A 300-pound black bear lies sedated in a trap and on a street in Ellsworth after it stayed up in a tree there for at least 12 hours. Credit: Courtesy of Ellsworth Police Department

A black bear that had been hanging out near Ellsworth Elementary Middle School for the last several days has come down from a tree on State Street and been relocated by state animal welfare workers.

The animal is a healthy older male bear, about 300 pounds, and he was sedated without an issue, according to a posting on the Ellsworth Police Department Facebook page on Friday. Pictures with the posting show the unconscious bear before and after being taken from the barrel-shaped trap set for him on Wednesday.

A 300-pound black bear lies sedated in a trap and on a street in Ellsworth after it stayed up in a tree there for at least 12 hours. Credit: Courtesy of Ellsworth Police Department

“He will be relocated quite a distance away in an area he will enjoy,” according to the posting.

Police barricaded the tree, which is in the area of State Street and Shore Road, and put a notice on the department’s Facebook page on Wednesday warning residents to stay away. They and the welfare workers had hoped to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart to keep him tame for eventual relocation, but decided that he was too high in the tree to do it safely.