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Idaho Transportation
Department
Office of Communications
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563

 

Highway riddle ... or bearly hanging in there

A bear is walking across a bridge, high above a river. He looks one direction and sees a car approaching. He looks the other direction and sees another car. His life flashes before him.
The bear should:

The answer for a 250-pound brown bear caught between a rock and hard place on Rainbow Bridge (not Idaho’s, but one similar to it at the Donner Summit near Truckee, Nev.) was E – all of the above.

While he was strolling across the bridge on Sept. 15, the bear became frightened by two cars approaching from opposite directions. He bailed out, crawling over the edge of the bridge rails. The bear toppled over the side, grabbed a ledge and somehow pulled himself to the safety of the bridge arch.

Exhausted by the ordeal, he took a nap on the arch, unaware that efforts were under way to rescue him. Highway and wildlife crews secured a large cargo-style net under the bridge and then shot the animal with a tranquilizer.

He fell, just as planned, into the net, was lowered to the ground and sent on his way along the riverbank.

The exercise was a win-win ordeal – the bear was released to tell his children and grandchildren of his near-death experience and rescue crews got to practice rescue skills to use in the event someone falls from the bridge and lands on the arch.

Published 10-5-07