PORT ALBERNI, B.C. — A 13-year-old Vancouver Island boy escaped with scratches but no serious injuries after he was attacked by a young bear on Wednesday.

The RCMP says the boy was jogging on a paved walking path through a wooded area of Port Alberni when he encountered the bear.

Corporal Colin Banks says the bear — likely a two-year-old cub — got a hold of he boy with his paws and scratched him on the torso area.

Banks says the boy pushed him away with his right hand and may have poked the bear with a pocket knife he carried.

Conservation officers are now trying to catch the bear, and once they do, will determine whether the bear should be moved or destroyed.

via Teen boy survives bear attack in Port Alberni, B.C. – CTV News.

GIG HARBOR, WA – A woman survived what’s being described as a vicious black bear attack which happened on Sunday morning and now, her entire neighborhood is on edge, afraid the bear could attack again.

Officials say the drama began as the woman was walking her dog in front of a gate to an undeveloped subdivision.

The bear appeared on the side of the road and the woman’s dog ran after it. The woman then somehow got in between the bear and her dog and that’s when the bear attacked her.

The woman was later found by another person walking near the area and was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma. Officials report the victim is going to be okay, as is her dog.

The bear got away and officers say they need to find it since it attacked a human.

“Once the bear is captured, unfortunately because it did involve an attack on a human being, the bear will be euthanized,” explained Captain Dan Brinson with Washington State Fish and Wildlife.

Wildlife officers need to know if the bear suffers from disease and if that is why it attacked the woman.

via Woman recovering after Washington bear attack | KBZK.com | Z7 | Bozeman, Montana.

GIG HARBOR, Wash. —The bear that mauled a woman near Gig Harbor remains at large.The traps remain set Monday, and agents plan to kill the bear because it harmed a person, said Fish and Wildlife Department spokesman Craig Bartlett. Officials also want to test the animal for disease.The woman who was attacked Sunday while walking her dog is in satisfactory condition at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma.She doesnt want her name, age or the nature of her wounds released, said hospital spokeswoman Jacquie Goodwill. The woman is expected to fully recover and should be released in about a day.Wildlife Capt. Dan Brinson told The News Tribune of Tacoma on Sunday that the woman suffered a severe laceration to an arm and bites to her back.She was found by a couple driving by.Wildlife agents hunted for the bear with dogs Sunday, but they lost the scent in the rain. Two traps were set out, baited with doughnuts, maple syrup and vanilla.Bartlett called the attack “highly unusual” and says its surprising there would be two attacks within two months of each other in Washington.John Chelminiak, a Bellevue city councilman, was mauled Sept. 17 while walking his dogs at a vacation cabin near Lake Wenatchee. He suffered serious wounds and lost an eye but is recovering.The Gig Harbor woman surprised the bear while walking her dog along a frequent route, said Goodwill.The woman expresses her thanks to the police and medics who responded and to everyone who has expressed their prayers and concerns, Goodwill said.

via Local News | Bear that mauled Gig Harbor woman still out there | Seattle Times Newspaper.

DUBOIS — A Pennsylvania hunter who was attacked by a grizzly is recovering from injuries to his head, face, and arm, Wyoming wildlife officials said.

The man was hunting elk when he suddenly encountered the bear about 10 yards away Wednesday northwest of Dubois, said Wyoming Game and Fish bear management supervisor Mark Bruscino.

The grizzly bit the man in the head, face, and arm, he said. The hunter, who is not being named, fired a shot at the grizzly but officials think he may have missed.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide reported Saturday that the man had surgery Thursday to repair broken bones in his face.

“It was a surprise, sudden encounter within the realm of typical bear behavior,” Bruscino said. “In most cases, a bear startled at close range will run, but occasionally bears do make contact with the person.”

Wildlife officials will not try to capture or kill the grizzly because it was exhibiting natural behavior, he said.

This is the third time this year that a bear has attacked a hunter in Wyoming. The Jackson Hole News & Guide reported that a shortage of natural food sources for the bears this year may be a reason for increased encounters between the animals and humans.

Earlier this month, an out-of-state hunter west of Cody shot and killed a grizzly bear after it him in the arm. The attack happened in the Jim Mountain area between Cody and Yellowstone National Park.

The hunter hiked three miles to a trailhead and drove himself to a hospital in Cody.

via Pennsylvania man recovering after Wyo. grizzly bear attack.

A Pennsylvania man was recovering at a Lander hospital Thursday after surgery to repair broken bones in his face caused by a grizzly bear attack northwest of Dubois.

“The guy was hunting elk when he encountered a bear at about ten yards,” said Wyoming Game and Fish bear management supervisor Mark Bruscino. “The bear bit him on the arm, the face and at least one time on the top of the head.”

The hunter told officials he thought the grizzly bear came out of a bed.

“It was a surprise, sudden encounter within the realm of typical bear behavior,” Bruscino said. “In most cases, a bear startled at close range will run, but occasionally bears do make contact with the person.”

The hunter fired one shot at the animal, but Bruscino said the man likely missed.

“We could not confirm the bear was shot,” he said.

Since the bear was likely exhibiting natural behavior, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will not try to capture or kill the animal, Bruscino said.

This latest incident marks the third bear/hunter encounter in Wyoming this year that has resulted in human injuries.

Bear conflicts have been on the increase this year because of a shortage of some natural food sources.

Two other human injuries from bear conflicts with hunters also occurred near Cody.

Earlier this month, a man hunting near Jim Mountain was attacked by a grizzly.

The bear bit him on the arm, and he walked three miles out of the woods and drove himself to town. Bear managers think he shot and killed the grizzly.

The other incident involved an archery hunter who received a “very, very minor abrasion” on Dead Indian Pass near Cody, officials said.

via Jackson Hole Daily | Hunter recovering after grizzly bites his face.

Chad Fortune says he can’t recall all of the details.

But he remembers lots of yelling (his own) and snarling (from the bears) and frantic flailing with fists and feet as he fought off two black bears among a group of four that attacked him as he was perched in a tree-stand bow hunting deer Saturday evening.

Fortune, who spoke to the Free Press this evening, said the fight ended in a draw, though he’s the only one that went to the hospital. He needed surgery and 40 stitches to repair a gash in his leg.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment officials described the attack, in Emmett County’s Bear Creek Township, as one of the weirdest outdoor events in memory.

They said it may have been an instance of a sow bear protecting her young. But Fortune said there was nothing childlike about any of the bears.

‘Those were full grown bears’

Fortune, a 21-year-old service adviser for a car dealership, called the Free Press today to dispute a characterization by state officials of his attackers as “a sow and three cubs.”

“They may have been related. But those were full grown bears,” Fortune said.

Fortune said he was annoyed by reports from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment that suggested the attack might have been attributed to his attendance at a family picnic earlier in the day, and the smell of fried food clinging to his clothes.

“I had different clothes on … hunting clothes. There was no smell of picnic on them,” he said. “I don’t know what happened.”

He described his evening this way:

Just before dusk, Fortune said he’d been in his tree stand at the edge of an alfalfa field and adjacent to a swamp for a relatively short time when the bears appeared “from out of nowhere.” He said he first saw two crossing in front of him from about 20 to 25 feet away. Then another pair, including the largest, appeared.

Fortune said he believes they came out of the swamp but couldn’t be sure.

At first, they appeared uninterested in him, but then picked up his scent on the trail he’d used to reach his tree stand.

Fortune said when two of the bears began to approach he shouted and yelled, which seemed to have little effect. Then, suddenly, one was clambering up the 8-inch diameter popple to which his stand was attached, just 15 feet off the ground. It was snarling. He was yelling some more.

Fortune said he didn’t have time to stand, had dropped his bow and just started flailing at the animal from a seated position, landing six to eight blows until the bear fell to the ground.

He scrambled to his feet as a second animal mounted an assault. Fortune said he was better prepared the second time and got in a good kick that precipitated the bear’s descent.

He was not attacked a third time as reported by the DNRE, Fortune said, and he didn’t know which of the four attacked.

