Kangaroos, Moose, and Bears... Oh My!

A 500-pound black bear has damaged more than 30 properties around Lake Tahoe, and last week broke into yet another home in an endless quest for a quick meal. Known by residents as Hank the Tank, the giant bear has eluded capture for more than seven months, according to Peter Tira, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "What's problematic about this bear is how large it is," Tira told SF Gate on Sunday. "It's learned to use that size and strength to break into a number of occupied residences, bursting through the garage door or front door. It's pretty frightening."

The bear is responsible for more than 150 incident reports in the region straddling Northern California and Nevada. A Friday break-in at a residence in the Tahoe Keys neighborhood is the latest, according to CBS Sacramento. The bear smashed a window and squeezed into the house on Catalina Drive while the residents were at home. Police responded and banged on the outside of the house until Hank exited out the back door and disappeared into the woods. Also known as Jake or Yogi or simply Big Guy, the bear is what Tira described as a "severely food habituated bear" that has "lost all fear of people" and thinks of them as a food source.

A homeowners association agreed during a meeting last week to allow state wildlife personnel to capture the bear. Previous trapping efforts, which are generally more successful in wooded settings, have proven futile in residential areas where the bear has become acclimated, SF Gate reported. After the break-in Friday, officials collected DNA evidence to make an accurate match if they capture the bear. If Hank is captured, officials said the bear could be relocated to accredited facilities such as zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, Tira said. "You relocate it to the wilderness, and they starve because they're not used to hunting for food," Tira said.

Killing the bear is hopefully a last resort, said Joby Cefalu, a board member with the homeowners association. "Nobody on our board took lightly the situation of depredation," Cefalu told the Los Angeles Times. "We're meant to coexist. Unfortunately, this is a human problem."

Police in southeastern Denmark on Monday appealed for public help to track down what appeared to be a kangaroo that was filmed hopping across a field. Police said on Facebook that a driver saw the marsupial "hopping around" near Oster Ulslev, a village 16 kilometers from the port city of Rodbyhavn where ferries connect to northern Germany. They said the driver, whom they did not identify, had the presence of mind to film the animal, although they acknowledged the three-second video they posted was "short and grainy." Nobody has reported a kangaroo missing. The South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police requested any sightings or information on the animal's whereabouts to be reported using non-emergency number 114. The animal is not considered to be dangerous.

Despite the fact that kangaroos are not common in northern Europe, it is the second time the same police district has reached out for help in finding one: in 2014, a kangaroo escaped from a private animal farm in the same area. And in July 2018, a kangaroo was on the run elsewhere in Denmark for half a day before its owner found it.

A moose on the loose in a Massachusetts city was tranquilized Tuesday and moved to a more appropriate setting, state wildlife officials said. The moose spotted roaming around a densely-populated Marlborough neighborhood was tranquilized by the Massachusetts Environmental Police at about 10 a.m., tagged, and taken to a wildlife management area in northern Worcester County, Martin Feehan, a deer-moose biologist for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, told The MetroWest Daily News.

It took two tranquilizer darts to get the 6-year-old female to sleep, he said. "Everything went very smoothly," said Feehan. "We deal with about four or five of these a year. She's a pretty healthy moose." The roughly 600-pound moose was likely looking for food, according to a statement from the wildlife agency. Suburban areas are planted with an abundance of soft ornamental shrubs and trees that are rich in calories, needed by breeding cows.

Moose had largely disappeared from Massachusetts by the early 1700s because of unregulated hunting and forest clearing, but began reappearing in greater numbers in the 1980s, according to the agency. The state's current moose population is about 900 to 1,000 animals, the agency said. Most moose sightings occur in the more rural central and western areas of the state, but the animals are occasionally spotted in more built up eastern areas. Marlborough, with nearly 42,000 residents, is about 25 miles west of Boston. Lindsay Alers took some video of the moose in her backyard. "I had seen on Facebook the day before that someone saw a moose at Ghiloni Park, so I had moose on my mind; otherwise, I would have thought I lost my mind when I pulled up to my house and saw it," Alers told the newspaper.