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.

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.

NAPLES — Beside Alligator Alley in Golden Gate, there is a canal that locals have named “the Crystal.”

Tracy Cusick, 39, and Chris Kight, 49, parked their van and set their white plastic chairs underneath a shade tree beside the Crystal, their favorite swimming hole, to enjoy some “tranquility.”

Cars repeatedly swoosh by on the interstate, but the trees act as a buffer between the couple and civilization.

“Normally when they drive past they, blow their horn at us,” Kight said.

In some places of the canal, the clear water makes it easy to see the bottom. Fish dash by and the surface of the water sometimes ripples as they go. In other parts, which Kight thinks can be as deep as 40 feet, the water is mysterious and dark.

Cusick and Kight have visited the Crystal to swim, fish and meet with friends for about 20 years, but they are worried they may have to fight to keep the swimming hole open after a gruesome alligator attack on Sunday left a young man without a hand.

Tim Delano, 18, was attacked by a 10-foot alligator while swimming in the canal with friends Sunday evening. The gator clamped its mouth around Delano’s left hand and then severed it when the teen got away.

Friends drove Delano a couple of miles to get help. Delano was airlifted to Lee Memorial Hospital, where he is recovering. A tracker, sent by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, later trapped and killed the gator.

Delano wants people to stop swimming at the Crystal. “I hope they shut it down, so no accidents like this will happen again,” he said.

Kight said what happened to Delano was a first.

“It was a freak accident,” Kight said.

Although Cusick and Kight were the only mid-afternoon swimmers at the Crystal Monday, Kight said there were about 75 people there Sunday.

People were listening to music, barbecuing and swimming in the canal, according to the couple.

“It’s just a hangout,” Kight said.

Parents bring their children to swim and fish.

“The kids are never unattended,” Cusick said.

The day of the accident, Kight and Cusick left before it got dark, around 7 p.m., because they won’t swim in the Crystal past sunset.

“A gator feeds at night like a shark does,” Kight said.

Unlike Delano, they have seen gators in the waters before. “Any canal you go in there’s a chance,” Kight said.

Kight learned what happened to Delano from a television news report later that night. He knew it was the Crystal right away.

“I recognized a tree,” Kight said.

There’s still a dried pool of blood where Delano stood after he got out of the water. Kight pointed it out on the dirt road. He said they are glad Delano survived, but they’re worried their favorite swimming hole won’t.

“It would really bother me if they shut it down. There aren’t places to swim,” Cusick said.

She thinks it might be a good idea to post signs warning people about the potential dangers or to let them know what to do to stay safe.

“Everyone knows anyway, but to refresh their memories,” Cusick said.

But if there is a push to ban people from swimming in the Crystal, Kight said he’d start a petition to fight it.

“There will be a lot of people to sign it,” he said. “It’s the last swimming hole we have in Naples.”

via PHOTOS: Alligator attack doesn’t deter locals from swimming in the Crystal » Naples Daily News.

NAPLES, Fla. — A man is hospitalized in southwest Florida after an alligator bit off his left hand.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro said the man was swimming with three friends in a Collier County canal around 9:30 p.m. Sunday when the alligator attacked.

The men swam to shore and drove to a gas station, where they called 911.

A helicopter flew the victim to a Fort Myers hospital. His name was not released and his condition early Monday was not known.

Ferraro said the 10 foot 2 inch alligator was captured. The hand was retrieved from its stomach and flown to the hospital.

Wildlife officials advise people to stay out of freshwater canals and lakes this time of year because alligators are more active, especially around dawn and dusk.

via Man Loses Hand In Alligator Attack – Orlando News Story – WKMG Orlando.

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.

An alligator attacked a man and bit off his hand in Golden Gate Estates late Sunday.

Collier County emergency personnel and sheriff’s deputies, along with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, responded, emergency dispatchers reported.

The man was airlifted to the Lee Memorial Hospital trauma center in Fort Myers, officials said.

An alligator trapper was searching for the alligator Sunday night.

via Alligator attacks Golden Gate Estates man, bites off his hand, authorities say » Naples Daily News.