Fortune said his triumph was tempered by the fact that two of the bears remained within sight as night fell. He kept yelling.

His cell phone was in his truck, but about two hours later his girlfriend and father, who knew the tree stand’s location, arrived. Fortune said he’s not sure, but he thinks the bears left when his backup arrived.

Sgt. Jim Gorno, of the Gaylord DNR office, said conservation officers believe Fortune, who was at a family picnic earlier Saturday, may have had the scent of fried chicken or pork on his boots or clothing, attracting the bruins.

Fortune of Walloon Lake underwent surgery at Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey and was later released.

Bears usually flee when they detect human scent, Gorno said, adding it was the weirdest case he’s seen in 24 years with the DNR.

He said the bears may have been used to humans or possibly even fed by people and lost some of their natural fear. Fortune said all four had been seen around a neighbor’s home earlier.

“Anytime you are dealing with a sow and her cubs, you have a potentially dangerous situation,” said DNRE Wildlife Chief Russ Mason.

Hunters may use a weapon to protect themselves against a bear attack, Gorno said, even though bears are not legal to hunt at this time of year. But a bow and arrow is a poor defense against a fast-moving bear.

Fortune said he isn’t sure he’ll be going back anytime soon, but if he does he plans to be more heavily armed.

via Deer hunter fights off bears in Bear Creek Township | freep.com | Detroit Free Press.

Wyoming Game & Fish and U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials are investigating the report of a bear-caused human injury west of Cody.

The report indicated that a hunter was injured early Thursday afternoon by a grizzly bear while hunting near Jim Mountain. The hunter received injuries to his right arm.

Initial information indicates the bear was shot and killed by the hunter after the attack occurred. The hunter was hunting with a partner, who was not in the immediate vicinity of the encounter.

After walking out three miles to the trailhead and driving himself to Cody, the hunter was admitted to West Park Hospital and remained in the hospital overnight for observation.

via Cody Enterprise: Home – Man allegedly kills griz after attack.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) ― The Wyoming Game and Fish Department says an elk hunter shot and killed a grizzly bear after the animal bit his arm.

The bear attack happened Thursday afternoon in the Jim Mountain area midway between Cody and Yellowstone National Park.

The man was able to hike out three miles and drive himself to the hospital in Cody where he remained overnight.

Game and Fish spokesman Dennie Hammer says the injuries weren’t severe. He says Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating and the identity of the out-of-state man isn’t being released.

At least 38 grizzly bears have died in the Yellowstone ecosystem this year. Grizzlies are protected as a threatened species and the mortality count can affect their status under the Endangered Species Act.

via NW Wyo. Hunter Kills Griz That Bit His Arm – cbs4denver.com.

SEATTLE — A man mauled by a black bear near his vacation cabin in central Washington says he felt he had to stand and fight the animal to survive the attack.

Wearing a hospital gown and bandages, Bellevue City Councilman John Chelminiak (CHEHL’-mihn-ak), 57, talked to reporters Wednesday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he has had five surgeries since the Sept. 17 mauling at Lake Wenatchee.

Chelminiak says he wouldn’t let the bear keep him on the ground and he kept forcing his way back up as the bear bit and clawed him.

“I vividly remember being bitten on the head and the sound that makes as her teeth were going into my head and running along the skull,” he said. “It was just a horrendous fight.”

He made it back to his driveway where his wife found him and their daughter called 911.

When Chelminiak was flown to the hospital in Seattle UW Medicine plastic surgeon Matthew Klein said parts of his face and scalp were hanging off. Doctors had to remove his left eye.

Wildlife agents tracked and killed the black bear a few hours after the attack. They said it was an older female, thin at 148 pounds and in poor condition.

“I do remember her hitting me in my left eye and how that felt. There was just a bright flash of light,” Chelminiak said.

Except for the loss of vision, Dr. Klein said Chelminiak should make a full recovery after two or three more surgeries. He praised Chelminiak for his spirit, will and determination to recover.

Chelminiak, his wife, Lynn Semler, and 11-year-old daughter had gone to their vacation cabin that Friday. Chelminiak says he had taken their dogs for a walk when he heard a rustle in the brush and the sound of the bear rushing him.

They wrestled for a time with the bear clawing him. During a break, he was able to reach his driveway where the bear pounced again on the dogs. He was able to pull them free and they went back to the cabin.

The bruin attacked again, and at one point, when the bear bit Chelminiak in the abdomen, he was able to deliver his best blow with a knee.

At some point the bear stopped. “I had no idea why,” Chelminiak said.

Soaked in blood he tried to move up the driveway and kept yelling, “Bear! Bear! Call 911!”

Chelminiak says he contemplated whether he would make it or not and decided to keep yelling.

His wife didn’t recognized her husband’s voice at first and thought it was a neighbor. When she went outside and found Chelminiak, “I was pretty frightened because he didn’t look like himself,” Semler said at the news conference.

Chelminiak thanked everyone who helped him, especially the medical staff at Harborview.

“With the extent of the injury, it’s a miracle I made it through,” he said.

Chelminiak was elected to the Bellevue City Council in 2003. He previously worked for both the King and Snohomish county councils and once worked as a reporter and manager at KIRO radio in Seattle.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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via The Associated Press: Wash. state bear-mauling victim describes attack.

FRENCHTOWN, Mont. – A Montana woman fended off a charging bear on her back porch early Thursday by using the first weapon she could reach — a piece of zucchini.

The woman was stirred after midnight by a tussle in the backyard of her home near Frenchtown, Missoula County Sheriff’s Lt. Rich Maricelli said. She went to investigate and found a 200-pound black bear attacking one of her two dogs, a 12-year-old collie.

The woman stood at her back door and screamed to divert the bear’s attention from the dog. She told police the bear then charged her.

“The bear growled and was very aggressive and tried to come inside of her back door,” Maricelli said. “She was able to stop the pursuing bear by improvising.”

The bear took a swipe at her with its paw and tore her jeans. The woman jumped back and grasped the nearest object on her kitchen counter inside the doorway — a 12-inch-long zucchini she had harvested earlier from her garden.

She flung the zucchini at the bear from a distance she estimated to be 3 feet. The vegetable bopped the bruin on the top of its head and the animal fled, Maricelli said.

State wildlife officials were searching for the bear on Thursday. Radio station KGVO in Missoula first reported on the attack.

The woman received only minor scratches that did not require medical attention, though she was going to get a tetanus shot on Thursday as a precaution, Maricelli said. Police did not release her name.

The woman also planned to take her collie to the veterinarian. The dog didn’t appear to have any bite wounds, but was a bit shaky on Thursday, Maricelli said.

“I don’t know if it tried to bite him, but it rolled him around a little,” he said.

via Montana woman fends off bear attack with zucchini | Standard-Examiner – Ogden, Layton, Brigham, Weber, Davis, Sports, Entertainment, Dining, Utah Jazz, Real Salt Lake, Ogden Raptors, Top of Utah News.

John Chelminiak, 57, a city council employee in Bellevue, Washington, was mauled by the black bear at the end of the driveway to his holiday home in Lake Wenatchee, Washington.

He had been out walking his dogs when the bear struck.

His wife Lynn Semler called 911 and said: “My husband has been attacked by a bear. He’s at the bottom of the driveway.”

In the background Mr Chelminiak could be heard saying he was dying.

He suffered wounds to the upper part of his body, and underwent surgery in Seattle where he is recovering.

His wife, who ran to help him, said: “I thought at first it was a black dog, and then just a couple strides down I realised it was a bear and John had been yelling bear, bear.”

The female black bear, thought to be about 10-years-old and without cubs, was killed a few hours after the attack.

via Man cried ‘I’m dying’ during black bear attack – Telegraph.

SEATTLE – The wife of a Bellevue city councilman who was mauled by a black bear near Lake Wenatchee Friday night is now talking about the attack.

John Chelminiak, 58, is recovering from puncture wounds and injuries to his head and upper body at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Chelminiak was spending the weekend with his wife at their vacation home. He was walking their dogs when he was attacked by the bear.

Chelminiak was able to yell a warning to his wife.

