Video: Bear takes a leisurely stroll through Bozeman High School

An open garage door led to a wild sighting at Bozeman High School in Bozeman, Mont., Wednesday morning.

At 7:30 a.m., a black bear crept in through a door connected to the football field, where it was spotted by members of the booster club meeting in a cafeteria, district superintendent Rob Watson told the Associated Press.

The bear appeared tranquil as it walked through the school courtyard and down a long, locker-lined hallway. Video footage of its morning stroll was captured by a student, Leon Uebelhoer, and teacher Matt Clark.

School officials told MTN News that students and bear alike were not so much agitated by the encounter as they were curious. Police officers arrived at the school immediately, ordering students to go into classrooms and shepherding the bear out through the building’s east side.

“It was a nice, pretty black bear,” Bozeman police officer Rick Musson told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “It didn’t show any sign of aggression.”

It took no more than 3 minutes to round up the bear, which officials described as “quick and skittish.”

“This is my first ‘bear-in-a-building’ experience,” principal Kevin Conwell said. “It just kind of landed in our lap.”

Though he commended his students for remaining at a safe distance even as they were documenting the event with their phones, Conwell was relieved to see the animal go.

“It definitely raised my blood pressure,” he said. “There’s a wild animal in the building.”

Grizzly bears are Montana’s state animal, and bears are particularly common in Bozeman, but officers said this was the first time they saw one in a school.

The bear was gone almost as quickly as it came, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports. But for a few droppings, the bear left Bozeman exactly as it found it.

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