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.”

[From People]

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