“I was in the house, again we were just finishing unpacking,” said Cheminiak’s wife, Lynn Semler. “I heard somebody calling out, and it didn’t sound like John.”

“I went out through the garage with my flashlight and as I opened the garage door what I thought was a large, um, dog lept in front of me,” recalled Semler.

That large dog was actually the bear.

While Semler comforted her husband, she called 911.

“I explained to them that my husband had been attacked by a bear.”

She warned her daughter to stay inside and lock the door. The bear was still just a few hundred yards away.

“It was pacing back and forth on the road. And I just kept my flashlight on that bear,” she said.

She stayed with her husband until paramedics arrived.

Agents later shot and killed the bear, which was described as old, very thin and in poor condition. They don’t know why the bear attacked Chelminiak, the bear did not have any cubs.

Chelminiak was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His father, his sister, and his wife haven’t left his side.

On Sunday Chelminiak was in serious but stable condition and is doing well. He had a special message for his wife.

“(He said) I love you. He wished me a happy anniversary this afternoon. So he remembered today was our 13th anniversary,” said Semler. “He’s made great progress. He just looks good to me. I love him!”

via Wife describes the bear attack on her husband | KING5.com | Seattle Area Local News.

A 57-year-old British Columbia man, who survived a bear attack near Port Alberni, was in good spirits on Wednesday, hospital officials said.

Jay Vinden was saved when his 47-year-old friend fought off the attack at a secluded campsite near Sproat Lake on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

“He has got some puncture wounds to his back and his side and his knee and he will be having some plastic surgery to his scalp,” said Anya Nimmon, spokeswoman for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. “But otherwise his spirits are high and he’s in stable condition.”

RCMP Sgt. Kevin Murray said the two men were camping in an area known as Taylor Flats at the west end of Sproat Lake.

“The bear initially attacked the 57-year-old male who was sleeping in a lean-to type shelter,” said Murray. “His 47-year-old friend, sleeping nearby in a tent, was alerted to the attack and was able to fight off the bear.”

Both men, from the Victoria-area community of Sooke, suffered extensive claw wounds in the attack.

Murray said both men had been camping in the area for a number of days and had encountered the 68-kilogram bear around their camp on the first day.

RCMP and B.C. conservation officers are attempting to find the bear to determine if there is any reason it might attack again.

“Police and conservation want to remind people visiting the back country to be extra vigilant in protecting themselves and their camp from wildlife encounters,” said Murray.

via Camper recovering after B.C. bear attack.

COLUMBIA STATION, Ohio — The Cuyahoga County coroner’s office determined that a Lorain County man killed in a bear attack died of multiple wounds.

Spokesman Powell Caesar said today there were no surprises in the autopsy of Brent Kandra.

He said the man suffered numerous sharp wounds and blunt injuries, “what would be expected in a bear attack.”

The black bear that mauled Kandra has been euthanized.

Sam Mazzola, the owner of the bear, had said he would leave the bear’s fate up to the Kandra family; they opted to have the animal killed.

Brent Kandra, 24, had played and worked with Mazzola’s animals about six years.

One of Mazzola’s nine bears attacked Kandra Thursday evening when Kandra was feeding it.

Black bears are considered indigenous to Ohio, but there are nearly as many of them in private ownership as in the wild. State officials Friday said there are 24 black bears registered to private owners in Northeast Ohio — nine of them belonging to Mazzola — and 20 more in other regions of the state.

State officials estimate Ohio’s wild black bear population numbers between 60 and 80. Most live in the southeastern part of the state where it’s less populated and more forested.

via Man killed by bear suffered multiple wounds | cleveland.com.

John Chelminiak, the Bellevue City Council member mauled Sept. 17 by a black bear, has lost an eye as a result of the attack. However, he is making progress recovering from his injuries, city of Bellevue officials said in a release Thursday.

John Chelminiak

Lost eye after a bear attacked him Sept. 17

Chelminiak was walking his dogs outside his family’s vacation home at Lake Wenatchee when the bear attacked. His wife, Lynn Semler, scared the bear away and called 911.

The damage to his left eye was so severe that it had to be removed, but he is recovering sight in his right eye and he has been able to read, officials said. He is expected to regain his sight for all normal activities, including reading, writing and activities like skiing.

Chelminiak is walking around his hospital room at Harborview Medical Center and talking with his family. His doctors are monitoring his progress and he is likely to undergo further surgeries, the city said.

Chelminiak had ophthalmology surgery Sept. 24, and on Monday had surgery for major wounds on the left side of his body. On Wednesday, Chelminiak met with state Department of Fish and Wildlife agent Rich Beausoleil, who tracked down the bear that attacked him. The 10-year-old female bear was shot and killed by agents about three hours after the attack.

Chelminiak posted an update on his Facebook page Thursday that said, “Just a quick update on my progress. Felling (sic) very good this afternoon. My dad and I took a walk outside late this morning. If he had brought the clubs we might have snuck away for a quick nine holes.”

Fellow Bellevue council member Grant Degginger said Chelminiak has come a long way in a short period of time.

“He sounds really good,” Degginger said. “He is not missing a beat, listening to the (council) meetings and wondering what the heck’s going on.”

via Bear attack costs victim his left eye | Local news, sports, weather, blogs, opinion, crime, obituaries, business, directory, marketplace, education, high school, family, shopping, arts, entertainment, movies, books, cooking, auto, real estate, jobs, classifieds, photos, videos, comics, contests, and mountain pass webcams from Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Chelan, Leavenworth, Waterville, Cashmere, Quincy, Entiat, North Central Washington newspaper.

BILLILNGS, Mt — An investigation into a grizzly bear attack on three campers outside Yellowstone National Park last month reveals the bear was in bad health and was struggling to feed herself and her three cubs.

According to a report compiled by several wildlife agencies, 10- to 15-year-old female grizzly was ridden with parasites.

However, according to experts, this alone does not explain why the bear attacked the campers.

Investigators determined that the adult female grizzly consumed an exclusive plant-based diet in the past two years.

An analysis also showed that she had not consumed human-related foods, like garbage or pet food, and that she was not conditioned to human food. Investigators also determined that the adult female grizzly did not have rabies.

Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was killed and two people were hospitalized when the female grizzly attacked them through their tents on the night of July 28.

The bear was captured the day after the attacks at the Soda Butte Campground near Cooke City and later euthanized.

The three yearlings are being cared for at Zoo Montana in Billings.

via Grizzly Bear Attack: Report, Bear Was Sick And Malnourished – ktla.com.

(CBS)  An Arctic explorer survived a polar bear attack.

Sebastian Nilssen, of Norway, says he woke up with his head in the bear’s mouth last week.

Ht told the website Asylum.com, “I grabbed for my shotgun and tried to shoot it but the polar bear had snapped the gun in half. It must have been only a minute I was in his jaws, but it felt like forever.”

As the bear stood up with him in its mouth, a friend shot the bear dead.

Nilssen says he’s not angry at the bear — because it was probably very hungry.

Asylum says, “Nilssen was airlifted to the hospital and underwent three hours of emergency surgery to repair a pierced lung and stem the flow of blood from bite marks on his neck, which were inches from a vital artery. ”

via Man Wakes Up with Head in Polar Bear’s Mouth – The Early Show – CBS News.

The pain is unbearable. He does not much feel like talking, but Darian Baehler knows he is lucky to have his left foot. A rattlesnake bit his leg not once, but twice. He has had two surgeries, so far, to relieve pressure from the swelling. He was moved from intensive care to intermediate care at University Medical Center Brackenridge Tuesday afternoon.

Darian’s father, Todd Baehler, said, “It’s just unbelievable. I could not believe a snake bite could do this much damage. He’s going to be in the hospital another week or so. He’s going to have physical therapy, he’s going to have plastic surgery, he’s going to have a lot of problems.”

It happened Friday, when Baehler and a group of kids were headed home down a wooded path near Southwest Regional Park in Williamson County. His sister Nicole says it got dark all of the sudden. One of their friends unknowingly stepped over a rattlesnake. Soon they all knew.

