A Florida FWCC biologist saves a bear from drowning in the Gulf Coast ocean.
A large black bear was spotted scavenging for food near Alligator Point, Tallahassee Florida when the resident’s called the fish and Wildlife conservation commission(FWCC. The team arrived and tranquilized the animal. The bear, in a panic, took off running into the ocean. Because the bear was struck by the tranquilizer dart he was doomed to drown.
Not many people would brave jumping in the water to save a 3785-pound male black bear, even if he was tranquilized. Though Mr. Warwick (The brave biologist) told news stations he wasn’t worried because the bear was tranquilized, it was still extremely dangerous.
The story continues under the video below.
As reported by CBS News.
“I just wanted to try to get in front of him and keep him from swimming out there and drowning,” Warwick says.
The bear, he continued, “started to swim, started to make the four-mile swim across the harbor. And so, I looked at (a colleague) and I said, ‘I’ve got to go out there and stop him.’ So, I took off my shirt and shoes, jumped into the water and swam in the direction to head him off and keep him from going into deeper water. Once I did that, I got in front of him, tried to create some splashing and some commotion and tried to get him to go back to shore. But he wasn’t having any of that. The scariest part was probably when he decided — he started looking at me as if he wanted to climb up on me to keep from drowning and, at one point, he reared up on his hind legs, so I’m looking at a six-and-a-half-foot-tall bear. Instead of lunging forward, he fell straight back and was submerged for a couple of seconds and, that’s kinda when I moved in.”