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Four-legged raider nabbed in Toccoa
By Jessica Waters
Thursday, September 27, 2007 9:33 AM EDT
The Toccoa Record
As of this past Saturday, garbage cans, bird feeders and honey pots in the Wesley Circle neighborhood were once again safe as Toccoa’s own version of Yogi Bear was caught.
“He was pretty calm and appeared to be in real good health,” said county marshal Dan Merck. “He was just a real nice bear.”
Merck requested the humane trap from the Department of Natural Resources three weeks ago when concerns from area citizens brought the problem to his attention.
“We put it (the trap) in a back yard on Wesley circle three weeks ago and I kept it baited and kept checking it,” said Merck Monday morning. “Saturday morning when I checked it, we had the bear.”
The non-lethal trap, baited with a variety of tempting goodies, from tuna fish and salmon to bird seed and a little bit of honey, captured the approximately 215 pound, 8-year-old bear without harm, and he was shipped off immediately to the Warwoman Wildlife Management Area in Rabun County to be released back into the wild, said Merck.
Sightings and evidence of bear activity has been reported for a number of years, said Merck, adding that it wasn’t until last year that there were reports of torn up and destroyed property in connection with the bear.
“This year have been so dry and with the late freeze, there was just not much in the way of food sources for him, so he just got hungry,” Merck said, explaining why the bear may have been more aggressive in foraging food from residential sources.
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