This has been quite the summer for animals behaving badly. First we had the infamous sea otter 841 who was stealing surf boards from surfers in Santa Cruz. She remains at large after evading capture, and I would advise everyone to avoid her favorite surf breaks. Now we have Hank the Tank (officially known as 64F), a female black bear who has broken into homes over twenty times in Lake Tahoe in the last year. She hasn’t hurt anybody but she’s caused significant property damage. Now the jig is up for 64F, as she has been captured and they plan to re-home her to a wildlife sanctuary in Colorado. Her three cubs are going to be sent to a different sanctuary where they can hopefully un-learn their mom’s dangerous behaviors and be released into the wild. I’m sad they’re being separated but in this case, I think it’s the right call. Oh, and I’m not calling her Hank the Tank, as I simply don’t think it’s the name that 64F would choose for herself.
An infamous black bear linked to over 20 home break-ins in South Lake Tahoe, California, has been captured, according to wildlife officials.
The female bear, nicknamed “Hank the Tank” by locals, was “responsible for at least 21 DNA-confirmed home break-ins and extensive property damage” since 2022, according to a release from the California Fish and Wildlife Department (CDFW).
The CDFW started closely monitoring Hank the Tank, also known as Bear 64F, in 2022 and linked the bear to the 21 incidents mentioned above between February 2022 and May 2023.
The agency encountered the notorious bear earlier this year but did not capture the animal then.
“In March of 2023, she was discovered denning under a residence in South Lake Tahoe along with her three male cubs of the year,” per the release. “Staff from CDFW and the Nevada Department of Wildlife immobilized the bear, collected DNA evidence, attached an ear tag, and affixed a satellite tracking collar to the bear.”
On Friday, CDFW wildlife officials safely immobilized and took in Hank the Tank and her three cubs.
The bears are undergoing veterinary checks before moving on to their new homes.
“Pending a successful veterinary check, CDFW has secured permission from the State of Colorado to transport the female black bear, known as 64F, and place it with The Wild Animal Sanctuary,” CDFW wrote of the Bear 64’s future.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary, located in Keenesburg, Colorado, is looking forward to welcoming the black bear to its expansive facilities.
“We’re just glad that we can help and can give her a good home,” Pat Craig, the executive director of The Wild Animal Sanctuary, shared in a statement to PEOPLE. “Obviously, we’d like to see all animals stay in the wild, but at the same time, those that need to be removed from the wild — and can either be euthanized or go to a sanctuary — this one can go to our sanctuary, and we can give her a semi-natural place to live.”
What’s happening to her cubs: CDFW added that Bear 64’s cubs will “potentially be relocated to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, a CDFW-permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility in Petaluma, in hopes they can discontinue the negative behaviors they learned from the sow and can be returned to the wild.”
I am not a wildlife expert, but I have volunteered for marine mammal rescues, and so I’ve seen many cases where it’s best for baby animals to be separated from their mothers–sometimes that’s the only way they will survive. Sometimes the baby is too sick, other times the mother is too sick, or the mother is showing erratic behaviors that place both of them in danger. Mama bears are always teaching their babies things–there’s a beloved grizzly bear in the Tetons, 399, who has been seen teaching her cubs to look both ways before they cross the road. So 64F’s cubs have been learning to copy her home invasions, trust. It’s a controversial decision to separate them, but I think the cubs deserve the chance to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild where they belong.
I am suspicious of CDFW on principle. But I’m glad CDFW caught 64F and her cubs because it was only a matter of time before the bears hurt somebody or somebody’s pet. Once that happens, there is usually pressure from the community for the animal(s) to be euthanized, which is a choice that I almost never agree with from an ethical standpoint. That’s what happened with the Los Angeles mountain lion P22–they said they euthanized him because he had health issues, but he had also killed somebody’s dog and they were getting a lot of complaints about him from the rich people who live in, like, Bel Air. It’s important to be vigilant and do everything we can to keep wild animals wild. Be bear aware, make noise when you hike so you don’t startle them, learn how to “haze” coyotes so they don’t look to humans as sources of food. When wild animals get habituated to human contact, it places them in just as much danger as it does the humans.
