A bear came back to earth with a bump after it got stuck up a pine tree while foraging for food.
Police used a tranquiliser gun to stun the two-year-old California black bear, which tumbled more than 15ft into the front garden of a house outside Los Angeles.
But the fall was softened by a tarpaulin that caught the bewildered 100lb cub - nicknamed 'Yogi' by onlookers - and it was bundled back into the wild before the effects of the knockout drug wore off.
The three-hour drama began in Porter Ranch, California, when Barabara Erickson, 71, spotted muddy paws on her patio carpet before seeing a bear staring at her from the pine tree outside her front window.
Within minutes, there were about 40 firefighters, police and animal control experts gathered in the garden trying to work out how to bring down the clearly distressed animal.
'I told the first guy, "Don’t you dare kill him",' said Mrs Erickson.
'Everyone's in the bear's corner. It’s sad to think what's going through the animal's mind right now. It’s become a circus animal,' said neighbour Mark Shapiro, 63.
After eventually coming up with a plan to fire a tranquiliser dart, two officers from the Fish and Game Department stood by with shotguns in case the bear tried to bolt and a half-dozen firemen held a big yellow tarp directly under the tree. Although black bears are not normally dangerous to humans, the watching crowd was warned to move back. After being hit by the dart, the startled bear scampered a few feet higher.
Ten minutes later, the groggy creature finally slipped from his perch and fell, limbs splayed, to a soft landing below.
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