When a juvenile brown bear became entangled on a utility pole in Wilcox, Arizona, he found himself in a “hair-raising” scenario. Thankfully for the bear, a utility worker saw the bear in distress and called their supervisor for assistance. Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Co-op Lineman Warner Newbauer and Apprentice Lineman Gallego were sent to see if they could assist the animal.
The couple posted their rescue clip with ViralHog, and Newbauer wrote about how the bear’s life was in grave danger:
“When we arrived, we discovered that the bear was in an extremely perilous condition and might be electrocuted at any moment.” 7200 volts were applied to the cables near the bear’s head. If he had touched one of them, he would have died instantly. ”
They promptly shut off the electricity to the wires before returning to the bear on the pole. From the basket of their boom truck, the utility employees approached the bear.
“As we were putting up our bucket truck, the bear was observing us from the top of the pole, but as I approached him in the bucket, he covered his eyes with his front leg, as if attempting to hide.” I began chatting to him when I went up near to him, maybe 6 feet away, and he glanced up at me. ”
Newbauer approached the bear from around 6 feet away, using an 8-foot fibreglass pole to attempt to persuade him to come down. The bear was not pleased and continued to grip and bite the stick. However, after some time, Newbauer was able to maneuver the bear into a better position, “and then he went down the pole on his own and raced away.”
They believe the bear was a young male weighing roughly 100 pounds.
It’s not the first time a bear has been entangled in electrical wires in Arizona. An even larger brown bear was discovered atop two power lines in Arizona in May 2021 (only a month before this incident). Despite the fact that this bear seemed to be having a good time.
Fortunately, he also got down on his own.
