Bear wanders into Canadian capital's downtown

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A black bear that wandered into the Canadian capital's downtown was captured by authorities and later released back into the wild.

Ottawa police said the approximately 2-year-old bear wandered into the downtown ByWard Market neighborhood sometime around 3 a.m. Thursday and police decided to monitor the situation until daylight.

Richard Moore, a conservation officer with the National Capital Commission, was summoned to the scene and shot the bear with tranquilizer darts about 8 a.m.

Moore said it took two tranquilizer darts to subdue the bear as it sat in a tree and the animal then became tangled in the branches, requiring the local fire department to come lower the bruin to the ground.

The NCC said the animal, which it dubbed the ByWard Bear, was taken to a wooded area outside the city and released.

Mehdi Galehdar, owner of The Koven, a bar where the bear was spotted in the early hours Thursday, said he is considering naming a drink after the unusual visitor.

"We're a heavy-metal bar," he told the Ottawa Citizen. "This is a very 'metal' thing to happen."