A bear that climbed to the top of a utility pole in New Mexico reportedly met a grim end after video of the stranded animal began circulating online.
The video, which spread across social media, shows a large bear perched high above the ground on a utility pole while a caller contacted emergency dispatchers for help.
The person on the phone could be heard telling the 911 operator they were “calling about the bear.”
“I’m on Highway 56,” the caller said.
The dispatcher appeared to already know about the situation.
“Are you calling about a bear?” the operator asked. “It’s on the tower pole?”
“Yeah, it’s alive,” the caller responded.
But according to the call, wildlife officials had already been contacted, and there were limited options for safely removing the animal.
“Just leave it be, I’ve already called Game and Fish, and they said there’s nothing that they can do,” the operator said. “They could go and shoot it and tranquilize it to get it down, but if they do that then it’s gonna fall and hurt itself.”
The video shows the bear stuck in a dangerous position at the top of the pole. Later, members of a local New Mexico Facebook group reportedly said the animal died from electrocution, though that account has not been officially confirmed.
The incident highlights the strange but real dangers bears can encounter when they wander into human infrastructure. Bears climbing utility poles are not unheard of, especially in rural or semi-rural areas where power lines, poles, and wildlife habitat overlap.
In some cases, utility crews have been able to save bears from similar situations by temporarily shutting off power and coaxing them down. In December 2025, a bear in Cochise County, Arizona, was nearly electrocuted after climbing a power pole. A lineman, identified as Werner J. Neubaurer, helped rescue the animal while his wife filmed the encounter.
“I de-energized the equipment and worked with a fiberglass stick to get her to climb down,” Neubaurer said, according to USA Today.
Video from that Arizona incident reportedly showed Neubaurer using the fiberglass pole to prod the bear until it finally climbed down and ran away safely.
The New Mexico situation appears to have ended differently.
The dispatcher’s explanation suggested that tranquilizing the bear was considered too risky because the animal could fall from the height and seriously injure itself. Without a safe way to bring the animal down immediately, officials apparently advised leaving it alone while Game and Fish assessed the situation.
It remains unclear exactly where along Highway 56 the incident happened, how long the bear had been on the pole, or whether utility workers were called to the scene. It is also unclear whether New Mexico wildlife officials have confirmed the reported electrocution.
Still, the video has drawn attention because of the helplessness of the situation: a wild animal alive but stranded high above the ground, with rescue options limited by the very real danger of the fall, the power equipment, and the animal’s own size and behavior.
While bear encounters often generate dramatic headlines, the New Mexico video appears to show a different kind of hazard — not an attack, but a tragic collision between wildlife and modern infrastructure.
For residents in bear country, officials often urge people to avoid approaching wild animals, keep a safe distance, and contact proper authorities when animals are found in dangerous or unusual locations.
In this case, one concerned caller did exactly that.
But according to reports from the local Facebook group, the stranded bear’s ordeal may have ended in electrocution before it could be safely removed.