GEDDES -- A 6-foot black bear that caused a daylong stir while roaming an upstate New York suburb was euthanized Friday after being shot with a tranquilizer the night before.

The bear was finally captured just after nightfall Thursday when authorities found it feeding on some bushes and then climbing into a tree in the same neighborhood where it had been spotted earlier Thursday. Officials from the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse tranquilized the bear.

Tom LaBarge, a zoo worker, hit the bear with one shot. After 10 to 15 minutes, the bear slid to the ground. Authorities put the bear into a crate and transported it to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Oswego County but had to euthanize it around noon Thursday.

The bear was in distress and still groggy from the tranquilizer shot that was used to sedate him, said Dave Riehlman, a DEC wildlife biologist.

Because of the bear's medical condition, and because the bear had a history of getting too close to residential areas, Riehlman said DEC officials decided to euthanize it.

DEC officials said the bear was the same one that wandered into a neighborhood in the Seneca County town of Waterloo, a year ago, causing damage, and was relocated.

Wildlife officials say there are likely to be more such incursions in the coming years as the state's bear population continues to grow.

State wildlife biologists estimated there are as many as 7,000 black bears in New York, up from about 5,000 in 1995, the last time a detailed estimate was compiled.

"Once the male comes of age, they are kicked out of their immediate family group and forced to go find a vacant place to set up their home range," said H. Brian Underwood, a research biologist at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Forestry and Science. "Basically, what we are seeing are the bears expanding their range in New York and moving into new habitats."

The state's two predominant black bear populations are in the Adirondacks in northern New York and in the Catskills in the south but because black bears are great travelers, they pass through virtually every upstate county, he said.

With the growing numbers of bears has come an increase in the number of bear-human conflicts. The DEC said it has had a growing number of reports of bears causing property damage.

In 2007, the state Bureau of Wildlife handled 958 nuisance complaints about black bears, up from 587 in 2005, said Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

On Thursday, DEC officials and police spent 15 hours searching for the black bear after it was spotted just after dawn by local residents on a cul-de-sac in this western Syracuse suburb.

DEC officer Rick Head said the bear was likely migrating to a new territory when it found its path blocked by a local highway.

Although DEC officials said the bear posed no danger unless it was provoked or cornered, local schools canceled recess and outdoor gym classes as a precaution and provided bus rides home to students who normally walked.

The sighting marks the closest to Syracuse a bear has been spotted in at least 20 years, said DEC Lt. Chuck Yaekel.

Head said the bear was probably a 1- or 2-year-old male. It weighed about 250 pounds, he said. DEC officials said the bear had been tagged previously in Cortland County.