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Not sure why they had to euthanize the bear… couldn’t they return it to a wild area? Or if that wouldn’t work out, a zoo?

TARIQ ZEHAWI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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The N.J. Division of Fish and Wildlife Bear Response team tranquilized a black bear that was tracked to the back porch of a home on Fox Hill Drive.

In recent days, he’d become almost a familiar sight, trudging the street, checking trash cans for easy snacks.

“He’s been around here for a long time,’’ said resident John Rondi. “He hasn’t been aggressive. He’s been curious. He’s been taking garbage.’’

Until Wednesday, the bear hadn’t caused any harm in the suburban neighborhood he’d made his home.

But that changed fatally after nightfall, when he wandered into a fenced yard a few blocks away on Lyle Avenue after 11 p.m. and killed the 16–year border collie-Corgi mix — coincidentally named “Bear.” The attack prompted a police hunt through neighborhoods off Preakness Avenue the next day, put residents on alert and kept the township’s elementary school children inside for recess.

The search ended after police officers Robert Franco and Jack Belanger traced bear tracks through the snow from Lyle Avenue to 4 Fox Hill Drive, where residents had reported seeing the animal the night before. They found the bear asleep under the deck, Capt. Paul Ireland said.

Authorities notified members of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife Bear Response team who were in town looking for the bear. The wildlife staff tranquilized the bear as police stood guard with shotguns. Wildlife staff member Chuck Sliker said the bear was awake when he approached, but was not alarmed by people. Sliker shot the tranquilizer dart at the bear, which then fell asleep.

Six officers helped state staff carry the bear from the yard around 2 p.m. and load it into a pickup to be taken to a state facility. It was euthanized soon after.

Nirmeen Ibrahim, who lives at the home where the bear had been sleeping, said she had seen it walking through the neighborhood recently but had no idea it was living under her backyard deck.

“I feel bad for the bear, but it could have been dangerous,” said Ibrahim, who was home with her infant daughter. “I’m glad it’s taken care of. I’m worried about the kids here. … It’s kind of scary.”

The incident occurred as the state’s Fish and Game Council is to unveil the new Black Bear Management Policy. The Council will meet Tuesday and is expected to introduce the policy, a first step before the state can consider holding another bear hunt after a moratorium of several years.

The policy will contained an updated population estimate based on a DNA study by East Stroudsberg State University. It also will explain the state’s strategies for dealing with bears, including public education, garbage can maintenance, and hunting.

The dog’s owner, Marian Szal, said she was relieved to learn that the bear had been caught and would cause no further harm.

Szal said she had let the dog out one last time before bedtime. When Bear did not bark to come back in, Szal looked out a glass door and saw what seemed like the back of the bruin on all fours.

She rushed upstairs, and she and her husband shone flashlights through the door. When officers arrived, the couple went outside and called for the dog, in vain. Police followed bear tracks and found the dog dead on a hill near Szal’s property.

“You hear about bear sightings, but not in your own yard,” Szal said. “It’s a tremendous loss. He [Bear] had a beautiful disposition, and he was great with everyone.”

Szal said her family is devastated by the loss of the gentle dog they adopted as a puppy from the Wayne animal shelter 16 years ago. He was named Bear because the fuzzy, black puppy looked just like a cub.

“He made our day every day,” Szal said. “He was a gentle, gentle soul, very smart, very well mannered, very affectionate.”

State officials said the black bear was killed because, in killing the dog, it was involved in a so-called Category 1 incident, exhibiting aggressive behavior.

The dog apparently died of a broken neck, which suggests the bear either took a swipe at it, or clenched it with his jaws, said Larry Herrighty, assistant director for the Division of Fish and Wildlife. He called the incident “an unprovoked attack.”

But bird feeders in the yard might have attracted the bear, he said.

And the recent mild weather might have stirred this bear to activity. Because of the state’s mild winters, bears in New Jersey don’t hibernate. They enter a winter dormancy called torpor and can rouse to forage for food.

