Studious bear tours University of Virginia campus

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A bear taking an impromptu campus tour at the University of Virginia was tranquilized and relocated to a wooded area.

The bear, nicknamed the "UVA Bear" was spotted Wednesday afternoon near the Battle Building, part of the UVA Children's Hospital, university police said.

Social media users snapped photos of the bear as it wandered the campus.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries wildlife biologist David Kocka responded to the Battle Building and discovered the bear looking tired at the base of a tree.

"He was probably hot, wondering what was going on. He was just lying there," Kocka told UVA Today. "There was no way for him to easily get out of there."

The bear was tranquilized and loaded into a container, where it spent the night outside of Kocka's Augusta County home while the drugs wore off.

The bear was released Thursday on National Forest property west of Harrisonburg.