Jun 28, 2008 8:36 pm US/Central
Biologist Rescues Drowning, Tranquilized Bear
Bear Relocated To Osceola National Forest
APALACHICOLA, Fla. (CBS) ―
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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Adam Warwick holds a 375-pound male black bear's head above water as he guides the tranquilized animal back to shore.
FWC/CBS
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The bear was wandering through the Florida Panhandle beachfront neighborhood of Alligator Point and started swimming in Gulf water after being hit by the dart.
FWC/CBS
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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff and bystanders load a tranquilized bear into a borrowed backhoe after the animal was pulled from Gulf waters by FWC biologist Adam Warwick.
FWC/CBS
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Black Bear moments after it was hit with the tranquilizer dart
FWC/CBS
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The bear running toward the Gulf water after being tranquilized.
FWC/CBS
A Florida Fish and Wildlife biologist pulled off a daring rescue Saturday in the Panhandle: He rescued a bear with his bare hands.
Officials say a 375-pound male black bear was seen roaming a residential neighborhood near Alligator Point, a neighborhood of about 100 homes on a small peninsula about 40 miles south of Tallahassee.
The bear was hit with a tranquilizer dart, but he managed to bolt into the Gulf of Mexico before he was sedated.
As the tranquilizer drugs took effect, biologist Adam Warwick jumped in to keep the bear from drowning because he feared the bear couldn't swim the four miles to land.
"I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I jumped in," said biologist Adam Warwick, who saw the bear struggling in the warm Gulf waters after it had been hit with a tranquilizer dart. "It was a spur of the moment decision," he said. "I had a lot of adrenaline pumping when I saw the bear in the water."
The animal was about 25 yards from shore when he jumped into the water.
"I was in the water swimming toward the bear, trying to prevent him from swimming into deeper water," Warwick said. "He was now losing function (an effect of the drugs) in his arms and legs, and was obviously in distress."
Warwick said he tried to splash and create commotion in an attempt to get the bear to head back to the shore.
"Instead, the clearly confused bear looked at me as if he was either going to go by, through or over me and at times he even looked as if he was just going to climb on top of me to keep from drowning."
Warwick said that after a few minutes the bear reared up on his hind legs as if to lunge at him, but instead fell straight backwards and was submerged. "At that point I knew I had to keep the bear from drowning," he said. "After a few seconds the bear popped his head up out of the water and thrashed around a bit, but could obviously no longer keep his head above water."
Warwick kept one arm underneath the bear and the other gripping the scruff of its neck to keep the bear's head above water. Warwick said he walked barefoot over concrete blocks crusted with barnacles in the 4-foot-deep water as he tried to guide and use the water to help float the bear back to shore.
He said he cut his feet on the barnacles and the bear scratched him once on the foot, but he was otherwise uninjured.
Warwick said the bear's buoyancy made his job less difficult. "It's a lot easier to drag a bear in 4-foot water than move him on dry land," he said.
Once he got the bear to shore, a bystander with a backhoe arrived and helped load the animal into the bucket and then into a FWC truck. The bear was relocated to Osceola National Forest near Lake City.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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