“Elden the Bear” may be gone — safely relocated somewhere in Virginia — but the young black bear with a taste for the suburban backyard life won’t be forgotten.
He’s being honored by the Herndon Town Council, with June 9 being declared, “Elden the Bear Day.”
The young male bear, named “Elden” after his visit to Elden Street in Herndon on Monday, is the same bear that was found on Memorial Day in a backyard in the Langley Park area of Maryland’s Prince George’s County.
The then-unnamed bear was tranquilized, tagged and fitted with a tracking collar before officials with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources relocated the young bear to an undisclosed area in Western Maryland.
But it turns out, the bear — now known as Elden, didn’t find his new home suitable. So he did what young bears often do, went wandering, likely following creeks and waterways according to wildlife officials, and ended up in the town of Herndon on Monday.
Lisa Herndon, the public information officer for the Herndon Police Department, told WTOP that the bear made two stops in two different trees as police, Virginia biologists, Department of Wildlife Resources staff and Virginia Conservation Police all strategized on the best way to deal with the young bear.
“We brought in Fairfax County Fire and Rescue,” as well, Herndon said, noting they also brought along a “catch tarp” that might be needed as the bear was sedated and coaxed down from his perch.
“So they tranquilized him, and Elden just kind of sat still for five minutes or so” as the medication took hold. Then, Herndon said, the biologist in the tree gave Elden a bit of a nudge, “and he safely landed in the catch tarp.”
At that time, Herndon said, the bear “looked like it was asleep, and then it stirred, and then it got up and it started to walk — and it started to walk right towards me.”
That’s when Herndon heard, “Look out, look out, get back, get back!” from the team working on getting the bear ready for transport.
After a few more minutes, Elden went from being groggy to out cold and was ready for transport.
As one might expect, he had an audience.
“Oh man, I’ll tell you what: there were kids, there were adults,” Herndon said. “And the cheers when they got him down safely, and when they got him safely secured in the truck, the cheers from the crowd — it was awesome!”
The hope is that this time, Elden can do what young male bears are supposed to — strike out on his own outside of suburbia and settle down.
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