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<p>A sow and three cubs lay dead in a parking lot.</p><p>There were no bullet wounds or any superficial injuries, and the four bears all appeared to be in good health.</p><p>When Pennsylvania Game Commission officials arrived on the scene, they were puzzled that there was no apparent cause of death.</p><p>Little did they know that the culprit grew just several feet away from where the dead bears were discovered.</p><p>It was Dec. 6 when the bears were found in the parking lot of St. Monica&#8217;s church in West Wyoming Borough. The PGC would find out the cause of their demise a few weeks later, and it&#8217;s likely the bears died the day they were discovered.</p><p>In the meantime, there were plenty of guesses as to what killed the bears, and poisoning topped the list. The community was upset and one businessman wanted to offer a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who supposedly poisoned the bears.</p><p>But the Game Commission wasn&#8217;t convinced that&#8217;s what happened.</p><p>A closer look at the scene, however, revealed that something unusual occurred. The adult female bear, for example, apparently died after it climbed a nearby tree. Broken branches along the length of the tree trunk indicated the bear died suddenly, falling from the tree without trying to break its fall.</p><p>That was unusual.</p><p>&#8220;Typically when we tranquilize a bear in a tree, even though it is sedated when it falls it still tries to cling to branches and stop its fall,&#8221; said Bill Williams, information and education supervisor for the PGC&#8217;s Northeast Region.</p><p>So now the PGC was faced with a scene where there was no gun, no superficial wounds on the dead bears and one bruin that apparently free-fell from a tree, which is odd.</p><p>Surely the toxicology results would clear things up.</p><p>And they did.</p><p>Last Thursday the PGC reported that test results revealed the bears succumbed after feeding on English yew, a common ornamental shrub that just happened to be growing close to where the bruins were found. Yew shrubs contain taxine, a highly toxic substance that is found in the plant&#8217;s leaves and, at higher levels, in the seeds. Testing at the lab showed the adult bear and one of her cubs (the other two weren&#8217;t tested) were full of yew leaves and seeds.</p><p>Williams said a nearby yew hedge showed evidence of bears foraging on the shrubs, and the situation began to make sense.</p><p>The sow and three cubs were likely feeding heavily before they denned for the winter, found themselves in an urban area where yew shrubs are common, and found the plants berries and leaves to be an easy feast. Also, the toxicity of the yew plant peaks in winter at levels high enough to kill a 300-pound bear and its three 40-pound cubs.</p><p>Quickly.</p><p>Fortunately, such occurrences are rare.</p><p>Williams said the PGC&#8217;s black bear biologist, Mark Ternent, spoke to wildlife officials from other states and Canada and found no documented evidence of bruins perishing after consuming yew leaves and seeds.</p><p>The agency&#8217;s wildlife veterinarian, Justin Brown, was also surprised.</p><p>&#8220;In the 14 years that I&#8217;ve been involved in wildlife diagnostics, I&#8217;ve never had a case like this with black bears,&#8221; he said.</p><p>But wait a minute. Williams said birds commonly feed on yew berries - and the seeds, without any adverse effects.</p><p>Why can a bird consume a yew plant and its toxins and not die but a 300-pound black bear is killed rather quickly?</p><p>Birds digest the fleshy portion of the yew berry and pass the seed. Bears chew the berries, cracking the seed coat and releasing the toxins inside.</p><p>So we now have a firm answer as to what killed the four bears in West Wyoming. But there&#8217;s still one more question to solve.</p><p>If yew shrubs are a common ornamental plant in urban areas and bears are frequent visitors to these places, why haven&#8217;t incidents like this happened before?</p><p>Williams said he&#8217;s surprised it hasn&#8217;t occurred before, and Brown attributed the case to bad luck on the bears&#8217; behalf.</p><p>&#8220;In urban areas there are other things that bears can get into - birdfeeders and trash cans. But here you had those berries there and it was simply an easy meal for the bears as they were feeding going into winter,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Case closed.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Venesky </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_Venesky-1-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Venesky </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Outdoors with Tom Venesky: Mysterious death of four bears linked to common shrub