2y ago

"Hank the Tank," notorious Lake Tahoe bear, being sent to Colorado rehab

www.cbsnews.com

The bear -- officially named Bear 64F but given the nickname "Hank the Tank" because of her size -- is accused of multiple break-ins and instances of property destruction in the Lake Tahoe area since last year. Her three cubs, which allegedly accompany their mama on her exploits -- were also captured and will be going to a sanctuary in California.

8 comments

Why they got to separate the mother from her cubs.
- Mama needs to go to fat camp and shed a few pounds.
  
  She needs to go and become the biggest looser
- Some sanctuaries can work on rehabilitating bear cubs to look for their normal food sources vs seeking out human food vs staying with mom that won't change what the cubs have already learned.
- A fed bear is a dead bear. If the mom can't be rehabed, they gotta put her down. It's too dangerous to leave them alive - even if you relocate, they'll just move until they find easy to raid people and become a danger. Black bears usually are fearful or wary of humans - if they lose this, they're a danger to people and themselves (people often defend themselves against bears with guns that fail to immediately kill the bear. The end result is a bear that dies a slow and agonizing death.
  Surprised they're even trying rehab. It usually fails.
  The cubs aren't as lost a cause.
- They don't want Mama to teach them to be habituated to us. Bears need to be scared of us, or they'll end up hurt and probably dead.

Tahoe resident reporting in. Hank the tank was a controversial figure up here. Her territory was primarily the Tahoe Keys gated community and she only developed her bad habits because people in that neighborhood couldn't bring themselves to practice sensible bear etiquette with their trash management like most other neighborhoods in the basin.
Keys residents largely wanted her gone and most other Tahoe residents were indifferent or wanted her to be left alone and for the keys neighborhood to instead make a concerted effort to cut off her food sources so she'd go back to more normal bear behavior.
I'm just glad she is being relocated instead of euthanized.

Kinda curious this happens one day later, makes you wonder: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/bear-escapes-from-crate-in-planes-cargo-hold-at-dubai-airport

8 comments