With a 259-pound black bear sitting several yards away, Mark Ternent calmly packed his gear into his vehicle.
No, Ternent wasn’t being careless or taking an unnecessary risk.
Having worked with bears for the last 20 years in several states, including grizzlies in Wyoming, Ternent simply knows when a situation is safe and when caution needs to be applied.
It comes with experience.
Ternent joined the Pennsylvania Game Commission in 2000 and is the agency’s bear biologist. During the last 10 years with the agency, Ternent estimated he has worked with more than 500 bears.
That includes tagging, aging, weighing and placing radio-collars.
And to do those things, Ternent sometimes has to climb inside the tight confines of a den. It’s not for the faint of heart, especially when a sow with cubs is sleeping inside, but the years of experience have given Ternent a sixth sense, if you will, of how a bear’s mind works.
That’s why it didn’t faze him that the sow, albeit still feeling the effects of a tranquilizer, sat yards away while he loaded his gear last Wednesday in Fairview Township.
Ternent was in the area to collect data on the sow for the PGC’s study on suburban bears. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to watch him work, and it was clear that, while Ternent keeps the safety of himself and those around him in mind, he places an equal emphasis on protecting the bear itself.
After the sow was tranquilized while inside the barrel trap, Ternent watched intently while the bear started to give in to the sedation. When the bear appeared to be “out,” Ternent opened the trap door and cautiously touched the bruin’s mouth and near its eyes to make sure the tranquilizer did its job.
When the bear didn’t react, Ternent placed a black cloth over its eyes to keep out dirt and debris.
While the sow might have been sedated, its eyes were still open and it could see. Masking its face was also a way to keep the bear calm.
Although he had done this hundreds of times, Ternent didn’t treat the sow as just another routine case.
He was meticulous.
This was evident when it came time to place the radio-collar around the beefy bruin’s neck.
Four times Ternent and fellow biologist Matt Lavallo slid the collar on and off the bear and adjusted it to make sure the fit would be secure while allowing for the additional growth the bruin would experience this summer.
“She has no cubs to worry about and she’s in good condition,” Ternent said. “She’s going to have a good summer so we have to allow for that growth.”
After a half hour, Ternent’s work was completed and he and Lavallo gave the bear a reversal drug to wake it up from the effects of the tranquilizer.
And this is when Ternent took another step – one that surprised me but made sense, to protect the bear.
Before administering the reversal drug, Ternent took stock of any streams, steep banks or other potential hazards nearby. Then, with the help of several Wildlife Conservation Officers, the bear was positioned so it faced a nearby dirt road on level ground.
This way, when the bear awoke, it would be easier for it to regain its footing on the flat terrain and there was less likelihood of injury.
“While the bear is down it’s our responsibility to look out for it and take steps to prevent it from being injured or harmed,” Ternent said.
As Ternent finished packing his gear and climbed into his truck, the sow ambled down the gravel road shaking off the remaining effects of the tranquilizer.
Ternent’s timing was perfect. It was almost as if he had done this before.
At least 500 times.
