods in the Greater Toronto Area are no strangers to bear sightings in recent years.

READ MORE: Police shoot and kill black bear in Newmarket, Ont.

A 300-pound bear wandering a Toronto neighbourhood was shot and killed in May 2017 and in 2015, police fatally shot a black bear roaming in Newmarket just north of the city.

In both cases, police were criticized by some for shooting too quickly and that animal control staff didn’t do enough to capture the creatures humanely.

—With a file from Erica Vella