“It was really loud,” Nicole Baehler said. “Like, you know, like moraccas or whatever, that’s what it sounded like.

Game warden Turk Jones says dusk and dark in the summer are prime time for snakes.

“They’re gonna be out in the evening, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, the time those kids were walking through here,” Jones said.

Six-year-old Carson Perreault was also in the group. “I wouldn’t have survived it,” Perrault said

Doctors agree, which strikes a chord with Todd Baehler.

“That was scary to me because people walk their dogs back there. People ride their bikes back there,” Baehler said.

Doctors at UMC Brackenridge say they see 40-50 snake bites a year, mostly during the summer months. They say rattlesnake anti-venom runs about $2,000 a vial. Baehler had to have 33 vials. Doctors say that the anti-venom can mean the difference between keeping and losing a limb, and in some cases, life and death. That is why they say anyone who is the victim of a snake bite, no matter how minor, should seek emergency medical treatment.

via Teenager fighting to keep his foot after rattlesnake bites | kvue.com | KVUE News | Austin, TX | Breaking News.

BILLINGS, Mont. — Wildlife officials say a grizzly bear that preyed on campers outside Yellowstone National Park weighed less than average but was in an area with ample food supplies and did not appear to be starving.

Montana officials said Monday that a necropsy has been completed on the female grizzly. The results still are being analyzed.

One person was killed and two were injured during separate attacks by the bear Wednesday at the Soda Butte Campground.

Female grizzlies on average weigh 300 to 400 pounds, but the attacking bear weighed 221 pounds. Her three cubs also were underweight.

Grizzly expert Chris Servheen with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the weight of the bears does not explain the attacks by itself, and the investigation is continuing.

via The Associated Press: Grizzly in triple mauling was light, not starving.

BILLINGS, Mont. — Three grizzly bear cubs whose mother killed one person and mauled two others in a late-night attack at a Montana campground were malnourished and still in their winter coats.

This image provided by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department on Friday July 30, 2010, shows a captured grizzly sow believed to be responsible for the mauling death of one camper and injuring two others near Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The fate of the bear will be determined after DNA tests confirm whether it was responsible for the attacks. (AP Photo/Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department)

Deb Freele, 58, of London, Ontario, Canada recovers at West Park Hospital in Cody, Wyo. on Thursday, July 29, 2010. Freele was attacked by a bear at Soda Butte Campground near Cooke City, Mont., early Wednesday morning. Freele and her husband, Bill, had spent nearly the previous two weeks camping before the incident. (AP Photo/Cody Enterprise, Scott Salisbury) MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PAPER AND PHOTOGRAPHER

This image provided by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department on Friday July 30, 2010, shows a captured grizzly sow believed to be responsible for the mauling death of one camper and injuring two others near Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The fate of the bear will be determined after DNA tests confirm whether it was responsible for the attacks. (AP Photo/Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department)

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The cubs have arrived at their new home at ZooMontana in Billings. Zoo executive director Jackie Worstell said Sunday the two female cubs and one male cub were underweight, possibly explaining their mother’s unusually aggressive behavior.

“It may be an indication of what happened,” Worstell said. “There’s obvious signs of stress and malnourishment. Maybe (the sow) was desperate.”

The year-old cubs each weighed only between 60 and 70 pounds, versus a normal range of 80 to 130 pounds. Wildlife officials are investigating what caused the cubs to be malnourished. Grizzlies are omnivores and eat everything from berries and ants to fish and elk.

Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was killed and two people were seriously injured when the adult bear ripped into several tents Wednesday at the Soda Creek Campground near Cooke City, an old mining town just outside Yellowstone National Park.

The 300- to 400-pound sow was euthanized Friday after DNA tests linked it to the attacks. Wildlife officials have said she appeared to be healthy, but they intend to further study the body in hopes of explaining her behavior.

Worstell said the cubs will remain in quarantine for at least 30 days to make sure they are disease-free.

The zoo has one other grizzly, a year-old male obtained from Yellowstone National Park that had been seeking food from park visitors. The zoo also has a 10-year-old Eurasian brown bear.

The three cubs aren’t expected to be available for public viewing until fall.

Wildlife officials say the cubs likely participated in the attack on Kammer, and so cannot be released back into the wild having probably learned from their mother’s behavior.

via Grizzly cubs from deadly mauling were malnourished  | ajc.com.

Sebastian Plur Nilssen was attacked last week as he slept in a two-man tent with Ludvig Fjeld on the arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

The pair were in the middle of their two-month-long bid to become the first team ever to paddle 1,250 miles around the island chain, which constitutes the northernmost part of Norway.

Despite protecting their tent with a trip-wire hooked to a early warning flare, Mr Nilssen woke face-to-face with the biggest land predator on Earth.

The 23-year-old was dragged screaming from the tent, with his head clamped in the animal’s jaws.

The adult male bear flung the young explorer’s body like a rag doll from side to side in an attempt to stun him, a technique typically used on its usual prey of seals.

The polar bear’s teeth pierced Mr Nilssen’s lung as it fought for a better grip and narrowly missed a main artery in the young Norwegian’s neck.

“It was so strong I could not fight, I grabbed for my shotgun and tried to shoot it but [the polar bear] had snapped [the gun] in half.

“It must have been only a minute I was in his jaws but it felt like forever,” Mr Nilssen said.

“It was a big bear, at one point it stood up on its back legs with me in its mouth, I was 2.5 metres off the ground and it seemed very high.”

As the bear made off with Mr Nilssen, his 22-year-old expedition partner scrambled to find their other rifle, which had been covered with sand on the beach campsite.

“I was about 20 or 25 metres [22 to 27 yards] from the bear and it had Sebastian in its mouth, I was very worried I did not want to hit Sebastian as well,” said Mr Fjeld. “That would have been a really bad day for him.

“When I fired the first shot, the bear dropped him, but I had to fire four more to make sure it was dead.

Mr Nilssen was airlifted from the scene, bleeding heavily, and was rushed into an emergency three-hour operation.

But despite his brush with death, Mr Nilssen said he was not angry at the bear, speculating that it carried out its unusual attack on humans because it was hungry.

“I must be one of the only people in the world who can say when people ask me about my scars, ‘I got them in a fight with a polar bear’,” he said.

Polar bears are protected under strict conservation laws and can only be shot in self defence.

via Norwegian kayaker escapes from jaws of polar bear when partner shoots animal dead – Telegraph.

A week after a rampaging grizzly mauled a Michigan man to death and injured two other campers near Yellowstone National Park – and amid news that a black bear has been euthanized in another part of the park – officials are investigating allegations that a photographer had been baiting wildlife with food.

Forty-eight-year-old Kevin Kammer of Grand Rapids, Mich., was killed, and two other people — Deb Freele from London, Ontario, and Ronald Singer of Alamosa, Colo. — were injured in last Wednesday’s attacks at the Soda Butte Campground near Cooke City, Mont. The female grizzly was euthanized, and her three cubs were moved to a zoo in Billings.

According to TV station KTVQ in Billings, a viewer said the host of a campground near Cooke City raised concerns that someone may have been baiting bears two weeks earlier. At the same time, says KTVQ, similar information was posted on an unofficial Yellowstone National Park Facebook page. A spokesman for Montana’s Fish Wildlife & Parks department told the station his agency is investigating.

“The key here is that these are just allegations,” notes the Yellowstone Insider. ” Baiting animals for the purpose of close-up photography and videography is a serious matter; it’s illegal and is usually bad news for the animal, who becomes accustomed to human food and handouts. When the handouts end, the animals are left to figure out why – and that’s when bad things happen. The baiting would explain why the bear kept coming back to Soda Butte Campground, seven miles outside the northeast entrance to Yellowstone, even after the killing.”

Tuesday, reports the Billings Gazette, an aggressive black bear habituated to human food was euthanized in Yellowstone. The adult female had frequented a campsite in the Slough Creek region in the north-central portion of the park, which is popular with anglers, horseback riders and hikers. Since the bear had learned to associate people with food, rangers determined it posed a threat to the safety of park visitors.

