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Subscribe to RSSA grizzly bear cub, named Booboo, that escaped in Naples, Fla., this week was returned home Friday, its owners confirmed.
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had been looking for the 100-pound, year-old grizzly bear since it was reported missing from the Golden Gate Estates neighborhood around 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said.
According the company’s website and a report in NBC station WBBH in Fort Myers, Fla., the bear is licensed legally to Dexter Osborn, 27, and his company, A Grizzly Experience, which also holds licenses for Tonk, a 6-year-old Alaskan grizzly bear weighing 600 pounds, and Yogi, Booboo’s year-old brother. The company also holds a license for an alligator.
When reached by phone, a woman claiming to be Osborn’s wife offered few details other than the cub was “completely home safe.”
WBBH reported that Dexter Osborn said a state wildlife officer shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart early Friday afternoon.
On its website, the company bills itself an “entertaining and educational show and exhibit” that travels around the country to give people an opportunity to get close to a real Alaskan grizzly bear.
The site says Osborn, an animal trainer, has worked around exotic animals, including bears, wild cats and elephants for the past 10 years.
During the facility's last inspection in March, the Florida Wildlife Commission issued a second "30-day warning" for the lack of a proper perimeter fence for the alligator, WBBH reported. The first warning was issued in October 2011.
The FWC report said enclosure the grizzlies were kept in met state standards, WBBH said, and the animals appeared to be healthy and well-fed.
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"Officials say the bear was recaptured after setting up a trap using a a fully stocked yellow picnic basket, though at first the bear appeared apprehensive about eating the food in the picnic basket, sorta as if he didn't know, he soon looked reassessed and settled down to enjoy the snack." More details to come.
It is time
Using a picnic basket as bait?!?!?! Lovely - now the little guy has learned that picnic baskets = fun. Bears should NEVER be exposed to human food - they learn amazingly fast and end up getting habituated, which, in worst case scenarios, leads to a dead bear. I can't believe that the "officials" in charge of this used such a lame method. Then again, Florida ain't exactly bear country.
I do not like people who make money off the backs of animals. I do not believe in performing animals, particularly a bear. They are wild animals and have not been domesticated, nor will any amount of human love and care take that wild element out of them. Taking this bear on tour so people can see "a real Alaska grizzly bear" is insane. We'll see this guy in the news again after one of his bears or his alligator nails somebody.
I think you need to check your joke detectors, they must be miss firing.
Do you enjoy cupcakes?
well boo boo was smarter than the average bear, but alas, after busting out of the clinker, he was recaptured. where the hell was yogi? he already is planning his next break out.........you go boo boo
Well, shoot...When I saw the headline and clicked on the link, I thought the article was about "Honey Boo Boo". What a disappointment!
The Bear is cuter.
Yep, much cuter. And I'd rather have the bear living in my neighborhood (less negative impact to property values).
Yea, reading the headline "Booboo escapes, recaptured" I was at first elated to know she got away from that family, then saddened when she was caught and reeled back in. I clicked the headline hoping to read about her daring escape attempt and the ensuing chase. Then I found out it was about a bear and was disappointed.
I'll bet the bear is a lot smarter than Honey Boo Boo, and completely without the disgusting and shameless narcissism.
maybe we should just feed honey boo boo to the bear.................now i would watch that!!!!!
darn, i thought it was a story about honey booboo running away. wish she would
As funny as the previous comments were, this is not funny. These bears should not be in captivity unless they are in a sanctuary and this is an accident with a bad outcome waiting to happen. Florida, being Florida and the home of Casey Anthony they will probably let it go on. Maybe the problem is that Florida has too many senior citizens who have dementia, but they are still voting.
Glad they got the bear before the pythons did. Now take them up north and release them.
"Hey, Boo-Boo. It's off to Jellystone for you!"
They could be great neighbors for some people I know. Perimeters would be 'optional' of course.
Poor animals. Another FL crazy that thinks wild exotics should provide a meal ticket for him.
It's probably too late to set them free in the wild where they belong, but damn, they should not be penned up like cattle in a state where the summer temperature is like nothing the bears have ever experienced, and fed a bogus diet of "Bear Chow" when they should be eating salmon that their mother caught for them. I am not one of the PETA froot-loops, but it saddens me to see these beautiful animals that will be forced to live out their lives outside their natural habitat, and the company of the other animals in nature (some of which they will eat, of course).
hey pedestrian, dont worry one of these days when boo boo hits about 1200 lbs the owner will end up being a meal for boo boo. they eat anything they can catch. and people are easy to catch. especially those stupid enough to get into the cage with them...
I hope Boo-Boo enjoyed his picnic basket while he was gone and that Ranger Smith isn't too mad. ;D
Just wondering what type of fine the owners will have from this incident, considering they are on warning about the fencing for the alligator.
I'm glad it was Bear; Grizzly-Booboo and not bare Honey Boo Boo.
"appeared to be healthy and well fed", but the grizzlies are in captivity--they belong to live as God intended, in the wild as bears--maybe Booboo was trying to get to the land of his ancestors to live as he should. Grizzlies don't live in Florida-palm trees, hot weather and beaches are not what they are genetically programmed to thrive in. It's time the govt, stopped these quick get rich schemes of people dragging animals around like this so they can make buck. This type of licensing needs to stop. Send the bears to a proper very very large sanctuary if they cannot return to their normal wild habitat and survive. This cub could have been shot dead on sight. He was lucky, and then again, he is not so lucky.
"A Grizzly Experience" -- note to Dexter: figure out how to deal with exotic pets before you go on a roadshow as an expert.
rawwwwrrr!
Must have lured BOO BOO back with honey
First I thought it was about honey booboo, then I saw the bear and got excited cause I thought maybe it ate honey booboo. Oh well theres always tomorrow.
We can only pray.
Just look at that little bear running in sheer abandon. That's what it's meant to do. I can't imagine Florida would be a very happy place for a grizzly.
Was the bear armed?
Yes, and legged, too. But it practiced forbearance.
I thought this article was about the 2nd amendment. the right to arm bears...
Just one more reason that possession of exotic animals by the general public should not be allowed.
Oh, I thought this was a story about Honey Boo Boo escaping from her mother June, the human thumb, and going on a rampage through Florida after hitching a ride on a public bus in search for some buttery snacks.
Such misleading headlines, MSN ("Boo Boo" escapes, recaptured). I'm frankly disappointed that this story was about a bear cub.
It just goes to show that an independent little redneck can survive.
Animal trainers are mentally deranged. Wild animals need NO training from the likes of some mean-spirited, partly toothless trainer who cannot get a real job in society. This is what you get with those fly-by-night carnivals that are full of hapless animals that belong in the wild, not in some dark, dingy enclosure. People who profit from imprisoned wildlife are societal losers who may as well be pimping young girls.
Why didn't they use Honey Boo Boo as bait?