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.

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.

VAIL — Justin Young was hoping he’d see a bear while working in the Vail Valley this summer, but he never wanted to see one as close as he did last Friday.

Young, 25, was working for his father’s construction business at a home in the 1500 block of Spring Hill Lane in East Vail when he took a break and took a stroll behind the home around 9 a.m. The next thing he knew he was about 20 feet from a black bear that he said weighed about 400 pounds.

“I spooked him,” Young said. “He immediately charged at me.”

Young, who lives in Florida full-time, said he feels incredibly fortunate to have survived the encounter. The bear hit him on the side of his head and again on the left side of his body before Young fell down. The bear knocked him out, he said, and when he regained consciousness the bear was gone. He got up and ran back to the house and told his coworkers what happened.

Young doubts his coworkers would have believed him if it wasn’t for the bear hair.

“They assumed I fell down the stairs and was full of it, until they saw I was covered in bear hair,” Young said.

He walked away with some cuts and bruises, and a nasty black eye, but that was it.

His parents, Chuck and Terry Young, of Eagle, saw pictures of their son’s cuts and bruises from his cell phone camera that morning. Terry Young said she got a picture message that said her son had quite the story to tell her.

“Now he has a whole new respect for bears,” Terry Young said.

Justin Young said he’s pretty sure he scared the bear because it was facing away from him as he approached it. The bear reacted and went on the defensive, he said.

“I’m very fortunate the bear was on the defensive and not the offensive,” Justin Young said.

After the bear hit him once near his left eye and temple, he put up his arm to protect himself. The bear got a pretty good scratch at his left arm, and that’s when Justin Young thinks he was knocked out.

He said he thinks his lifeless body as he laid there unconscious was what saved him. If he continued to fight back and try to protect himself, he said the bear may have done even more damage.

“It’s probably good he knocked me out,” Justin Young said. “I’m glad I wasn’t conscious for it.”

Justin Young said he has a lot of bruises and scratches on his body, too, which makes him think the bear continued to smack him around a bit while he was unconscious. He said the Division of Wildlife officer who responded to the scene told him a bear that size could exert 1,000 pounds of force.

The Vail Police Department responded to the call along with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Justin Young said he refused an ambulance ride to the hospital because he felt fine and doesn’t have health insurance.

“Now that it’s done and over with, and I know that I’m not going to die from it, it’s kind of a cool story,” Justin Young said.

Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Division of Wildlife, said the agency tracked the bear for more than 12 hours Friday and could see the bear a few times but couldn’t catch him. They tracked him with hound dogs but lost the scent when the bear’s trail led across asphalt, a surface much harder for dogs to smell.

“Any situation in Colorado where we deal with an aggressive animal injuring a person, the policy is typically that the animal is going to be put down,” Hampton said.

Hampton said that while it’s not exactly common to hear of a bear attacking or charging at a person, it does happen several times a year in Colorado. There were three incidents last year in the Aspen-area alone where people were physically injured by bears, he said.

“That being said, it’s more common to get attacked by your neighbor’s dog than a bear,” Hampton said.

Hampton said he didn’t have information on the size or sex of the bear that attacked Justin Young. He said 400 pounds sounds pretty large, though, for a black bear this time of year.

“What we find is that most often, because of their hair and how much hair they have, it makes them appear much larger,” Hampton said. “Guessing the weight of a bear is extremely difficult.”

via Bear attacks man in East Vail | VailDaily.com.

Nuisance Gator Trappers for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Jerry Ziegler, left, and Al Roberts, right, move an 11 and a half foot Florida Alligator in the back of a pickup truck after trapping and killing the large male after the gator attacked Pete Butt at Silver Springs Attraction in Silver Springs, Fla. on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. Butt was taking water samples for the St. John’s River Water Management District when he was attacked by the gator in an area of water called the Fort King Canal. Butt was airlifted to Shands in Gainesville with a possible broken jaw and serious face and neck lacerations.

via A researcher was snorkeling in the Silver River on Tuesday when an alligator bit his neck and possibly broke his jaw. | Gainesville.com.

