Badly Shocked Bear and Cub Back in Wilds

ALBUQUERQUE —  A mother bear and her cub were returned to their mountain home seven months after she suffered a 7,200-volt shock and burns as she fell, drugged by tranquilizer darts, from a utility pole in the city.

Scott Brown, a spokesman for the state Department of Game and Fish, said the release of the two bears went off without a hitch Thursday.

Brown said the mother bear was fitted with a radio collar so biologists can monitor her for the next couple of weeks.

The mother bear had wandered into Albuquerque last August and climbed a 25-foot utility pole. When a wildlife official shot her with a tranquilizer gun, she fell, brushing a transformer, which caused the shock and burns.