Authorities near Chilliwack, B.C., are running out of ideas about how to get a black bear to leave the fruit tree it's been living in for weeks.

The yearling cub has been high up in the pear tree for close to three weeks, gorging on the ripe fruit while onlookers watch from the ground.

The bear has become so popular among the locals, they've nicknamed it "Pear Bear."

Nearby resident Jonny Williams says the cub seems to be on its own.

“I think he's newly separated from the mother because the mother's been walking around,” he told CTV News on Sunday.

“I think he's afraid to come down because during the day, there's a lot of action.”

Fellow resident Rebecca Van Oosteron says she can see why the bear doesn’t want to leave.

“I think he's in paradise up there, eating the pears all day,” she said.

But she worries if, perhaps, the bear is having trouble figuring out how to get down from its perch.

“He looks like he's stuck,” she said, glancing up before changing her mind. “I'm not sure.”

Others, like photographer Rick Siemens, say the bear knows exactly what it's doing and actually climbs down from the tree at night, after the onlookers have gone home.

“One of the other photographers said he came down about 15 feet to the bottom of the tree, grabbed a few pears and went right back up,” he said.

There's an elementary school nearby, but officers with the B.C. Conservation Service say the animal appears to be afraid of humans, and therefore does not pose a safety concern.

They say that tranquilizing the cub isn't an option because falling from the tree would likely be fatal.

Officers set up a bear trap over the weekend, but somehow, the food disappeared and the bear remained in the tree.

Conservation officers say, if the cub doesn’t come down soon, they might start cutting the tree down, to try to coax the bear it’s time to go.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Michele Brunoro