Philly’s elusive black bear tranquilized after a day roaming Upper Roxborough

An elusive young black bear roaming the Philadelphia region has been found.

After a long day of being spotted around the Upper Roxborough neighborhood, the bear was tranquilized twice Thursday afternoon and captured by officials at the scene, according to a game warden who was there.

The bear, carried by four officers and placed in a wheeled bear trap hitched to a truck, was to be taken to the Hawk Mountain area north of Reading, game officials said.

The creature startled residents throughout the day Thursday, when they spotted the animal as they went about their lives in the neighborhood near Wissahickon Valley Park.

Theresa Conroy was on her way to teach a yoga class when she got out of her car at the Cathedral Village senior-living complex and noticed a bear quickly approaching her.

“He was about 30 feet away," said Conroy. “And I had that moment where I thought, ‘What do you do when a bear is coming for you?’”

Conroy said she saw a large grocery delivery truck with its back doors open, and jumped in. Officials told Conroy to stay in the truck while the bear ran past it, coming within 10 feet of her.

Conroy noted that the bear was “light on its feet.” She credited “the power of yoga” for her quick escape.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, a video shared by 6ABC showed footage of a bear digging through a dumpster at Henry on the Park, an apartment complex about a mile from Cathedral Village.

Thelma Barnes, who shot a video of the animal, told the station that she returned to the apartment complex after a trip to the store Thursday morning and saw “a baby bear” in a dumpster. “He was just having a ball back there,” she said.

An assistant property manager who answered the phone but declined to give her name said the bear was on the grounds for a short period around 11:30 a.m. before heading into the woods.

About an hour later, police responded to another sighting at Parkland Lane and Summit Avenue.

Somehow, the bear crossed Ridge Avenue undetected and made its way to Cathedral Village, where state Game Warden Tyler Barnes said he spotted it at the entrance to the Presbyterian senior-living community at 600 E. Cathedral Rd. before it bolted.

A police officer then saw the bear in a wooded area across the road, and the search was concentrated there.

Conroy said she heard an officer ask Barnes if he wanted the officer to “go get some doughnuts.” Conroy said she was outraged until she realized the doughnuts were to lure the bear.

Whether this was the same bear reported to have been in East Falls and Montgomery and Bucks Counties over the last couple of days is unclear.

On Wednesday, police received a 911 call about a “loose bear” near Calumet Street and Heritage Drive in East Falls shortly after 11 a.m. Before that, officials in Montgomery County spotted a bear in Wyndmoor, while police in Warrington, Bucks County, warned of “several reports” of a black bear over the weekend — meaning the bear would have journeyed at least 19 miles over the week.

While bear sightings are not common, they are not unheard of in this region, Dustin Stoner of the Pennsylvania Game Commission said this week. Bears usually mate between early June and mid-July, according to the commission. This is also the time of year when young bears begin to explore on their own after their mothers push them away to resume breeding cycles.

The region has about four to six legitimate bear calls a year, according to Stoner.

Staff writer Oona Goodin-Smith and staff photographer Tim Tai contributed to this article.