After Tuesday’s bear mauling of 45-year-old Anchorage Resident Sean Berkey, State Fish and Game officials are recommending the closing of Rover’s Run trail.

However, State Fish and Game officials also say they can’t close trails within city parks, such as the Far North Bicentennial Park, where Rover’s Run trail is located. Rick Sinnott is a biologist for the State and says the Department of Fish and Game doesn’t have jurisdiction in those areas, so all he can do is just make recommendation like anybody else.

Instead, the municipality has the final call on whether to close the trail, and in this case, leaders have chosen to keep Rover’s Run trail open. Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan says he doesn’t think it’s particularly necessary,

Anchorage Bear Control

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nor does the city have the ability, to enforce the closing. Sullivan says there is no one to patrol the area and citations are not given for trail users found in a closed area.

He goes on to say that it really becomes a common sense issue for the public when choosing to go to an area identified as having a potential danger there.

But, Fish and Game officials say it is prudent in a case like this to close the trail for at least a little while to prevent like incidences from happening again in the next day or two.

Sinnott says he can’t imagine any other governmental jurisdiction in the world that wouldn’t close a trail if some one were mauled on it and it just seems like a pretty extraordinary action on the city’s part.

Wildlife experts say the bear that mauled pediatric pharmacist Sean Berkey, acted defensively to protect her cub when Berkey’s fast moving bike surprised her. Sinnott says that the bear is not aggressive, it’s defensive. He says if the bear was following people and attacking everyone willy nilly, then that would be aggressive.

Sinnott adds that’s why the mauling ended when Berkey played dead. Most officials agree the bear responded normally and that’s why a significant threat doesn’t exist right now along Rover’s Run trail, but as to why there’s a concentration of bears in that area during the summer, there’s conflicting ideas.

Wildlife officials say the bears need to come down to the low lands where the salmon are spawning to fish every summer. But Mayor Sullivan says that people are doing things that might be encouraging that population to come in to town and part of that is the rehabilitation of salmon streams.

Either way, both officials agree that people should exercise caution while spending time in the Rover’s Run trail area this time of year.

via Bear Attack: Rover’s Run Trail Open; State and City Disagree – KTVA.

SILVER SPRINGS — A High Springs researcher was snorkeling in the Silver River on Tuesday when he was attacked by an alligator that bit his neck and possibly broke his jaw.

Nuisance Gator Trappers for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Jerry Ziegler, left, and Al Roberts, right, move an 11 and a half foot Florida Alligator in the back of a pickup truck after trapping and killing the large male after the gator attacked Pete Butt at Silver Springs Attraction in Silver Springs, Fla. on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. Butt was taking water samples for the St. John’s River Water Management District when he was attacked by the gator in an area of water called the Fort King Canal. Butt was airlifted to Shands in Gainesville with a possible broken jaw and serious face and neck lacerations.

Peter Butt, 54, is operations manager for Karst Environmental Services Inc. of High Springs. He was checking water samples about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday when the gator — measured at 11 feet, 3 inches long — bit him, according to Eric Hutcheson, a friend of the victim.

Butt was taken by helicopter to Shands at the University of Florida, where he was listed in critical condition Tuesday night.

According to Hutcheson, the victim was working with a colleague, Tom Morris, as part of Karst’s ongoing work concerning water quality and the aquifer. Morris had checked water samples in that area just a short time before Butt did. Morris called for help when the gator attacked. The incident happened outside the boundaries of the Silver Springs attraction.

Karst Environmental Services is a consulting firm west of High Springs that provides scientific services having to do with springs, sinkholes, rivers and other ecosystems.

A trapper worked with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to locate the alligator Tuesday night, after which the alligator was killed.

via A researcher was snorkeling in the Silver River on Tuesday when an alligator bit his neck and possibly broke his jaw. | Gainesville.com.

A B.C. man is recovering from shock after narrowly avoiding a grizzly bear attack in Robson Valley, southeast of Prince George.

