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Black bear roaming around Grand Rapids neighborhood

picture of black bear

Authorities in western Michigan were trying to capture a wild black bear spotted in a tree in a residential neighborhood.

Police, Animal Control officers and crews from a local zoo and Michigan's Natural Resources department were in Grand Rapids Thursday morning.

Officers began tracking the male bear's movements around 9:30 a.m. after receiving a report that it was in the neighborhood.

By 9:50 a.m. the animal was up a tree. Kent County Health Department spokesman Steve Kelso tells The Grand Rapids Press that animal control officers are trained in how to use animal tranquilizers.

Grand Rapids' human population is about 190,000.

Wild bears occasionally make their way into the area.

In 2011, a pickup driver struck and killed a black bear that was roaming along Interstate 96 in Grand Rapids.