Photo note by CB: None of these photos are actually of Hank/64F. Photos credit: Aaron J Hill/Pexels, Pete Nuij/Unsplash and via Instagram
I object to them calling her a sow, lol.
Seriously though, I hope she can find peace and companionship in her new home, and that her babies unlearn some of what they’ve been taught so they can go home to the wilderness and be left alone by humans thereafter.
it’s the correct term for a mama bear.
It’s not the poor bear’s fault, her natural environment has been taking over by humans. It’s time for a conversation about animal’s right to habitat. I also feel badly that she lost her cubs.
Well, that’s it. Lake Tahoe is bear habitat. People built their homes & towns in bear habitat. A lot of homes in Tahoe are built on eighth & quarter acre lots interspersed among eighth & quarter acre lots that are Forest Service. And she hibernated under somebody’s house! That’s really unfortunate. At least she’s going to a sanctuary. Yosemite just dumps its trouble bears on the adjacent national forest.
@ Mslove, that was my reaction as well. We are encroaching on the habitats of wild animals but it’s their fault for exploring in the wilderness that they have been living in for centuries??? We are creating a smaller world for which they can roam and we are unable to impose “rules” upon them because it is OUR fault!!! We continue to steal and encroach and yet they are the perpetrators.
I wish that the US would follow the lead that Canada has towards their wild animals. They are extremely sensitive to the wildlife and create safer conditions for them to live near humans.
I’m happy they found her a better home. Personally, I am still upset over what NJ did in 2016 sanctioning its first bow and arrow hunt on bears. Which led to the death of Pedals the Bear. By some obsessed Hunter. Pedals should have been placed in a sanctuary before it started. It was too famous and someone was going to want its head over their fireplace. I can only assume where Pedals will spend eternity now.
I believe P22 was also hit by a car shortly before he was euthanized. I listened to the Ologies podcast where they did a whole episode on him speaking to one of the scientists who helped monitor him and it was also the guy who discovered him in that park on some wildlife cameras. This was shortly after he died. He was accused of killing some dogs yes. But there was evidence he had been hit by a car and was not in good shape so they humanely euthanized him as he was physically suffering. That was the main reason, not because of the dog killings.
I follow the 399 bear on IG! She is pretty amazing but she’s also had her moments where she wandered off the national park range into more human territory with her cubs and there was concern wa she was feeding from garbage or something.
I think in this case it was necessary to separate Mama and cubs. At some point she might have killed someone and then they would have been forced to euthanize her. It’s the best case scenario.
I understand that it is the best case scenario but it still breaks my heart that she will be separated from her cubs. Wouldn’t she suffer from the loss of them? I ask, as some wild animals species mourn the loss of their young. I just hope that she acclimates well and that her cubs are given the tools to live in the wild.
P-22 was a local celebrity here in Los Angeles. Most of the City adored him and loved knowing that he lived in Griffith Park. There was a lot of evidence he’d been hit by a car. In addition to blunt force injuries around his head, he had a lot of internal bleeding and severe organ damage, including progressive kidney disease. He lived a long life for a wild cougar.
He might have eaten some dogs, but coyotes eat dogs all the time in this city because their owners walk them off leash and leave them unattended in their back yards when they know there are coyotes around. I don’t think anyone would have paid attention to those owners if P-22 hadn’t been so severely injured and sick. After all, he’d eaten a koala in the zoo in the past…
That picture of the bear enjoying the peaches is so adorable! Came to add that P22 was definitely not euthanized because of any dog attacks. He was confirmed to be old and sick and it was a painstaking decision to euthanize him. He was very much beloved by the LA community and there is an entire section of the Natural History Museum devoted to him.
I grew up in MI and moved away for 20 years then came back. One thing I immediately noticed was how many more deer I see now just everyday driving than in the past. We are definitely taking away animals home/land.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary is great. They also rescued a bunch of Tiger King’s poor tigers. If you donate you get their quarterly magazine in the mail and the pics are ADORABLE.