Black bear rescued from culvert in Colorado

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – A large black bear was rescued from an upright culvert Monday morning, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The full-grown male bear, weighing between 275 pounds and 300 pounds, wandered into the culvert in the Priest Creek Ranch area south of Steamboat Springs, District Wildlife manager Kyle Bond told Steamboat Pilot & Today. Construction crews had installed a waterline on the property last week and covered it with a culvert, KMGH reported. Officials believe the bear fell into the culvert.

Bond estimated the culvert was 8 to 10 feet deep, the Pilot & Today reported. The culvert had smooth sides, making it impossible for the bear to free itself.

The animal was tranquilized with a dart gun and removed and will be relocated to a forest, the newspaper reported. The bear was then pulled out of the culvert with the help of a tractor, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Rodney Hampton told KMGH.

“As soon as I felt confident he was asleep and the drugs had taken effect, I crawled down in there with a ladder, and I put a rope around his chest, kind of like a tow rope, got under the arms and then we attached the rope to a tractor,” Bond told the Pilot & Today. “We put him on a tarp where I was able to put ear tags in him, and we’ll take him up north.”