Meanwhile, reader Steve Gager passed along a good backcountry safety video from the Yellowstone Park Foundation. It emphasizes that although attacks like last week’s are extremely rare – most hikers, it notes, will never even see a bear – “the park is home to both black and grizzly bears, who provide a crucial part of a healthy ecosytem as both predator and scavenger.”

via Did photographer bait grizzly in Yellowstone attack? – USATODAY.com.

(AP)  COOKE CITY, Mont. (AP) – The fourth grizzly bear believed involved in a triple mauling at a Montana campground has been captured, with DNA tests due Friday that could confirm the family of grizzlies killed a Michigan man and injured two other people.

A sow and two of her three cubs had been trapped by Thursday, with a year-old cub found in a trap early Friday. The bears – crying and scratching at the steel sides of traps – were taken from the Soda Butte campground in a three-truck convoy.

Their departure brought relief among residents and visitors in Cooke City, an old mining town just outside Yellowstone National Park that was jolted by the Wednesday attacks on three people as they slept in separate tents.

“They captured them? All of them?” asked Linda Olson. The 60-year-old nurse from Minnesota let out a sigh when she learned the answer was yes.

The cubs will likely go to a zoo, said Chris Servheen, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator. The sow will have to be killed so officials cand conduct an autopsy to determine if any physical ailments or conditions caused her to attack the campers.

Officials said they won’t decide the fate of the bears until they see the results of DNA tests.

Authorities said the bear family, under the tutelage of the mother, specifically targeted campers – a sharp departure from the usual behavior of grizzlies attacking only when threatened or surprised.

Evidence indicated all three cubs likely participated in what Warden Capt. Sam Sheppard called a sustained attack on Kevin Kammer of Grand Rapids, Mich. He was pulled from his tent and dragged 25 feet. At least one of the bears fed on his body.

Despite the unusual nature of the attacks, there also was a realization in Cooke City that bear run-ins would continue. Three million tourists a year visit the remote and wild Yellowstone region of Montana and Wyoming, which has an estimated 600 grizzlies.

“It’s a great spot, but you have to realize we’re in their home. We’re part of the food chain,” Pat Froelich, 75, said as she watched the trucks haul the grizzlies from town as she ate breakfast at the Bear Claw Bakery.

Fibers from a tent or sleeping bag were in the droppings of the captured bears, and a tooth fragment found in a tent appears to match a chipped tooth on the sow that weighs more than 300 pounds.

“Everything points to it being the offending bear,” said Ron Aasheim, a spokesman for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The two other victims, Deb Freele of London, Ontario, and Ronald Singer of Alamosa, Colo., were initially hospitalized in Cody, Wyo. Singer, 21, was treated and released. Freele was scheduled to have surgery Friday for bite wounds and a broken bone in her arm, her husband Bill Freele said.

He expected her to be released from the hospital sometime this weekend.

Freele said his wife had wanted to carry on with their trip but reconsidered after having nightmares about the attack.

“Right now, she just wants to see the kids,” he said.

Deb Freele is a native of Michigan and knew Kammer but did not realize he was in the same campground or that he was the victim until she saw his picture with a story about the maulings, her husband said.

Bill Freele was in Cooke City on Friday retrieving the couple’s camping equipment. He believes the mother bear should be killed “because it tasted humans.”

He was fine with placing the cubs in a zoo. “Just don’t tell me where it is,” he added.

Messages left Thursday for Kammer’s mother-in-law and brother-in-law in Michigan were not returned.

Singer and his mother Luron Singer did not immediately return e-mail messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Luron Singer told The Denver Post that her son, a former high school wrestler, had been camping with his girlfriend.

He started punching the bear when he felt it biting his leg, she said. His girlfriend screamed, and the bear ran away.

“He is doing fine,” Luron Singer told the newspaper. “He went fishing today.”

Freele said she couldn’t understand why the bear attacked her, because she posed no threat.

“If it was something that I had done – if I had walked into a female with cubs, and startled her, and she attacked me – I can understand that,” she said. “She was hunting us, with the intention of killing us and eating us.”

All the victims did the right thing, and there was no telling why the bear picked out those three tents, Sheppard said.

via 4th Bear Caught After Deadly MT Campground Attack – CBS News.

Reporting from Cooke City, Mont. — A mother grizzly and two of her three cubs have been captured after a bear killed a Michigan man and injured two other people during an overnight rampage in a campground near Yellowstone National Park.

The sow, estimated to weigh 300 to 400 pounds, was lured Wednesday evening into a trap fashioned from culvert pipe covered by the dead victim’s tent. The bear tore down the tent and was caught in the trap, said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim.

By Thursday morning, two of the year-old bears had been caught and the third could be heard nearby, calling out to its mother.

Montana wildlife officials on Thursday identified the man killed in the mauling as Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich. The bear pulled Kammer out his tent and dragged him 25 feet to where his body was found, Aasheim said.

The other victims, Deb Freele of Ontario, Canada, and an unidentified man, have been hospitalized in Cody, Wyo.

Parks warden Capt. Sam Sheppard described the rampage — in which campers in three different tents were mauled as they slept — as highly unusual.

“She basically targeted the three people and went after them,” Sheppard said. “It wasn’t like an archery hunter who gets between a sow and her cubs and she responds to protect them.”

Freele said Thursday that she was bitten on her arm and leg before she instinctively played dead so the animal would leave her alone.

Appearing on network morning shows from a Wyoming hospital, Freele said she woke up just before the bear bit her arm.

“I screamed, he bit harder. I screamed harder, he continued to bite,” she said, adding that she could hear her bones breaking. “I told myself, play dead,” she said. “I went totally limp. As soon as I went limp, I could feel his jaws get loose and then he let me go.”

Freele said the bear was silent.

“This, to me, was just an absolutely freaky thing,” she said. “I have to believe that the bear was not normal. It was very quiet; it never made any noise. I felt like it was hunting me.”

The male survivor suffered puncture wounds on his calf.

The bear attack was the most brazen in the Yellowstone area since the 1980s, wildlife officials said.

via Grizzlies captured after fatal attack near Yellowstone National Park – latimes.com.

COOKE CITY, Mont. — A woman who was attacked by a bear at a Montana campground says she was bit on her arm and leg before she instinctively played dead so the animal would leave her alone.

At least one bear rampaged through a heavily occupied campground Wednesday near Yellowstone National Park in the middle of the night, killing one man and injuring Deb Freele of Ontario and another man.

Freele said on Thursday’s network morning talk shows that she wants to thank the people in the next campground who helped rescue her after the bear left the area.

Freele is a frequent camper who says she’s ready to go camping again despite the trauma.

Wildlife officials were trying to capture the bear late Wednesday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

COOKE CITY, Mont. (AP) — When he heard the first scream in a campground outside Yellowstone National Park, Don Wilhelm thought it was just teenagers, maybe a domestic dispute in the middlle of the night.

The wildlife biologist from Texas tried to go back to sleep, stifling thoughts that a beast might be lurking outside his family’s tent.

Minutes later, another scream — this one coming from the next campsite over, where a bear had torn through a tent and sunk its teeth into the arm of the middle-aged Canadian woman inside.

“First she said, “No!’ Then we heard her say, ‘It’s a bear! I’ve been attacked by a bear!” said Wilhelm’s wife, Paige.

By that point, the bear already had ripped into another tent a few campsites away, chomping into the leg of a teenager who had been sleeping with his family. Wilhelm later would find out that a solo camper at the other end of the heavily occupied Soda Butte Campground had been killed in a rampage Wednesday that one wildlife officials described as the most brazen bear attack in the Yellowstone area since the 1980s.

But in the pitch-black wilderness, the Wilhelms had only sounds to go on: The yells from the teenager and his sister, the Canadian woman’s screaming of “No!” as she was attacked, the snorting and huffing noises from the bear as it sniffed around thickly forested campground.

And then, finally, quiet.

After a quick parental back-and-forth over whether to shield their 9- and 12-year-old sons with their bodies or make a break for it, the Wilhelms took advantage of the silence and darted to their SUV.

