I never thought that I would photograph, let alone see, a bear in Brookline, but I did both today. I had just left the Boston Herald en route  to a 7:30am assignment to photograph Bobby Valentine and Doc Rivers at Fenway Park. I aborted that when I received a tip about a bear being cornered up in a tree in Brookline. I was aware of this bear because of the many sightings from last night. My plan before the tip was to shoot the assignment at Fenway and then drive toward Brookline and see if there were any more sightings. Anyway, I steamed toward Brookline, got myself steady after a harrowing commute, and tried to get a good angle on this animal. I was very luck to see Mrs. “L”,  a friend who’s tree was where the bear was resting. I watched as Brookline and Massachusetts Environmental police  weighed their options. They raised a bucket truck with an officer armed with a tranquilizer gun, while on the ground another officer took a different angle. One yellow dart entered the back of the animal, as seen in the bottom photo of both the bear and the armed officer. The officer positioned on the ground was the one who shot the bear. Unfortunately the bear then scampered up the tree to a position approximately 85-100 feet aloft. After several minutes the tranquilizer worked and the groggy bear fell. Mrs. “L” and I both gasped. She was very emotional as it appeared that there would be no chance of survival from that height. The bear crashed through smaller branches as if they were twigs, en route down. We were told by officials that the bear looked to be not injured seriously. Read more at bostonherald.com

Tags: Boston Herald, Brookline, Environmental, falling bear, MA, Mark Garfinkel, police, tranquilized

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