DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Thursday in Daytona Beach the hunt was on for a bear that spent the morning treed in the middle of a neighborhood.

Officers have been in the neighborhood near Nova Road for the better part of Thursday morning. But around 10:30am, to their surprise, the bear took off.

Fish and Wildlife, and Animal Control officers tried to scare it back into the tree, and then chased it, but the bear was gone. And nobody knows where it went.

Dozens of people spent Thursday morning watching the bear, as it sat in the tree. The bear was in an urban neighborhood with a lot of houses and people, a good mile, at least, from any open land. Wildlife officers spent hours trying to figure out how to get the animal out of the neighborhood safely, but now they say the bear's unexpected move may have been the best thing for everybody.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said they were going to keep an officer in the area Thursday, on standby, in case the bear is spotted again.

The question everyone is still asking, including animal control officers, is how it ended up this deep into the city, in the first place.