Bear Sent to Woods After Trip Into Town : Wildlife: Bruin makes his way into Ventura, followed by police. He’s eventually captured and removed to forest.

It all started early Sunday night when a hungry black bear decided to wander down from the hills above Ventura right into the middle of town.

For the next eight hours the chase was on. First near the intersection of the Santa Paula Freeway and Victoria Avenue. Then around the Government Center. Then to an orchard near the 101 Drive-In Theatres. Then onto the Ventura Freeway.

And finally--early Monday morning--into the parking lot of the Ventura Police Department.

Throughout the chase, the 125 pound bear managed to dodge up to a dozen police officers as well as Fish and Game tranquilizer guns. He even made it on and off the Ventura Freeway at one point.

But his luck ran out shortly after he ducked off the freeway and into the police department’s parking lot--where he was finally captured.

All the California black bear wanted was a little food, biologists said Monday. After all, the bear had awakened from a long winter’s nap and was probably hungry.

Instead, he found himself the target of a strange game of hide and seek that played itself out through back yards and some of the city’s busiest mid-town streets before its ultimate conclusion.

The end finally came after the bear ventured into the police parking lot on Dowell Drive. It ran around the lot until Fish and Game officials subdued it with a tranquilizer gun about 3 a.m.

The bear then climbed a tree, and officials waited for the drugs to take effect and the bear to slide down from its perch.

“He sort of turned himself into us,” said Ventura Police Service Officer Debbie Marostica after Fish and Game officials had tagged the bear’s ear and released it back into the Los Padres National Forest at 5 a.m.

Biologists said they were able to release the bear back into the wild because the one-and-a-half year old animal had not yet developed a habit of picking through garbage or becoming chummy with humans.

“If an animal has set up a pattern of rummaging through trash cans, it usually becomes more aggressive toward humans and begins to cause property damage,” Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Moore said.

“Once they’ve set up that pattern, there’s no setting them back into the wild. We call them ‘trash bears,’ and we have to kill them.”

But Monday’s meandering bear avoided the “trash bear” designation because this apparently was his first trip into the populated areas--an excursion that was first noticed about 7:20 p.m. Sunday when the animal was spotted in a gully near the Victoria Avenue on ramp to the Santa Paula Freeway.

Fish and Game officials tried to tranquilize the bear, but they missed their target, which escaped and ran across the street to the Government Center. Authorities then lost track of him for a few hours, even though they searched the grounds with a tracking dog.

At about midnight, however, the bear resurfaced two miles from the government center. A resident reported seeing it near Copland Drive and Telephone Road. Officers said they surrounded the bear and waited for Fish and Game officials to arrive once more with their tranquilizer guns.

But the bear again eluded his would-be captors by running through nearby backyards. David Esquel, 30, who lives near a lemon grove on Copland Road, woke up shortly after midnight to the yipping of his five Chihuahuas as police scoured his yard for the bear.

“I thought it was sort of strange because they didn’t have their guns drawn,” he said. “Then they started picking up my shovels and held them in front of them, for protection I guess.”

Esquel said he has lived in the area on and off since 1979 and has not seen much wildlife except for a few rabbits, a fox, and, occasionally, a person running from the police.

Most human fugitives get trapped in the orchard, which backs up to an enclosed mobile home park, Esquel said. But the bear managed to escape, scampering onto the Ventura Freeway and running southbound, crossing the road several times.

Police said the bear then found a hole in the fence along Walker Street, west of the Victoria Exit, and bounded into the police parking lot.

Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Moore said about a dozen black bears wander into populated areas every year in Southern California. He said Monday’s incident was the first of the post-hibernation season, when the bears begin to search for food.

“We just want to remind people not to deliberately feed these bears,” said Moore, who estimated that 175 black bears live in Ventura County.

“They’ll begin to scavenge, become unable to live in the wild, and we’ll have to destroy them,” he added. “This bear was just doing what bears do. It just happened to lose its way.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tracking the Bear A bear came from the hills above Ventura and led police on an eight- hour chase before being treed in a police parking lot. It as released into the wild early Monday. 1. Bear spotted: At 7:20 p.m. near the eastbound Victoria Avenue on- ramp to California 126. 2. Bear runs: Across Victoria Avenue to the Government Center. Police lose track of animal. 3. Bear reappears: Shortly after midnight near Copland Drive and Telephone Road. 4. Bear heads onto highway: Bear moves onto Ventura Freeway and begins to run southbound. 5. Bear flees: Off Ventura Freeway and onto grounds of Vetura Police Department. Bear is treed in parking lot about 3 a.m.