In October, a black bear was spotted roaming the Meijer parking lot in Traverse City. That bear, now dubbed the "TC Bear" by the Michigan Department of Natrual Resources, is still on the loose.
Now, the DNR is trying to lure the bear into various traps in Traverse City with things like syrup and bacon, but so far ― it isn't taking the bait.
Steve Griffith, a biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, drove to the Meijer parking lot on October 15 with a tranquilizer gun, but he was too late. By the time Griffith arrived, the bear had disappeared into a nearby swamp.
“It was a little bit of a disappointment when he got into that swamp and we decided ― too risky," he says. "So we called it off.”
Griffith says they didn’t want to flush the bear out into traffic.
Since then, the Traverse City bear has been spotted quite a few times, but still hasn’t been caught.
Griffith says if residents put their bird feeders away for the next couple of weeks, it could help them trap and relocate the bear before it hibernates for the winter.
