The 128 kg bear, which was tagged and relocated to the mountains about 80 km from the city of Boulder last week, was killed Thursday morning, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said.
Last week, the three-year-old bear was spotted in a tree outside a student housing complex at the University of Colorado. Crowds gathered to observe the animal, and a photographer with the school's student newspaper captured a shot of it with arms and legs splayed as it fell from the tree after wildlife officers shot it with a tranquilizer dart.
The bear was not injured in the fall. The photo went viral on the Internet and "the falling bear" even garnered its own Facebook page and Twitter account. Despite being relocated to the mountains, the bear returned to the city and was killed about three km from the campus, having crossed greenbelts and irrigation ditches in search of food, Churchill said.
Colorado State Patrol spokesman Trooper Josh Lewis said both cars that hit the bear "were totaled," and one of the motorists was treated for minor injuries. Colorado is home to about 12,000 black bears and Churchill said a dry winter had stressed the bears' normal food supply of chokecherry and serviceberry bushes, so they will look for food in urban areas. She said young male bears search for new territory when they wake from winter hibernation.