“In another month, bears will be up and become very active,” Herrighty said.

Residents of Wayne, which have had numerous bear sightings in the past, should take heed and maintain trash correctly, he said.

Precautions

The Fish and Wildlife Divi¬sion of the New Jersey Depart¬ment of Environmental Protec¬tion offers the following tips to avoid attracting bears:

• Use certified bear-resist¬ant garbage containers, and store them outdoors. Those not using certified containers should place their refuse in containers with tight-fitting lids and store them in a secure lo¬cation – a basement, for ex¬ample – until the morning or evening of garbage collection.
• Wash trash containers with a disinfectant at least once a week to eliminate odors. Carefully rinse recy¬clables to rid them of food residue that can attract bears.
• Pet owners should avoid feeding their animals outside.
• The use of birdfeeders is discouraged in areas frequent¬ed by black bears. Those who insist on feeding birds should do so only in daylight hours between Dec. 1 and April 1, when bears are least active. Store feeders indoors at night, and clean up any spilled seeds daily.
• Thoroughly clean outdoor grills after use. Never dump grill grease on the ground. Store grills in a shed or garage after use.

Source: The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

– William Lamb

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This story is awesome just for the amazing pictures that accompany it.

A she-bear chases a man who tried to tranquillize her Photo: EPA

A man who shot a marauding bear with a tranquilliser gun had an almighty scare when the beast awoke as he approached, and proceeded to attack him.

The female bear had been injected with a sleep-inducing drug after it appeared near the village of Chorzow in Poland.

Unfortunately for the rangers tasked with capturing the animal, it woke up from its apparent slumber as they came near and gave chase to the man who had shot it.
Thanks to the efforts of both men, the bear was eventually brought under control. Reports said authorities plan to take it to a local zoo.

The same bear had reportedly been released in a nearby wood three weeks ago, after it was captured near a school in Przemysl.

It is believed that the bear had broken free from a Ukranian wildlife park 25 miles away.

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A Miracle Beach man is taking a bear mauling in stride this week after a black bear swiped the top of his head and sent him flying 10 feet.

Today, Ed Claydon says the whole experience should serve as a public reminder that bears are feeding and should be treated with respect.

Claydon was going out to the car shortly around 7:45 Thursday evening with a flashlight when he heard a growling sound.

He took another step and heard another growl.

He stopped under an apple tree and, thinking it was a raccoon or something, he looked down at the ground.

Little did he know a black bear was sitting in the tree directly above him. It took a swipe, and sent him flying.

When he landed, Claydon shone the flashlight at the apple tree and met his adversary.

He quickly skirted away from the bear, back toward the house and let himself in the back door.

“When I saw him I couldn’t even comprehend what had happened,” said his wife, Joy. “His face was dripping in blood. I thought maybe he’d caught his face on a tree branch but he said no, a bear just attacked me.” She took him to the hospital, where the deep gash on the top of his head was stitched up and released.

Aside from the stitches he also sustained injuries to his shoulder – which took the brunt of his fall.

But his pain could have been a lot worse.

If he hadn’t looked down the gash could have been across the side of his face.

The Claydons live about 500 yards from Black Creek, where bears hang out and gorge themselves on salmon.

Though they pick and use most of their apples, they leave the very high ones – too high to reach with a ladder – for the wind and eventually, the deer to enjoy.

“I guess when we were attracting the deer we were also attracting the bears,” Joy Claydon said. “I guess he moral of the story is don’t leave any fruit on the ground.” Even after the attack Ed Claydon, says he doesn’t feel the bear meant him any particular harm.

He didn’t even ask the conservation officers to attend.

Conservation officer Ben York advises people to let his office investigate and decide whether a bear is dangerous or not.

He says in most cases, if a bear was acting defensively, people will be educated about bear attractants and the bear will be left alone.

If a bear is acting aggressively or in a predatory manner it will be investigated, tracked down and removed.

