This cub was likely the culprit found in trash container near Potsdam school this morning. Photo submitted by Rebecca J. Faber.

By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – A bear cub was captured in the village of Potsdam and removed this morning.

Potsdam police said there was a report of a bear at Meadow East Apartments on Leroy Street, a couple hundred yards from Potsdam High School.

Potsdam School Superintendent Pat Brady sent out a message to school personnel this morning asking to be notified immediately if anyone saw the bear on school grounds.

After the first report, Potsdam police said they notified the Department of Environmental Conservation, who came and captured the cub from a large trash container and removed the animal.

“I had a catchpole and was getting ready to use it, but it was just a small cub, so I just put on some heavy gloves, scooped him out, and put him in a large dog crate,” said DEC Principal Fish and Wildlife Technician Blanche Town of the Potsdam office.

Town said the cub will have “a quiet day in a shady patch of woods, and we’ll keep him hydrated with popsicles and apples” until she meets up with Jean Soprano, a wildlife rehabilitator in Oswego County. “I’ll be meeting her this evening. She has an excellent facility for rehabilitating black bears.”

Town said the bear was “very young, from this year, probably under 20 pounds.” She said she brought her catchpole, heavy gloves and other items like the dog crate. From the first reports, she said, she believed it to be a small bear, so she did not go for things like a tranquilizer gun.

“There’s no sign of the mother, no reports,” Town said. “It may be orphaned, it maybe traveled far afield, probably orphaned,” maybe from a car-bear collision, and bow hunting season is open.

Town said she has experience with wild animal recovery, things such as “a muskrat in a chain link fence, a fawn in a swimming pool, a turkey from a back alley.”

“Hopefully this will have a happy ending,” Town said. “Jean is good with bears.”