They drove around the campground, honking their horns and yelling out the windows to alert other campers. Along the way, the met with a truck leaving the campground with the second victim — a teenager who apparently tried in vain to fight off the bear by punching it in the nose.

“It was like a nightmare, couldn’t possibly happen,” Paige Wilhelm said later. Added Don Wilhelm: “Words cannot describe what it’s like to hear someone attacked by a bear.”

Wildlife officials still were attempting to capture the bear — or bears — late Wednesday evening, with five baited traps set up at the scene of the maulings.

Two were set in the campsite used by the dead victim. From the roadside, a large tear could be seen in the side of his small brown tent, which was left up.

The campground, also the site of the historic Cooke City cemetery, was closed.

“We don’t know if it was one bear, two bears, a black bear or grizzly bear,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said. “Obviously, the bear’s gone now. Will it come back tonight? That’s the question.”

Authorities were collecting bear hair and saliva and measuring the bite wounds of victims to determine the type and number of bears involved.

If a bear is caught and tied to the attack by DNA or other evidence, it will be killed.

Names and ages of the victims had not been released.

The woman identified by the Wilhelms as Canadian suffered severe lacerations and crushed bones from bites on her arms. The male survivor suffered puncture wounds on his calf.

The nature of the dead victim’s wounds were not revealed.

Both survivors initially were taken to the Super 8 Motel in nearby Cooke City — a tourist town just outside Yellowstone — and later via ambulance to a hospital in Cody, Wyo.

The same campground was the site of a 2008 attack in which a grizzly bear bit and injured a man sleeping in a tent. A young adult female grizzly was captured in a trap four days later and transported to a bear research center at Washington State University in Pullman.

The latest attack left residents and visitors to this national park satellite community on edge. Many people were carrying bear spray — a pepper-based deterrent more commonly seen in Yellowstone’s backcountry than on the streets of Cooke City.

“The suspicion among a lot of the residents is that the bear they caught (in 2008) was not the right one,” said Gary Vincelette, who has a cabin in nearby Silver Gate.

Last year, another grizzly broke into three cabins in the nearby community of Silver Gate, said Vincelette. That bear was shot and killed by a Silver Gate resident when it returned to the area.

“Three attacks in three years — we haven’t ever had anything like that and I’ve been coming up here since I was a kid,” Vincelette said.

About 600 grizzly bears and hundreds of less-aggressive black bears live in the Yellowstone area.

The region is pasted with hundreds of signs warning visitors to keep food out of the bruins’ reach. Experts say that bears who eat human food quickly become habituated to people, increasing the danger of an attack.

Yet in the case of the Soda Butte Campground attack, all the victims had put their food into metal food canisters installed at campsite, Fish, Wildlife and Parks Warden Capt. Sam Sheppard said.

“They were doing things right,” Sheppard said. “It was random. I have no idea why this bear picked these three tents out of all the tents there.”

Wildlife officials were inspecting the campground to determine what happened.

Park County dispatchers took a 911 call early Wednesday from a male reporting that a bear had bitten his ankle and was tearing up tents, Aasheim said. Dispatchers got two more calls, including one from a man who said a bear bit the leg of his daughter’s boyfriend.

At 3:50 a.m., park officials went through the campground to advise campers to get into their cars. A half-hour later, the dead male was discovered at a campsite. Authorities evacuated the campground, sending campers to nearby hotels.

The 10-acre Soda Butte campground has 27 sites and is located in Gallatin National Forest, just off the mountainous Beartooth Highway about 125 miles southwest of Billings.

Sparsely populated and hemmed in by the Beartooth and Absaroka mountains, the Yellowstone wilderness surrounding Cooke City is home to numerous bears. A creek that passes through the Soda Butte Campground is frequently used as a travel corridor by area wildlife, Sheppard said.

The campground, which is run by the U.S. Forest Service, was one of three closed Wednesday while the attacking bear or bears remained at large. Forest Service officials said they would consider closing more campgrounds after consulting with state wildlife officials leading the investigation.

via The Associated Press: Survivor of Mont. bear attack says she played dead.

Additional information is being released in connection with a fatal bear attack which happened near Yellowstone Park on Wednesday morning.

State wildlife officials say that two people were injured and one person was killed in separate bear attacks that occurred at the Soda Butte Campground.

Park County Sheriff’s Department dispatch records show that a Park County Sheriff’s deputy and a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game warden were dispatched to the area at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and Investigators found a man dead at the campground about two hours later.

Two other people, a male and a female, were reportedly bitten and later treated at a hospital in Cody, Wyoming. The identities of the victims have not been released.

FWP officials, in cooperation with the Gallatin National Forest, the National Park Service and the Park County Sherriff’s Office spent much of the day at the site collecting forensic evidence of the attacks.

Officials from the agencies plan to hold a community meeting at the Cooke City Chamber of Commerce on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the incident.

“The camp sites are being combed for evidence,” said FWP spokesman Ron Aasheim “We’re not certain if it was one bear or more than one, and we haven’t determined if it was a grizzly or black bear. We’ve extracted DNA samples from evidence found on site. This will help us identify the bear or bears involved, once captured.”

Officials say that tents were ripped or damaged during the attacks but no food was found in the tent of the dead man or in the tents of the two injured victims. “Everyone appeared to have followed all food storage regulations,” Aasheim said.

The Soda Butte Campground, the nearby Chief Joseph and Colter campgrounds, also in the Gallatin National Forest, are closed.

“This is not typical bear behavior. It’s odd. It’s not normal,” Aasheim said.

FWP officials have set a number of traps in anticipation of the animal’s return on Wednesday night.

via KPAX – Missoula, Montana – News, Weather, Sports – - KPAX Home Missoula News, Missoula Weather, Missoula Sports, Montana News, Montana Weather, Montana Sports | Separate bear attacks blamed for fatality, injuries.

Authorities continue piecing together details about an overnight bear attack near Cooke City that killed one person and injured two others.

MT FWP officials say that it appears the victims were attacked separately and were not camped in the same location of the Soda Butte Campground.

The attacks are believed to have occurred sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m., and authorities believe that only one bear is responsible for the attacks.

Aasheim says the man who died had been dragged from his tent and was found at the western edge of the campground.

A woman suffered severe lacerations from bites on her arms, while another man was bitten on his calf. Both are being treated for their injures at a Cody, Wyoming hospital. Their injuries are not life threatening. Officials say the man was able to drive himself to Cody, while the woman was transported by ambulance.

Authorities have not yet released the names of the people involved.

Wildlife officials are investigating a deadly bear attack in the Cooke City area that left one man dead and two people injured.

The incident happened at the Soda Butte Campground late Tuesday night or into early Wednesday morning.

The name of the man who was killed has not yet been released.

Ron Aasheim of MT Fish, Wildlife & Parks says that another man was bitten on the leg and taken to a hospital in Cody, Wyoming, and a woman suffered injuries to her arms. Their conditions are not yet known.

FWP spokeswoman Andrea Jones has confirmed one attack and says there might have been multiple attacks; FWP officials and the Park County Sheriff’s Office are at the site of the attack and investigating what happened.

A Cooke City resident who chose to remain anonymous informed Montana’s News Station early Wednesday morning that there were two separate attacks, both causing severe injuries.  The source says there may have been a third attack.

We will have more information as it becomes available.

via KXLH | Helena, Montana – News, Weather, Sports | UPDATED: Bear attack kills one, injures two at Cooke City campground.

Two men camping in the woods at the west end of Sproat Lake near Port Alberni have suffered extensive wounds after being attacked by a bear, Port Alberni RCMP said Wednesday.

A 57-year-old man sleeping in a lean-to shelter was attacked first, and his 47-year-old friend sleeping in a tent nearby was able to fight off the bear, police said in a press release.

The older man sustained injury to his skull and has been transported to Nanaimo for surgery, while both men received extensive claw mark wounds in the attack, police said. It is unknown what, if anything, provoked the attack, police said.

“Police and conservation want to remind people visiting the back country to be extra vigilant in protecting themselves and their camp from wildlife encounters,” said Sgt. Kevin Murray of the Port Alberni RCMP in the release.

via Bear attacks men on Vancouver Island.