Leon Lorenz, a wildlife filmmaker from Dunster, had been following grizzly bear tracks and filming the animals feeding in the forested area for the last six weeks. Last Monday afternoon, he spotted a mother bear with her back to him about 23 metres away. He immediately put his camera down and started recording.

Lorenz said he had moved his camera slightly to get a better view. That was when the 400-pound bear caught his scent.

She sniffed the air, then turned around and looked right at him, he said. She quickly wheeled around a spruce tree about four metres away, and reappeared with her cub behind her, roaring and charging at high speed toward Lorenz.

The critical events after that, said Lorenz, occurred in about 20 seconds.

He remembers instinctively throwing his camera into wide-angle mode so it would capture all the action, before whipping out his handgun to fire a warning shot.

“I was blinded because she was zigzagging in and out between the trees — I didn’t know if she was going to come at me from the right or the left,” he said. “I had no target.”

Lorenz aimed high and pulled the trigger — right when the bear came crashing through the branches several feet away. Spooked, she turned back around with her cub and ran off, said Lorenz.

“If I had waited a split-second later, she would have had me,” he said. “She was a blur, going by me, she was so fast. Even if I had hit her, her momentum would have carried her forward. She was running on so much adrenalin, she would have made sure I was dead before she died, and her cub probably would have attacked, too.”

He said he has filmed this particular grizzly twice before — once at 18 metres apart, another at 45 metres.

Both times, he was able to stay out of sight so that even when the bear could smell him, she had no way of locating him.

Lorenz, a father of two sons, said he has encountered many bears before in his 19 years of filmmaking in the wild, but he has never been attacked by them. This was the first time he has had to use his handgun to protect himself. “God’s hand was on that gun,” he said. “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect — she was out to kill me.”

via Filmmaker fends off grizzly attack with handgun.

THE dad of a three-year-old attacked by a fox has described him as a “very brave little boy”. Relieved Sam Jermy said yesterday that son Jake was in “high spirits” after being bitten on the arm at a playgroup party. But the mum of twins Lola and Isabella Koupparis – who were mauled a fortnight ago – urged parents to start treating foxes as “a threat”.

Pauline, 41, said of the latest attack: “Pro-fox people will say he provoked it. However, it worries me that the fox was able to get close enough to the child.” Yesterday we revealed how Jake was attacked as he reached for a ball near a den under a playgroup’s building.

Staff had been aware that a family of foxes was living there for a year. But they did nothing about it as a local wildlife expert told them not to worry. The Dorothy Stringer Playgroup, in Brighton, East Sussex, was closed yesterday after pest controllers were called in following Saturday’s attack. Jake’s mum Jacqui and dad Sam, both 35, said they were relieved that the fox had not bitten or scratched the boy’s face and that his injuries were not likely to leave permanent scars. But they said they did want the fox to be destroyed. Jake is recovering at home. Sam said: “He’s doing well. It was a bit of a nightmare but he’s back on top form as if it never happened. “We feel it was not the fault of the fox or Jake but an unfortunate event.” A friend who was at the party said: “He’s doing OK but he’s got bite marks and lacerations to his arm.” The playgroup said: “We wish him a speedy recovery. We were aware of the foxes for some time. “The advice given by a local wildlife expert was that they did not pose a threat to people. “The nursery will remain closed until we’ve ensured the safety of our children and staff.” The incident came after nine-month-old Isabella and Lola were attacked as they slept in their cots by a fox that crept into their home in Hackney, East London, through an open patio door. The council then laid traps in the garden and caught six foxes – which were destroyed. They have now been removed.

via Print Friendly Page.

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.

Food and garbage abandoned at a campsite in Mineral County likely attracted a black bear that bit a Washington man on the head early Monday, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Rob Holmes, of Ellensburg, Wash., required 21 stitches on his earlobe after the bear bit him through his tent around 4:30 a.m., as he and a friend slept up Little Joe Road just southwest of St. Regis.

