A bear stakeout by a team of Colorado Parks and Wildlife rangers took an interesting turn when the group attempted to scare the bear away from a residential area by playing tunes from Ozzy Osbourne's band, Black Sabbath. Instead of running away, the bear appeared to be a fan of the heavy metal music.
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"When you're out on a bear stakeout, you think it's going to be all action," posted the X account for the Northeast Region sector of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
"You never think you're going to spend at least 6 hours in a car waiting on a bear to stop sleeping and climb down from a tree. And yet..." they wrote, attaching a photo of a black bear perched up high in a tree.
The bear was the "stakeout subject" in Golden, CO, near the Mines campus. A team of rangers wanted to steer the bear away from the residential area, so they attempted a variety of tricks to convince the furry beast to leave the neighborhood.
The rangers' plan was to "haze (or scare)" the bear once it came down from the tree, hoping to make it "uncomfortable around humans and not return to look for more trash." One of their strategies was playing an unfamiliar sound from a drone.
Then, the rangers kicked it up a notch, opting to play "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath in an effort to try to scare the bear off. The sound blasted out of the drone and over the neighborhood. Yet, the bear didn't budge.
While slightly annoyed by the drone, we decide to use music blasted at the bear. pic.twitter.com/hQN3HBwXhq
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) May 15, 2024
"Now, if he starts banging his head, we've got a problem," said the cameraman to the laughter of his peers.
"I think he sees too many people around him," reasoned the ranger when the bear continued to stay put.
The rangers wrapped up their X thread, which detailed the process of trying to move the bear, saying that neighborhood residents should keep their trash inside and remember that are "cute but still very much wild animals." They were ultimately unable to get the bear out of the tree.
"Black bears don't mind Black Sabbath," they concluded.
Takeaway lessons:
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) May 15, 2024
Keep your trash inside until the morning of trash day. This bear ate trash left out in the neighborhood the night before. Save a bear’s life by keeping it away from trash.
Bears are cute but still very much wild animals.
Black bears don’t mind Black Sabbath.
Using rock n' roll and metal to steer wild animals clear of heavily human-populated areas is nothing new. In Montana, police have "been known to play AC/DC's 'Hells Bells' over the speakers" to try to move "reluctant bison" out of harm's way. Apparently, playing the track "usually seems to work."
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