A 450 pound houseguest returns to the Settelmeyer ranch

GARDNERVILLE - An uninvited, 450-pound houseguest was back at the Settelmeyer ranch south of Gardnerville this weekend, once again pawing through the garbage.

"We kind of had a feeling he showed up again Friday night," Annalynn Settelmeyer said of the bear, first spotted on the ranch Aug. 14.

Her family ranch has served as a kind of vacation spot for the bear. The animal was trapped by the Department of Wildlife on Aug. 18 and released several miles away after it spent the week emptying garbage cans and chewing on the walls of a 120-year-old cook shack to get after honey that bees had produced in the wooden walls.

"It was surprising to me that he wanted to come back," Settelmeyer said. "After all, after he was captured the first time he had a tooth pulled, was given a shot and left in a cage for 12 hours."

But come back he did, said Department of Wildlife biologist Carl Lackey, who was out looking for the bear again on Tuesday.

"We chased him around a little bit down by the (Carson) river on Sunday and he took off," Lackey said. "He was down by the (Carson Valley) golf course on the river. We came up on him in the brush, he took one look at us and took off. The bears use this river as a travel corridor. He just walked back on up the river."

After his original capture, the bear was fitted with a collar that allows wildlife officials to track and identify him. Lackey said it's encouraging that the animal didn't return to the Settelmeyers on Monday night.

Lackey said if the bear, which he said is in "real good shape," is recaptured, the animal will be released on site or taken to the nearest bear habitat.