Note: we are republishing this story which originally made the news in December 2016.
The cause of death of multiple bears that were discovered in a Pennsylvania church parking lot has been revealed.
The West Wyoming Borough Police Department was called to St. Monica’s Parish to investigate the discovery of three dead bear cubs and their nearly 300-pound mother, the department said in a Facebook post.
The department called in the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the animal’s deaths were labeled as suspicious.
The commission asked the public for help via Facebook to find out what happened to the bears.
There were no “signs of bullet wounds or external trauma” to the animals.
“We consider the deaths of these bears highly suspicious,” Game Commission Northeast Region Law Enforcement Supervisor Mark Rutkowski said. “Toxicological testing will be performed in an attempt to determine a cause of death.”
The Pennsylvania Game Commission revealed on Facebook the bears likely cause of death: poisoning.
The four bears were found dead in or around the same tree without “evidence of thrashing or stumbling in the area…suggesting they died suddenly.”
The mother bear and a cub were given a post-mortem examination and toxicological testing at the Penn State Animal Diagnostic Laboratory in State College.
By examining their stomach contents, it was discovered they had recently consumed leaves and seeds of an English yew (Taxus baccata) plant.
