Shocking viral video: Bear climbs power pole in New Mexico

At first, nobody was sure what they were looking at.

High above a rural New Mexico road, a black bear was stretched across the top of a utility pole, almost motionless. Some motorists thought it was already dead. Then it moved.

Cars slowed. People turned around for another look. Phones came out.

The bear was alive but trapped.

It had climbed to the crossarm of the pole near the small community of Gladstone and was now surrounded by live electrical equipment, traffic and a growing crowd below. What began as a strange roadside sight quickly became something far more difficult: a rescue with no safe move.

Wildlife officers could not simply tranquilise it. A sedated bear falling from that height might not survive. It could also land near vehicles, or people gathered beneath the pole.

Getting closer was dangerous too. The electrical lines remained live.

So, witnesses were told to keep their distance and give the animal space, in the hope that it would climb down on its own. But the crowd lingered. Motorists continued stopping. Some filmed. Others watched from the roadside.

The bear stayed where it was.

Before rescuers could reach it safely, it came into contact with the electrical equipment and was fatally injured, according to wildlife officials.

The ending changed the mood around the footage almost instantly. Videos that had first circulated as an odd, almost unbelievable wildlife encounter became images of an animal with nowhere to go.

Black bears do climb utility poles from time to time. The behaviour is usually instinctive. Frightened by traffic, dogs or people, they head upward as they would into a tree. The trouble is that a pole offers no cover, few escape routes, and sometimes live wires at the top.

There have been rescues. In other cases, power crews have shut down electricity and waited for the animal to descend. But each situation is different, and the window to act can be painfully small.

In New Mexico, it closed before help arrived.