Tranquilized bear falls onto bouncy house, thanks to creative wildlife officers and firefighters

It's a race to eat for Colorado bears as the temperatures begin to drop, and a few are finding their calories in neighborhoods along the front range, rather than the wilderness.

On Tuesday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife called on West Metro Fire to help rescue a 6-year-old black bear from a tree in a busy Littleton neighborhood.

"The whole neighborhood knew he was there, there were kids out there while we were trying to get him out of the tree so potentially danger to humans if he had remained in the neighborhood any while longer," said Ronda Scholting, public information officer for West Metro Fire.

Scholting said firefighters used an engine ladder to position a CPW officer close enough to tranquilize the bear -- the next steps required some creative thinking.

"There was a lot of 'plan A, plan B, Plan C, plan D,' kind of talk," said Scholting. "One was to try to get a harness around the bear, lower him to the ground if he was tranquilized. Plan B was, could we somehow get the platform of the tower underneath him so we could catch him that way? Plan C was probably the bouncy house."

Because the bear was surrounded by thick branches, the team went with plan C; the bouncy house.

"So whenever the bear would move in the tree after he was tranquilized, they'd move the bouncy house and then he'd move again and they'd move the bouncy house again," Scholting continued, "plan D I guess was kind of what happened... I guess he clipped the bouncy house just a little on the way down and fell to the ground."

The bear was uninjured in the process and safely transported but in the process, CPW received another call.

"They got a call from the Highlands Ranch area saying that there was another bear in a tree," said Scholting.

The Highlands Ranch bear was much larger and fortunately, did not have to be tranquilized. CPW says that one left on its own accord.

Bears are notoriously fast learners and when they find a food source, often return. It's why relocation is so important along with making sure communities that see bears have ways to secure trash properly.

CPW says the Littleton bear was checked out before it was released into a remote location and is in good health.