A black bear that was sighted this morning in a Newmarket industrial park has been safely captured by a team of wildlife experts and York Regional Police.
After about five hours after York Regional Police alerted the public this morning, the bear was tranquilized in the area of Harry Walker Parkway South and Stackhouse Road, in a vacant lot near the Celestica International manufacturing plant, in an operation led by Eva Bobak, integrated resource management technical specialist with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF).
The bear is on its way "to a more northern habitat," police said, exactly where hadn't been determined yet, according to the MNRF that afternoon.
Police had contained the small bear on a wooded berm on the lot for about two hours as they awaited the arrival of the MNRF officials and the National Wildlife Centre rescue crew.
Veterinarian Dr. Sherri Cox was on the scene to care for the bear — which she estimated to be about three years old — throughout the rescue process.
Cox, who operates the National Wildlife Centre animal rescue facility in Caledon, supplied the tranquilizer gun.