But the Claydons said the bear definitely fell into the first category.

“The bear meant him no malice,” said Joy Claydon. “It was just a swat to say get away from my tree. It was not a rogue bear.” The last bear complaint conservation officers had from the Miracle Beach area was in August.

“It’s been extraordinarily quiet,” said York. “It’s been one of the quietest years across B.C. we’ve had in years.

“We haven’t even set a trap yet and usually at this time of year we have all of our traps going.” He suspects good berry crop, abundant pink salmon stocks in the rivers, and more bear awareness mean bears don’t need to depend on human garbage as much as they have in the past.

“It might even be because people are starting to learn,” said York.

Though bears usually hibernate by late November or mid December, bear sightings can occur on the coast year round.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

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A Livingston man was attacked by a grizzly bear while elk hunting Sunday morning near Dry Creek in the Paradise Valley.

The incident occurred on opening day of the general hunting season in Hunting District 314.

“There were two hunters and one of them saw an adult female grizzly with a cub,” Kevin Frey, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ grizzly bear management specialist, said Tuesday. “She took off running over the hill … in the direction of the other hunter. She grabbed him by the thigh and shook him and stood over him.”

The grizzly then took off into the hills.

With help from his hunting partner, the victim was able to get to a vehicle and then to Livingston Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for leg and hand injuries, Frey said. He didn’t know whether the man had been carrying pepper spray.

The mauling occurred in just past dawn on the Gallatin National Forest north of Big Creek in the Dry Creek drainage, FWP spokeswoman Mel Frost said.

The area has not been closed, nor has the bear been spotted since, Frey said.

Other signs around Dry Creek Tuesday indicated grizzly bear activity in the area, but, he said, “It is hard to say in these situations where the bear is at this time. They can stay in the area or they can move several miles away.”

Frey said the department will discuss Sunday’s attack with both hunters, but from what he knew so far, it appeared the bear was just running away from one hunter only to run right into another.

“The bear ended up running into the victim on the other side of the hill,” he said. “In a situation like that it is nearly unavoidable.”

The mauling is one of three reported bear-human encounters that have occurred since the general hunting season opened this past weekend, Frey said.

“One of the other encounters was in the Gallatin (National Forest),” Frey said. “Some hunters were retrieving portions of an elk they had gotten. They went back (to the site of the kill) and the bear was on the elk. They ended up climbing a tree and after awhile, the bear left.”

Another happened in the Beattie Gulch area north of Gardiner, which was closed Monday due to grizzly bear danger and will remain closed until gut piles left on and near Beattie Gulch Trail by hunters are consumed by the bears, according to a statement from Gallatin Forest officials.

“There are quite a few bears in that area and it is a difficult situation because the gut piles are near the trailhead where hunters start up the trail,” Frey said. “It is normal for bears to seek out gut piles and remains from hunting, but when they are right on the trail it is a little tougher situation.”

Grace Short, who lives near Beattie Gulch and reported the gut piles to FWP, said she’s seen bears around this fall, including a sow and a young male going “after a gut pile right on Jardine Road,” she said. “They were about 50 yards away from my house.”

She also said hunters need to be responsible for gut piles because they can become a public safety concern.

“It just makes sense that if you live in an area that is populated, you do not leave a pile that close to the road,” she said. “I have never heard of Beattie Gulch being shut down this early.”

Frey urged hunters to be alert when hunting in bear country and to report all encounters to FWP as soon as possible.

“Hunters need to be fairly cognizant that there is a high likelihood of encountering a bear in these areas,” Frey said. “We advise people to hunt with a partner, to stay alert while hunting, to watch for sign of bear and carry pepper spray.”

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AN ice-skating BEAR killed a circus trainer and seriously injured another man during rehearsals for a controversial show.

The performing beast suddenly went berserk and dragged 25-year-old Dimitry Potapov across an ice rink by his neck, almost severing his legs.

