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TEMPLETON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Massachusetts State Police asked drivers on Route 2 to bear with them during some delays Thursday morning.
That's because the highway was shut down in Templeton between Exits 19 and 20 so that Environmental Police could remove and relocate a family of bears that had set up their den in the median.
The bears' mother was tranquilized, she and her cubs were taken to a nearby state park, and the highway was reopened around 10:20 a.m.
Templeton and State Police shared the above photos of the cubs and their mother on social media.
"A great experience and a great effort by all to relocate these bears to safer area away from the busy highway!" Templeton Police wrote on Facebook.
Dave Wattles,a black bear biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, tells WBZ NewsRadio that hat March is the month when hungry bears begin to emerge from their winter dens and seek out food and that the public should take down bird feeders and secure dumpsters and other garbage containers. Beekeepers and poultry owners are advised to set up electric fencing as protection against marauding bears.
WBZ NewsRadio's Ben Parker (@RadioBenParker) reports.