‘Hank The Tank’ Bear Moved To Sanctuary After 21 Break-Ins
A feminine black bear who wildlife authorities say broke into at the least 21 California properties has been relocated to an animal sanctuary in Colorado.
Henrietta is now getting used to her new digs on the Wild Animal Refuge close to Springfield, in response to a Facebook post shared Friday.
“WELCOME HOME!” wrote the Wild Animal Sanctuary, the nonprofit that operates the refuge. Its social media put up included pictures of Henrietta inside a brief “introduction enclosure” in a 230-acre habitat the place she’ll in the end be capable of roam.
Henrietta was previously often called the infamous “Hank the Tank” ― although her identification is somewhat advanced.
In February final yr, state officers pinned a sequence of 28 residence invasions in South Lake Tahoe, California, on a 500-pound black bear, who got here to be referred to as Hank the Tank.
But not lengthy after, DNA proof confirmed that the ursine break-ins weren’t the work of only one burglary-happy bear. It turned out that at the least three completely different bears had been coming into residences and looking for food within the rich neighborhood of Tahoe Keys.
Henrietta was a kind of three bears. She was captured earlier this month, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife mentioned that DNA proof proved she had personally damaged into 21 properties between February 2022 and May 2023. A press release from the agency additionally mentioned she was “suspected” in further incidents.
“I guess they all technically are ‘Hank the Tank,’” division spokesperson Jordan Traverso told The New York Times. She added that the opposite two Hanks haven’t “presented themselves as problems” this yr, so authorities are leaving them alone for now.
Henrietta’s habitat on the sanctuary is forested with pine bushes, and she or he’ll be capable of work together with different black bears and hibernate as she would naturally, Wild Animal Sanctuary Executive Director Pat Craig told USA Today.
Henrietta had three cubs that have been additionally taken into custody. Instead of being despatched to the sanctuary with their mom, the cubs went to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue in Petaluma, the place they are going to be rehabilitated with the aim of releasing them again to the wild.
All in all, the bear household is fortunate. Craig instructed the Times that the majority “problem bears” within the United States wind up being killed. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife even famous in its press launch that choices made about Henrietta and her cubs have been influenced by “widespread interest” in her story from the general public.