He then mauled a 29-year-old circus assistant who tried to rescue Mr Potapov, causing serious injuries.

It is believed the horrific attack, in Bishkek, Russia, happened in front of a large audience including children.

Fierce

One witness said the bear “tore Potapov’s neck and legs to pieces”.

The attack came during rehearsals for a Bears on Ice show by the prestigious Russian State Circus, which is currently on tour.

The beast had given no indication it would attack before the incident, local officials said.

The five-year-old animal was later shot dead by police.

Last night, a local doctor said the injured man, Yevgeny Popov, had been badly hurt.

He added: “The victim has sustained serious injuries – deep scalp lacerations, bruising of the brain, lacerations on his body.

“His condition is considered critical.”

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Animal rights groups had criticised the show for exploiting bears.

Many Russian circuses train bears to skate, and even play ICE HOCKEY.

Seven years ago, a bear on loan from Russia to the Bishkek city zoo attacked and killed a small child who had reached out to pet it.

In that incident, local experts blamed the animal’s aggressive behaviour on its severe malnourishment.

Bear attacks on people and livestock are common in the vast, sparsely inhabited regions of the former Soviet Union.

But deadly attacks are rare in the popular circuses, which often use trained bears for comedic effect.

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LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) ― A hunter attacked by a grizzly bear in southern Montana also had the misfortune of being shot in the arm by a companion trying to stop the attack.

The incident last Saturday resulted in the bear being killed, the attacked hunter surviving and no charges against the companion for shooting his friend.

Park County Sheriff Allan Lutes says his office looked into the shooting of the hunter and found no negligence, with the other hunter trying to save his friend and killing the bear.

“It doesn’t point to anything but an accident,” Lutes said.

However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks are still investigating and have not released details, including the hunters’ names.

Lutes says the hunters thought they were tracking a black bear near Cooke City.

They entered a grove of very dense, second-generation pine six to eight feet in height when their quarry, which actually was a grizzly, jumped one of the hunters.

“He was yelling at his partner to shoot the bear,” Lutes said.

The first shot struck the hunter in the arm. Subsequent shots hit and killed the grizzly, which Lutes said was estimated to be 20-25 years old.

“It was a big boar,” Lutes said.

Lutes advised hunters to use extreme caution while prowling the hills and forest for game.

“These hunters need to be very careful, especially in thick areas,” he said.

Grizzlies are foraging, trying to add body weight before entering winter dens.

“They’re not in good humor right now,” Lutes said.

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SIERRA COUNTY, Calif. — An elderly hunter from Oroville was apparently attacked and seriously mauled by a black bear in Sierra County, the state Department of Fish and Game said.
Mark Lucero of Fish and Game said someone shot the animal near Camptonville, causing the bear to come down from a tree and charge Orval Sanders, 83, of Oroville.

Lucero said the bear grabbed the Sanders while the man tried to protect himself. He suffered lacerations and his left wrist was broken from a bite.

After the bear attacked Sanders, he went after another hunter. That hunter shot the bear in the head and killed it.

Sanders was taken to Sutter Roseville Medical Center, where Fish and Game officials were interviewing him.

The six-person hunting party was using dogs at the time of the attack.

Fish and Game officials plan to retrieve the head the bear to test it for rabies. Officials said when there’s an interaction between a human and a wild animal, wardens investigate the case.

Bear hunting season begins in early October and lasts until the allotted number of bears is killed, Lucero said.

The hunting was legal, officials said.

Fish and Game said bear-hunting season is Sept. 26 through Nov. 1, or until the bear tags are used up. Officials said there are 1,700 issued for California, and 303 bears have been killed so far.

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Nursing bite wounds inflicted by a grizzly bear, two B.C. hunters are thankful to have survived a harrowing attack inside their tent.

Jeff Hebert and Ken Scown, both of Nelson, B.C., were camping overnight Wednesday in the East Kootenays when the grizzly bear attacked about 10:20 p.m.

