She screamed, spooking the 211-pound bear, which ran to a nearby tree, climbed 40 feet up and wouldn't budge. More than 50 neighbors gathered in Maplewood to watch for five hours Sunday as the creature just yawned.

"He's really kind of cute," said Joanne Penaluna.

State wildlife officers eventually shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart. After hanging on for about 10 minutes, the bear dropped into a net. It was taken away, tagged, then released at a state wildlife management area.

"It's not something you get to see every day -- bears falling out of trees," said Pete Samek, whose 5-year-old daughter, Lucy Rose, watched from his shoulders.

Bears usually hibernate from December to March, though they can be easily roused, said Larry Katz, chairman of the animal sciences department at Rutgers University.

"It's a little early for them to be waking up," he said. "Someone or something probably walked over the area where it was hibernating."

Authorities said the bear, a male estimated to be 2 or 3 years old, might have been snacking on birdseed and likely wandered in from the nearby South Mountain Reservation.