Depending on where you are in the Rockies this year, the annual summer bear season could mean black-bear sightings in your front yard or a near-death experience while looking through the jaws of a hungry bear.

Already, the list of bear attacks across the Rockies this summer is beginning to mount.

On Saturday morning, a bear attacked a homeless man sleeping in Durango near the Animas River. The man survived, but the bear didn’t after Colorado Division of Wildlife officials turned their guns on it after the attack. A necropsy of the bear’s carcass was completed at CSU.

Last Thursday, a bear broke into a home in Bailey, southwest of Denver, biting a man.

Other bears have been sighted plundering porches and backyards in Livermore and Rist Canyon.

In the past month, bears have turned outright hostile in New Mexico, where they’ve developed an affinity for tents and a taste for the people sleeping in them.

“They’re coming down and acting kind of aggressive right now,” said Dan Williams, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

New Mexico wildlife officials killed a bear at the end of June after it jumped on a tent and took a swipe at the man sleeping in it at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, a 137,000-acre camping and backpacking ranch just south of the Colorado state line west of Raton.

There were two more incidents there: The same day, another bear was found with a goat in its mouth, and a Philmont staffer killed it. On Wednesday, a bear bit a 14-year-old Boy Scout through his tent, leaving a deep gash in his head.

“It kind of peeled back the scalp there,” Williams said.

Both campers who were attacked were carefully following strict bear-safety protocols in place at Philmont, he said.

Those incidents followed another in June when a bear swatted a man tent-camping in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque.

But all the ursine nastiness in some parts of the West doesn’t mean there’s anything unusual going on this year, particularly in Colorado and Wyoming.

Bear activity is quite normal throughout Colorado, DOW spokesman Tyler Baskfield said.

The bears’ habitat is normal and healthy, he said, and there is no sign of increased bear sightings or attacks in any localized area, he said.

“We haven’t noticed anything that is different than we’ve seen in years when there’s decent, natural food,” said Ken Wilson, a professor of wildlife and conservation biology at Colorado State University.

“A bear has been into some trash cans in Rist Canyon,” he said. “One bear can decide it’s going to get into something, (but) it’s not all of them.”

Few bears have been seen at all in southern Wyoming, where wildlife officials consider black-bear habitat and natural food supply excellent, said Al Langston, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.

In New Mexico, dry weather hurt the bears’ food supply and dried out the forbs and grass that usually get black bears through the spring.

The lack of food there is so dire that this year’s number of bear attacks hasn’t been seen in New Mexico for almost a decade, Williams said.

There are plenty of things homeowners and backcountry adventurers can do to keep bears away.

For people camping in the mountains, store food in bear-resistant containers away from your sleeping area, Wilson said.

The best way to keep plundering bears away from homes is to keep birdseed, trash and other potential food sources inside where bears can’t have easy access to them, Baskfield said.

“There’s no reason to feed birds this time of year” because natural bird food is plentiful, he said.

And, he warned city dwellers, just because you might live in Fort Collins doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your home bear resistant.

“We get bears who wander into Fort Collins on a regular basis,” he said.

via List of bear attacks this summer grows | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan.

By the luck of the draw, or rather the lack thereof, a fisherman survived an attack by a grizzly bear last weekend.

Conditions conspired against two brothers out fishing as they hiked along the south fork of Fish Creek near Union Pass last Saturday, said Mark Gocke, Wyoming Game and Fish spokesman. For one, they were hiking up-wind, so their scent was trailing behind them. When they saw bear tracks on the trail, the men started making noise to alert any bears that might be around.  But the sound of the rushing river drowned their noise, and all of sudden there was a startled grizzly in the middle of the trail.

“It was a classic surprise [bear] encounter,” Gocke said.

The bear charged one of the men, who tried to pull a can of bear spray from his pants, but everything happened so quickly he was unable to use it. The bear knocked him down and bit him on the inside of the thigh. The bear also bit into the can of bear spray, which started spraying and scared the animal off. The man escaped the encounter with a couple of puncture wounds on his leg. He was treated and released from the Dubois Clinic the same day.

Gocke noted that reports of bear activity appear to be proliferating in southeastern Bridger-Teton National Forest and into Shoshone National Forest. Bears have been troubling livestock and getting into trash in the area. A troublesome bear was removed from Yellowstone National Park and sent to a zoo last week after rummaging through some tents and gnawing on a generator.

Meanwhile, the bears seem to be steering clear of Jackson, according to Gocke. He said that there were a number of bear sightings in and around town a month ago, but since then they’ve been absent. Gocke attributes the bears’ absence to the use of bear-resistant garbage bins and other bear deterrent efforts.

via Planet News Article, Jackson Hole Wy | Fisherman escapes grizz attack | 7/14/2010.

DURANGO, Colo. – Colorado Division of Wildlife officers shot and killed a bear early Saturday morning that bit a man near the Animas River in Durango.

The victim said he was sleeping outside when he was bitten by a bear through his blanket at about 2:30 a.m.

He received a minor wound during the attack and was able to escape the bear by entering into a nearby building.

Officers from the DOW and the U.S. Department of Agriculture responded immediately with tracking dogs, which led officers directly to a male bear approximately three blocks from where the incident took place.

DOW officers shot and killed the animal.

The bear carcass was identified by several people who witnessed the incident as the bear that bit the man.

“A bear that bites a person – or loses its fear of people may be a serious threat to public safety,” said Patt Dorsey, area wildlife manager for the DOW in Durango.

“In the interest of public safety, we chose to remove this animal as quickly as possible.”

The carcass of the bear underwent a necropsy at Colorado State University. The stomach contents of the bear showed that the bear was using human-provided food sources.

A package of hamburger and an ice cream-container were found in the bear’s stomach.

People living in or visiting bear country are urged to eliminate access to all food sources.

The DOW says most bears sighted in residential areas within bear habitat do not cause damage. If a bear does not find food, it usually moves on.

via Bear that bit man sleeping outside killed – KDVR.

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) ― Wildlife agents shot and killed a bear Saturday that bit a Durango man as he slept in his backyard.

Authorities say the man wasn’t seriously hurt and fled from the animal by going indoors.

But Colorado Division of Wildlife responded to the attack and tracking dogs led them to the bear that was only about 300 yards away.

DOW wildlife manager Patt Dorsey says the agents then shot and killed the animal.

Dorsey says bears that attack people or lose their fear of them are a serious threat to public safety.

via Wildlife Officers Kill Bear That Bit Durango Man – cbs4denver.com.

A 51-year-old Bailey man suffered bite wounds from a bear inside his home early Thursday morning.

The man discovered the bear in his basement and approached it in hopes of getting the animal to leave. The 320-pound, male bear was later shot and killed.

According to wildlife officers, the family heard sounds in their kitchen shortly after midnight on Thursday morning and quickly determined that a bear had entered the home. The man attempted to monitor the bear’s whereabouts and was bitten as the bear tried to get past him.

A Division of Wildlife officer, responding alongside deputies from the Park County Sheriff’s Office, located the bear outside the home and killed it.

“The instructions we give our wildlife officers are clear: Public safety is our first priority,” said Reid DeWalt, area wildlife manager. “Bears that enter homes are a threat to public safety. When we’re dealing with aggressive or habituated wildlife, people come first.”

The victim was taken to Swedish Medical Center in Littleton and released Thursday morning.

Most conflicts between people and bears involve some sort of food source. In this case, wildlife officers said there was an open door to a garage containing accessible trash and a refrigerator. In addition, officers reported that the door from the garage into the home appeared not to be latching correctly. Bears can smell food from miles away, be it birdseed, pet food, a greasy grill grate or accessible refuse. Bears that become habituated to people will seek out such food sources.

Most bears sighted in residential areas within bear habitat do not cause any damage. If a bear doesn’t find abundant food, it will move on. In most cases, bears avoid confrontations with people.

Aggressive bear attacks are rare, but encounters like the one in Bailey have increased as Colorado’s population grows. The bear population has not increased, but the number of people living, working and recreating in bear country has.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife recommends the following measures to avoid harmful wildlife interactions:

• If a wild animal enters your home, leave and call for help. Animals that feel cornered or threatened are a danger to humans and pets.