Scown, 36, was asleep but Hebert, 32, was reading and heard the bear charge their tent.

“There was no warning, there was no other sound other than the sound of something very heavy running towards the tent and huffing — just a deep, guttural huff and it was getting closer very fast,” said Hebert.

He woke Scown and grabbed his rifle beside him, which didn’t have a round in the chamber as a safety precaution.

“She came so fast I didn’t even have time to cycle the bolt — she hit us in the tent and collapsed the tent over top of us and started mauling my partner,” said Hebert.

“She was just trashing and tossing us both around.”

The grizzly mauled the men from outside the tent and they couldn’t see the animal, but the tracks in the snow later proved it was a bear.

“It was absolutely terrifying — pretty much every tenter’s worst nightmare to get attacked in your tent at night,” said Scown, a forester.

While the bear mauled Scown, Hebert used his right hand to prepare his rifle to fire and attempted to push the grizzly off his friend with his left hand.

“That’s when she turned and bit me in the arm,” he said, adding he then stuck the gun underneath the bear and pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire because the round wasn’t properly in the chamber.

After attacking the pair for about a minute, the bear gave up and wandered away.

“Thank God, I guess we fought back hard enough that she decided we weren’t an easy meal and left,” said Hebert, nursing a pair of two-inch deep bite wounds to his left forearm.

Scown had been wearing more layers and amazingly suffered only three puncture wounds that aren’t as deep.

They hiked 5 km to their truck and drove 1 1/2 hours to Cranbrook Hospital for treatment.

The experienced outdoorsmen both intend to continue hunting.

Scown said he disagrees with the decision of local conservation officers, who ruled the bear wasn’t behaving in a predatory manner and shouldn’t be tracked and killed.

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A man was attacked by a grizzly bear near Cooke City on Saturday and then accidentally shot when another man tried to defend him.

An ambulance was dispatched just before 10:30 a.m. to the Big Moose Resort after a report that a man’s arm had been badly injured in a bear attack, according to information released by the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a written statement from the sheriff’s office, two hunters in the Coulter Pass area came across a grizzly, which charged them and began mauling one of the men. The second man shot the bear, and the bullet struck the first hunter as he was being mauled, the release said.

He was taken to a local hospital, where he is receiving treatment for injuries received during the incident, the release states. A woman at the Big Moose Resort said the attack did not occur at that property, and that the victim had been taken to West Park Hospital in Cody.

A hospital staff member said that she was not allowed to release any information about patients.

More information on the incident or victim was not released, and questions were referred to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks offices in Helena. Calls to the office were not returned Saturday night.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks are investigating.

Seriously.

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The Apple iPhone can do just about everything. You can plan your route to work, do the weekly shop, check out the latest footie scores, find the best restaurants…we could go on forever, the list is seemingly endless. And now, Apple can add ’save you from bear attack’ to its long long list of attributes. Curious as to how the iPhone can make this outlandish claim? Well let’s cast our eyes stateside to one Kris Rowley, Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Vermont.

Out hiking through one of the regions woodland areas, Rowley came to the startling discovery that she was being followed by a bear. Caught without any form of defense, Kris turned to her trusty Apple device, throwing said device at poor old Yogi’s head. The tactic paid off and Rowley was able to slink off unscathed. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for her iPhone. As any iPhone user will tell you, one does get quite attached to that fruit emblazoned smart phone so naturally Kris returned to THE SAME BEAR INFESTED WOODS (of course she did, why wouldn’t you!?) in the hope of retrieving her trusty iPhone, only to find that Yogi and Boo Boo were unable to master the touchscreen and had instead mauled thephone almost beyond recognition.

Rowley was philosophical though, commenting “While saddened about my mangled iPhone, better the phone than me.” Very true. Whether a similar smart phone would have had the same impact is undetermined but Apple can now add ‘life saver’ to the ever growing list of features for the iPhone 3GS.