CARIBOU (AP) – A 500-pound black bear and two of her cubs climbed down from a tree and escaped to the wilds after attracting hundreds of curiosity seekers, but a third cub remained stuck up the backyard tree in a residential neighborhood Tuesday.

The mother bear and her triplets, which were born this winter and weigh about 20 pounds apiece, were foraging in the neighborhood late last week before making their way up a pine tree in backyard on Sunday.

The mother and two of the cubs made off overnight Monday, but the third cub was scared back up the tree by a cat before it could make a clean escape, said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

On Tuesday afternoon, wildlife biologists planned to set up a couple of animal traps at the base of the tree in hopes of catching the bear when it comes down for food, Latti said. It would then be rehabilitated before being returned to the wild.

Before three of the bears left, the unusual sight of four bears in a tree drew hundreds of people to the neighborhood. They craned their necks as they drove by and stopped on side streets for a better view.

Caribou police Sgt. Paul Vincent said officers spent Monday clearing crowds and blocking some streets in an effort to make the bears feel safe enough to climb down the tree and venture back into the wild.

“Everyone wants to take a picture or get a picture with the bears,” Vincent said.

The bears first took shelter in a tree early Sunday morning when they were eating at a neighborhood bird feeder and something spooked them.

The bears stayed in that tree until late Sunday night when they made their way to another bird feeder in a yard about a quarter-mile away.