Remember Albany Bear? Sadly, He was found 140 Miles from Release Point

How awful is this? I can't lie -  it bummed me out when I read about it on Saturday morning.

Remember that bear in Albany - seen by many in late May making its way around Washington Park? He set up shop high in a tree a few hundred yards from my house, and I was one of the many who spent a few hours watching and waiting for him to come down.

Amazingly, this same bear carried on, traveling hundreds of miles out of New York and into Pennsylvania where sadly he met his untimely demise around Christmas time.

The Albany Bear was last seen back in late May, creating quite a stir in Albany's Washington Park.

Back on May 31st, the bear climbed up a tree along State Street in Albany and played peek-a-boo with wildlife experts for hours. He set up shop high in a tree a few hundred yards from my house, and I was one of the many who spent a few hours watching and waiting for him to come down.

The stand-off lasted a few hours until members of the NYS DEC were able to hit him with a tranquilizer.

Eventually, growing sleepier by the minute, the young fellow weighing about 150 pounds would fall out of the tree and safely into a net.  He would then be tagged and placed back in the wild the next day,  somewhere in the Catskills.

Fast-forward now, over 7 months later.  Sad news about the Albany bear.

A post from the Pennsylvania Game Commission reported that a "male black bear from New York trekked roughly 140 miles from his last known release site before unfortunately succumbing to injuries sustained in a vehicle collision in Pennsylvania."

But, was it the Albany bear? Unfortunately, according to the commission, it was.

On December 26th, they say a "bear was recovered after it had been struck by a vehicle and killed on State Route 11, in northeast Pennsylvania...The bear did, in fact, have ear tags but they were not Game Commission ear tags, they were from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation."

Here's the journey he took according to the Penn Game Commission.

RIP Furry Fella.