Holmes’ injuries were not life-threatening, and he and his friend had left for home by Monday afternoon.

After the bear bit Holmes, the man screamed. He then grabbed a flashlight and tried to follow it before driving to a Missoula hospital.

“It reacted to people, which is good,” said Mack Long, FWP regional supervisor. “But the downside is that once it is habituated, it’s almost impossible to change.”

Holmes kept a clean camp, Long said, but other campers left behind food and other attractants at the U.S. Forest Service campground, which is “primitive” and not a sanctioned campground.

“He did everything right,” said Jeff Darrah, FWP warden captain in Missoula.

The FWP is currently attempting to track down the bear, which will be euthanized once it’s found. In the meantime, the camping area is closed until further notice.

FWP officials said the radius and patterns of the bite marks on Holmes and in his tent were identical to those found on cans of food and other items at the nearby abandoned campsite.

It is unknown how long that campsite had been abandoned, but the bear likely had visited the site for at least a couple of nights, said Long. It likely was a temporary campsite for transients, he said.

Long put all blame on the campers who abandoned their site and left food and other items behind. He said “attack” is not the correct word for the incident, which will unfortunately lead to a dead bear.

Long said he believes it is the only reported case of a human injury caused by a bear in western Montana this year.

The message is clear, he stressed: Don’t leave food and other attractants open at a campsite, and never leave food behind.

via Black bear bites through tent, into sleeping man’s ear near St. Regis.

Some of you might remember that I have said previously that every year in the Cody, WY area there is one or more human versus grizzly encounters. Here is the current one thanks to KULR 8 News television broadcasting from Billings, MT. This is my “backyard” and part of where I have hunted for the last 30 years.

(Story Updated: Jun 18, 2010 at 1:24 PM MDT )

Press Release from Park County Sheriff’s Department:

At approximately 6:48 PM on June 17th the Park County Sheriff’s Office was notified that a subject had possibly been mauled and killed by a grizzly bear in the Kitty Creek Drainage located in the Shoshone National Forest west of Cody.

The victim, 70 year old Erwin Frank Evert of Cody was reported missing by his wife to Chad Dickinson, a member of the USGS Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) based out of Bozeman. Dickinson and his team were working within the Kitty Creek Drainage snaring grizzly bears for research. Dickinson rode back up Kitty Creek to an area where earlier they had caught a large adult male grizzly. Once at the capture sight, Dickinson found Evert dead as a result of fatal injuries caused by an encounter with the bear.

At approximately 8:30 PM Wardens of the Wyoming Game and Fish and a Park County Sheriff’s Deputy located Evert approximately 2 miles from the road in a remote rugged area. Park County Sheriff Search and Rescue was called in and Evert’s body was removed while Wardens provided armed security. The recovery was completed at approximately 12:18am on June 18th.

At this time it appears that members of IGBST had captured the bear and tranquilized the bear for research purposes, put a radio collar on the bear and then packed up their equipment and left the area. At some point Evert wandered into the capture area where he was fatally wounded. Evert was not armed nor was he carrying bear spray.

On June 18th The US Forest Service issued a closure order for the Kitty Creek Drainage. Game Wardens, US Fish and Wildlife Agents and USFS Law Enforcement Agents are diligently searching the area for the bear with the aid of an electronic tracking device. If located the fate of the bear will be determined by US Fish and Wildlife Agents.

via Bear attacks again | Field & Stream.

A man hiking near Yellowstone National Park on Thursday was killed by a grizzly bear, the same animal that researchers had tranquilized, captured and released earlier in the day.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was reported missing by his wife, Yolanda, to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about seven miles east of Yellowstone.

The Everts own a cabin in the area, where Erwin, a botanist, often hiked to research the region’s plants and animals.

When her husband didn’t return from an afternoon hike, Yolanda went looking for him and met one of the bear researchers returning from the capture site. The study team member returned to the site, where Evert’s body was discovered.

According to the Park County, Wyo., sheriff’s office, which was called to the location, Evert was not armed or carrying bear spray.

Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the adult male grizzly was located Saturday morning by trackers following a signal from a radio collar that had been placed around the bear’s neck.

The animal was shot and killed from a helicopter, and died about 2 miles from where Evert’s body was found. A lab analysis confirmed that it was the same animal that mauled Evert.

Concern has been raised that area residents weren’t well informed of the possible risks, but according to the Billings Gazette, Evert was aware of the possible dangers. Family friend and professional colleague Chuck Neal said that he spoke with Evert before his death, having received a call from him last week about the signs posted in the area, and that his friend was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

“We try to do everything we can to minimize the risks. But we can’t protect ourselves against people that ignore every warning we give, and we can’t protect people against themselves,” Servheen said. “The whole thing is regrettable; just one tragedy followed by another.”

The incident is the first fatal mauling by a grizzly in the area in 25 years, and the first such fatal attack to take place at a site where researchers had recently trapped and released a bear.

via Grizzly bear kills hiker near Yellowstone | Outposts | Los Angeles Times.

The fox attack in England sensationalist reporting is getting to be a bit much. Other than the toddlers, these are very small encounters.

A toddler was recovering at home today after being attacked by fox at a playgroup in Brighton.

The three-year-old boy was either bitten or scratched on the arm as he played outside at a party at Dorothy Stringer pre-school playgroup in Brighton, East Sussex, on Saturday afternoon.

It is believed the child, who has not been named, stroked the tail of an animal that was sticking out from under a temporary building, when it turned on him. The playgroup was closed today. In a statement it said: “We can confirm that a child suffered injuries after being attacked by a fox at an event on our premises at the weekend.”

It said foxes had existed in the area for sometime, but the playgroup had not taken action because wildlife experts had advised that they were not a danger to people.

An RSPCA inspector who attended the scene was unable to find the animal.

Relatives took the boy to the Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton where he was treated and released, according to Sussex police. He is now recovering at home, the playgroup said.

Its statement added: “We have been in touch with Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] and also with a local pest control company, which is due to visit this afternoon to give advice on the action we should take.”

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: “As far as we are aware it was a fox. People there told us they were aware of a fox who had made his den there and had been living there for a year or so.”

She added: “Attacks like this are extremely rare. Foxes will usually shy away from interaction with people. We offer our sincere condolences to the family concerned and we hope for a speedy recovery for the child.”

The spokeswoman explained that had a fox been found, it would not have been put down but taken away and re-released elsewhere. She had no information on the extent of the injuries.

A police spokeswoman said: “Police were called by South East Coast Ambulance Service at 12.30pm on Saturday 19 June after a report of a boy being bitten by a fox.”

She added: “The boy was taken to the Royal Sussex county hospital by family, where he was treated and released.”

A spokeswoman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said: “We were called to the scene but were then stood down. This would imply that the injuries were not that bad.”

Trevor Weeks, founder of the charity East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service, called for a proportionate response to the attack.

He said: “It has been known for years by the educational authorities that foxes live under makeshift buildings at schools, so it should come as no surprise there was a fox present.

“The fox did not attack the child – it was defending itself. There is a significant difference. Any wild animal is going to turn round and bite if you grab its tail.”

The incident comes a fortnight after nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis were attacked after a fox entered their upstairs bedroom in Hackney, east London.

It is thought to have got in through a door on the ground floor of the three-storey house, which was left open because of the hot weather, while the children’s parents watched Britain’s Got Talent on television.

Both girls have since been discharged from hospital. The twins’ four-year-old brother, Max, who was also sleeping upstairs, was not hurt in the attack.

via Toddler released from hospital after Brighton fox attack | World news | guardian.co.uk.

CODY — Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal mauling by a grizzly bear Thursday of a Shoshone National Forest cabin owner. The incident occurred at a site where a bear had been captured and released earlier that day.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was reported missing to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team who had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about seven miles east of Yellowstone National Park.

Researchers had earlier trapped and released an adult male grizzly in the area, according to information released by Park County Sheriff Scott Steward.

