Pennsylvania has a three-day bear hunting season

A hunter in the American state of Pennsylvania has been fined nearly $7,000 (£4,569) for luring a bear to a sticky end with a trail of doughnuts.

Charles Olsen enticed the large black bear into his gunsights with pastries and illegally shot it, police said.

Mr Olsen attracted the attention of the Game Commission when his truck, laden with sugary treats, was spotted on a road a week before bear season.

The "pastry poacher" was found guilty of violating several game laws.

Mr Olsen was arrested last November when he attempted to register the bear, which weighed 707 lbs (a third of a tonne), the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

It would have been the biggest trophy claimed during the state's three-day bear hunting season had it been killed legally, the newspaper said.

The 39-year-old, of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, was rumbled when a Game Commission wildlife conservation officer spotted his truck loaded with pastries from a local shop and traced the licence number.

The officer, Cory Bentzoni said: "Being that we were so close to bear season, seeing that person drive by with an unusual amount of pastries was like watching an individual go down a row of parked vehicles testing each handle to see if it would open.

"Something just didn't seem right," he was quoted as saying by PR Newswire.

Mr Olsen could also lose his hunting and trapping privileges for at least three years after Thursday's hearing, it is reported.