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Colorado wildlife officers rescue bear stuck in storm drain

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Wildlife officers rescued a bear stuck in a sewer drain in Colorado Springs Thursday afternoon.

It’s not clear how the 250-pound black bear managed to get itself stuck in the drain, but Colorado Parks and Wildlife tweeted that with no obvious exit available, officers would open a manhole cover above the animal in hopes it would climb out.

Officers tweeted that they hoped they could avoid handling the bear because that would result in the animal being tagged. Once a bear is tagged, it could be euthanized after a second encounter with humans.

About six minutes later, the CPW tweeted that the stuck bear crawled out of the open manhole and ran off. Officers fired a non-lethal rubber slug at the bear as officers chased it into an open space behind the Colorado Springs neighborhood.

This is the second bear sighting in the state in one day. Police in Parker were tracking a bear that wandered into a neighborhood earlier in the day.