• Make your property safe by keeping garbage out of reach and smell of bears. Use bear-proof trash containers. Be sure garbage cans are emptied regularly. To reduce residual odor, periodically clean garbage cans with hot water and chlorine bleach, or by burning trash residue in metal cans. Store trash in a bear-proof enclosure. Contact the Division of Wildlife for designs.

• Lock all ground-level windows and doors. Bears are smart — when they learn that homes contain food, they may try to enter.

• If you have pets, do not store their food outside or feed them outside. Clean your grill of grease and store inside. Hang bird seed, suet and hummingbird feeders on a wire between trees instead of on your deck or porch. Bring all bird feeders in at night. Do not put fruit, melon rinds and other tasty items in mulch or compost piles.

via Bear injures man in Park County | SummitDaily.com.

NBC — A Colorado man was almost killed when a 320-pound bear snuck in to his house and attacked him. Jack Hansell has the photo to prove it.

In a small town like Bailey, big news tends to travel fast, especially when the story is as bizarre as Jack Hansell’s.

Around 10:30 Wednesday night, Jack’s son heard something moseying around in the kitchen. Then he saw it.

Jack says “so he starts yelling, ‘there’s a bear, there’s a bear in the house!’”

That bear made its way downstairs to the basement. Jack followed after him. Jack hoped he’d get a chance to open the basement door so the bear could run out. But he didn’t.

Jack says “he charged me. Bit me in the lower leg and scratched me in the other leg and then knocked me over.”

Jack had so much adrenaline rushing through him, he didn’t feel the bite at all. So he started whacking the bear with a bat.

The bear ran up the stairs and climbed up in to Jack’s loft.

At this point, police and members of the Division of Wildlife were already on their way.

Jack says “unfortunately the bear tried climbing out of an upper story window and then police and DOW had to take care of him at that point.”

Jack suffered a few injuries and the bear was put down. The Division of Wildlife and Jack say this incident could have been prevented.

Jack says “make sure the garage door is shut every night. I had forgot to shut it last night.”

via Jack Hansell survives bear attack in his Colorado home | ksdk.com | St. Louis, MO.

WEST MILFORD — The female bear hunted by New Jersey wildlife officials since it attacked a West Milford man and his dog on June 24 in Norvin Green State Park was trapped and euthanized Thursday night near where the incident occurred, the state Department of Environmental Protection said today.

The 188-pound, female bruin was caught at about 4:45 p.m. near a West Milford home where it had been causing new problems, said DEP spokesman Lawrence Ragonese, explaining the bear had just ripped into a chicken coop at the house before it ran into the baited, culvert trap set up by wildlife officials days earlier. The bear had three, six-month-old cubs which authorities said should be able to survive on their own.

“We had two previous aggressive incidents with this bear, and when it was caught it was being aggressive again. It was euthanized,” Ragonese said, adding that ten aggressive bears have been put down by wildlife officials and police this year.

The hiker was knocked down, but not seriously injured in the June 24 incident, and his dog is recovering from its wounds. The attack prompted a portion of the park to be closed and the postponement of a local fireworks display as authorities searched for the bruin.

via Bear who attacked West Milford hiker is captured, euthanized | NJ.com.

WEST MILFORD — The female bear hunted by New Jersey wildlife officials since it attacked a West Milford man and his dog on June 24 in Norvin Green State Park was trapped and euthanized Thursday night near where the incident occurred, the state Department of Environmental Protection said today.

The 188-pound, female bruin was caught at about 4:45 p.m. near a West Milford home where it had been causing new problems, said DEP spokesman Lawrence Ragonese, explaining the bear had just ripped into a chicken coop at the house before it ran into the baited, culvert trap set up by wildlife officials days earlier. The bear had three, six-month-old cubs which authorities said should be able to survive on their own.

“We had two previous aggressive incidents with this bear, and when it was caught it was being aggressive again. It was euthanized,” Ragonese said, adding that ten aggressive bears have been put down by wildlife officials and police this year.

The hiker was knocked down, but not seriously injured in the June 24 incident, and his dog is recovering from its wounds. The attack prompted a portion of the park to be closed and the postponement of a local fireworks display as authorities searched for the bruin.

via Bear who attacked West Milford hiker is captured, euthanized | NJ.com.

ELDORADO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif.—State wildlife officials say a bear that attacked a man at a campground in Eldorado National Forest has been shot and killed by wardens.

A spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game says after dogs tracked the bear, wardens shot it around 6:15 p.m. Friday.

The animal, described as a 1-year-old black bear, was identified by its paw print. It was located about a a quarter-mile from where it slashed a man’s face at a campground near Union Valley Reservoir around 2 a.m. Friday.

Fish and Game spokeswoman Kirsten Macintyre says the man, who was armed with a .45-caliber pistol, scared the bear off by firing a shot.

The man, who has not been named, required 26 stitches after the attack.

The campground where the attack took place is in a remote area about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento.

via Game wardens kill bear that attacked camper – San Jose Mercury News.

Red River Gorge, closed since Sunday after a black bear attacked a hiker along the Pinch-Em Tight Trail, will reopen Friday morning, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The Natural Bridge State Resort Park also will reopen its hiking trails Friday morning. The lodge, sky lift and bridge there had remained open.

Frank R. Beum, supervisor of the Daniel Boone National Forest, also has issued an order prohibiting any open food storage by visitors to the gorge area.

The order is similar to one already in place in the forest’s Stearns District at the southern end, he said. It applies to all forest lands north of Natural Bridge State Resort Park to U.S. Highway 460 in Powell, Menifee and Wolfe counties.

Beum said he decided to re-open the gorge after officials with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, who are still searching for the bear, said it was last seen Thursday south of Beattyville in Lee County, at least 17 miles from the attack site and outside of Red River Gorge.

“We want our visitors to be aware that black bears have returned to Kentucky, and we want them to know what to do in case they happen upon a bear,” he said. “Forest visitors can help prevent bears from becoming a nuisance by not feeding them or allowing them access to food or garbage.”

Red River Gorge campers must store food, including pet food, in a bear-resistant container, inside their vehicle or in an enclosed hard-body trailer, officials said. Backcountry campers must suspend food and garbage at least 10 feet off the ground and four feet away from any tree or pole.

All leftover food and trash must be placed in bear-resistant trash receptacles provided by the Forest Service. Burning or burying food trash also is banned.

via Red River Gorge to reopen after bear attack; new food rules instituted | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – Montana wildlife officials say a Washington man was injured by a black bear that bit through his tent at a primitive campsite in the Lolo National Forest in western Montana.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens say Rob Holmes of Ellensburg, Wash., was awakened at about 4:30 a.m. Monday when he felt an animal bite his ear lobe. It took 21 stitches to close the wound.

Warden Capt. Jeff Darrah says it appears the bear was drawn into the area by food and other attractants that were left at a nearby camp site.

The U.S. Forest Service campground southwest of St. Regis will be closed while officials try to capture the bear. FWP Regional Supervisor Mack Long says if they can find the bear they’ll euthanize it because it has become habituated to human food.

via Daily Record-News – Ellensburg man survives bear attack in Montana.

(WHAS11) -  Tim Scott, the hiker that survived a black bear attack in Red River Gorge, sits down with WHAS11’s Claudia Coffey for his first television interview.

He allowed WHAS11 to come to his Springfield, Kentucky home where he explained how he escaped from the death grip of a black bear. He says the bear followed him along a trail in Red River Gorge, threw him 4 feet, then started chewing on his legs. Finally another hiker came to his aid.

He tells his account of what he thinking and how he tried to escape exclusively to WHAS11.

Scott survived but has 50 to 60 stitches on both legs. His story of survival in his own words, tonight at 5 and 6 p.m. on WHAS11 News and WHAS11.com.

The bear is still on the loose, and some 40,000 acres of campgrounds and trails are closed until the bear is caught.

via Black Bear attack victim shares his survival story