A longtime friend and professional colleague said Evert was aware that researchers had been trying for several days to trap a bear in the area, and that friends and family members were unsure why he had hiked into the capture site despite knowing the risks.

“None of us understand it and apparently never will,” said retired ecologist Chuck Neal, author of “Grizzlies in the Mist.”

Neal said he often hiked the woods around Yellowstone with Evert, a botanist, sharing a common interest in researching the region’s plants and animals.

Neal, a survivor of several close encounters with grizzlies, said Evert had called him last week asking about a sign posted at Kitty Creek warning about bear-trapping activities, and that Evert was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

Neal said bear researchers were returning from the capture site when they were told by Evert’s wife, Yolanda, that he was missing.

A study team member went back to the capture site and found Evert’s body. Wardens with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and a sheriff’s deputy responded at 8:30 p.m. to the remote location, about two miles from Highway 14-16-20.

Members of Park County Search and Rescue recovered Evert’s body around midnight, with assistance from Game and Fish workers, who provided armed security, Steward said in a written statement released Friday afternoon.

Steward said that Evert, who was not armed and was not carrying bear spray, apparently wandered into the capture site sometime after the bear had been released.

Neal said he did not know how researchers returning from the site failed to cross paths with Evert while he was hiking in, unless the botanist had left the trail at some point.

Bear not relocated

The bear had not been captured before Thursday, and had not been relocated from another area, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Researchers drew blood from the captured bear and fitted it with a radio collar before releasing it, Servheen said, but it has not yet been determined whether the previously captured bear was the same one that killed Evert.

Servheen said that wildlife officials will try to compare any DNA left by the attacking bear, most likely in its saliva, with blood drawn from the captured bear.

It is uncertain whether that difficult process of analysis will prove possible, he said.

Steward said that the U.S. Forest Service had issued a closure order for the Kitty Creek drainage and that federal wildlife and law enforcement agents are searching for the bear using electronic tracking equipment.

Servheen initially said Friday morning that wildlife officials would not try to trap the bear again. But he said later that efforts were being made to recapture it.

“If we get a chance to trap it, we will trap it,” he said.

He said that the investigation of the mauling is in its early stages, and that authorities will work to try and re-create what happened.

If it is determined that the bear trapped Thursday is the one that killed Evert, federal wildlife officials will decide the bear’s fate, he said.

“We’ll try to make a decision as to whether the actions of the bear were natural aggression,” Servheen said.

“We will try to make that decision based on what we know after we put all the facts together,” he said, adding that re-creating an attack without any witnesses can prove difficult.

Some cabin owners have said they were unaware of research work being done in the area, and questioned whether wildlife and land management agencies were communicating effectively with the public about such activities. The press is not routinely notified of study team field work.

Servheen said that interagency partners including the Wyoming Game and Fish and Shoshone National Forest personnel are aware of researchers’ work in the area, and that signs are posted in areas where bears are being captured.

He said he was unaware of what other public notifications, if any, were routinely made about bear capture efforts.

“The people doing this are highly trained professionals who follow very detailed protocols. One of the most important protocols is public safety,” he said.

“We want to make sure people don’t walk into these places, so they place signs lower down on the trail” warning people to avoid the area, he said.

Servheen said “it would be impossible to enter this area” without noticing warning signs

Close friends

Neal said Evert and his wife spent summers each year for the last three decades at their Kitty Creek cabin, and that they were close family friends.

“We walked many miles and spent many days together,” he said.

Evert was a research field botanist working for the Morton Arboretum in Chicago, and he also worked as a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming, Neal said.

Evert had just published “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area,” a book offering an exhaustive catalog of native plants, including a series of annotated maps, Neal said.

“It’s a magnificent book. It weighs about 5 pounds,” he said.

“It really was his life’s work, so it’s good, and I’m grateful that he got to see that published,” Neal said.

“He just turned 70 this spring, but he was still very active and very fit,” Neal said.

Neal described Evert as “a committed man who could focus like a laser beam on his goal.”

Persistent windy conditions around Cody over the last week made it a particularly dangerou