![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Worland-bear-hanging-out-7.3.26.jpg\")
A 3-year-old female black bear was on the loose in and near Worland Wednesday and Thursday. (Photo by Brandon Yule)\u2018She Might Be Given Another Chance\u2019<\/p>\nA young female black bear evaded local law enforcement and wildlife authorities for two days as it wandered in and around Worland, raiding dumpsters and garbage cans.<\/p>\n
She was finally treed in a resident\u2019s backyard on Thursday afternoon, shot with tranquilizer darts and captured.<\/p>\n
The bear was first spotted at the local golf course, Worland wildlife photographer James Yule told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
He dubbed the bear, which weighed about 75 pounds, \u201cPar 5.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was out at the golf course for a day and then she decided, \u2018To heck with this, I\u2019m going into town to party,\u2019\u201d Yule said. \u201cShe spent a couple of days running back and forth and was in every single dumpster.”<\/p>\n
At one point, Par 5 evaded capture by going way back into some Creekside weeds and \u201clying down in some cool swamp water,\u201d Yule said.<\/p>\n
Authorities tried hazing the bear out with noisy \u201cwhistler\u201d charges fired from shotguns, but that didn\u2019t work, he said.<\/p>\n
A 3-year-old female black bear was on the loose in and near Worland Wednesday and Thursday. (Photo by Brandon Yule)\u2018She Might Be Given Another Chance\u2019<\/p>\n
Washakie County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies \u201cwere able to guide the bear into a tree in the Crimson\/Cardinal area of Worland,\u201d before it was tranquilized, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
After it was captured, Wyoming Game and Fish personnel took custody of the bear, the sheriff\u2019s office stated.<\/p>\n
Yule was on site when the bear was captured. He said he was told by Game and Fish agents that the bear will likely be released back into the wild, though it might have been previously captured in the Sheridan area.<\/p>\n
“She might be given another chance because she\u2019s a breeding-age female,\u201d Yule said.<\/p>\n
An inquiry sent to Game and Fish about the bear\u2019s status on Friday wasn\u2019t answered by publication time.<\/p>\n
Bears getting too used to human-provided food sources, what wildlife agencies call \u201cfood conditioning,\u201d is one reason why bears are sometimes captured and killed.<\/p>\n
That was the case with another 3-year-old Wyoming black bear, which was killed by wildlife agents last month in Grand Teton National Park after it repeatedly obtained human food and started approaching people in the Jenny Lake area.<\/p>\n
Yule said he hopes nobody hand-fed Par 5 during her adventure in Worland.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce somebody hand-feeds a bear, it will start walking right up to people expecting to get more food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Worland-bear-peek-7.3.26.jpg\")
A 3-year-old female black bear briefly emerges from the shelter of thick grass and brush in Worland Wednesday. The bear was captured Thursday in a resident\u2019s back yard. (Photo by James Yule)\u2018She Thought It Was A Cave\u2019 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Worland resident Ron Goyn told Cowboy State Daily that he came home for lunch on Thursday and found the bear lurking in his backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dog just blew up barking, viciously in the house, by my sliding glass door,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad I had that door closed, because I glanced out there, and there was this black bear, just standing on my porch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The bear started wandering about the yard, showing great interest in Goyn\u2019s chicken coop.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently, she thought it was a cave,\u201d and tried going inside, he said, adding that thankfully, his chickens were behind a fence and were unhurt.<\/p>\n
The bear clambered over his fence and ended up in his neighbor\u2019s yard, where it was treed by deputies, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added that he called Yule to come over and take photos.<\/p>\n
Yule said the police tried shooting the bear with a tranquilizer dart, which made it drowsy, but didn\u2019t knock it out. Then Game and Fish agents arrived and darted it again, which did the trick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the bear fell asleep, it got wedged in a fork in the branches,\u201d\u00a0Goyn said.<\/p>\n
Yule said that a cherry-picker lift was brought in from a local business, and a Game and Fish biologist and sheriff\u2019s deputy used it to reach the bear and heave it out of the tree.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Worland-bear-drowsy-7.3.26.jpg\")
A 3-year-old female black bear nods off in a backyard tree in Worland after being shot with a tranquilizer dart Thursday. (Photo by James Yule)\u2018Kind Of A Strange Deal For Worland\u2019<\/p>\n
Goyn said the drama with the bear in his and his neighbor\u2019s yards\u00a0lasted about three hours before Game and Fish finally hauled it away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of a strange deal for Worland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There are occasionally black bears in the general area, but one coming into town is highly unusual.<\/p>\n
“You hear about bears every once in a while along the Bighorn River,\u201d\u00a0he said. “There\u2019s a lot of good natural resources for them along that river.”<\/p>\n
Contact Mark Heinz at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/p>\n
![\"Washakie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Worland-bear-Chris-1jpg-7.3.26.jpg\")
Washakie County Sheriff\u2019s deputy Chris Hazen hoists a tranquilized female black bear Thursday in Worland. The bear was captured in a resident\u2019s back yard. (Photo by James Yule)<\/p>\n