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Bear Mauling and other Bear Stories

tch

What do I know; I'm just some guy on the internet.
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The only thing those people have going for them is the likelihood that because they are in a national park, they are not the first dumb unknowingly reckless tourists that the bear has encountered. So, the bear has a better grasp as to how to behave under the circumstances than the tourists.
Yes, as said before, the rangers in national parks all agree: there's a considerable overlap in intelligence between the smartest bear and the dumbest tourists.
 

Lorenzzo

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I have a friend hiking at Glacier NP. After reading this thread I messaged her to find out if she knew what bear activity was like and whether they're taking precautions. This is her response:

"so far 5 black bears, a little cub hiding in the tree and 2 grizzlies. And 4 Mt goats. But we have our bear spray and I know how to use it."

I followed up with some input from this thread.
 
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Daniel

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This falls in the category of "other Bear Stories". When I was much younger I was employed in an occupation in the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway region of N. America that provided a significant amount of time off work, if I was so inclined. During the summer months I took advantage of this option often, electing to bicycle tour in northern Ontario, northern Quebec, and, sometimes, the Maritime Provinces. On this particular occasion, I was touring in the Lac St. Jean, Quebec area in a rural forest near Dolbeau. It was evening and I was getting low on water so decided to stop and filter some from a clear creek so that I'd have enough to see me through the night and next morning. I leaned my bike against some trees along the virtually traffic-free road, crossed over to the other side, and hiked down a steep embankment to the creek to filter. Before doing so, I broke out a brand new large aerosol can of insect repellent (with high Deet content) from my pannier and applied it to my exposed skin. I left the can lying on the rear rack of my bike.

After filtering water sufficient for my needs I climbed up the embankment, only to discover an adult black bear hovering over the rear portion of my bike. I'm not sure what the attraction was but the bear took the large can into it's mouth and, shortly thereafter, I heard the sound of the can depressurizing. A tooth or teeth of the bear had punctured the container and flooded the bruin's mouth with many ounces of insect repellent/Deet. Within a couple or so seconds, the bear made a rather loud groaning noise, quickly pivoted around, and ran headfirst into a fairly large tree. It fell down and disappeared from sight, rolling down the embankment sloping away from that side of the road, in the process snapping smaller saplings and flattening vegetation in its path. I arrived at my bike just in time to see it wobbling into the forest at the bottom of the slope while making coughing-like sounds. I quickly stored away my filter and water containers and hightailed it down the road in case the bear returned and ended up cycling a few extra kilometers before wild camping that night.
 

Bill Talbot

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My neighbors, let's call them the Bruins', stopped by this morning on their rounds. Mom is home schooling them. She's got her paws full with these three teenagers...

Here's mom (she's also school security)
IMG_3520.JPG

Cubs will be cubs...
IMG_3521.JPG


Off to a different classroom
IMG_3524.JPG


Just a quick drink before class
IMG_3525.JPG


It's always great to see the family!
 

Sibhusky

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oldschoolskier

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TS
Tricia

Tricia

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CNN: Woman battling cancer survives a bear attack in her Lake Tahoe cabin.
This was on our local news.
What a crazy story!!
 

newboots

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Was just discussing bear encounters. Very frightening. I think they say to each other, “We we’re here first!”
 

François Pugh

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CNN: Woman battling cancer survives a bear attack in her Lake Tahoe cabin.
Apparently the bear stopped its attack, left her and then came back at her "a second time". Is this because she moved to get away? Did she play dead? Did she keep screaming? Changed his mind, just because he felt like it? Inquiring minds want to know.
 

4ster

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CNN: Woman battling cancer survives a bear attack in her Lake Tahoe cabin.

Sadly I think we will be hearing more stories like this as the exploding bear population becomes more urbanized & dependent on unnatural (human) food sources. Most residents would like to believe that the local Tahoe bear population are just big harmless teddy bears.
I’m afraid it will take someone being killed before any real effort will be made to bring things back in balance. The present situation is not healthy for bears or humans!
During the Caldor fire when South Lake Tahoe was evacuated the police reported 17 break ins one day, 15 of them were bears.
 

John Webb

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Wow, FWIW the PITA people (Bear League) say this Tahoe event has been spun out of control.
(I'm not taking sides -just reposting)

1636301024943.png



BEAR League


“Uh…. Hello everyone…. I’m the bear who is being accused of attacking an older human lady who has cancer, in her house at Lake Tahoe, and almost killing her. Laura Rose, the lady I hurt, has told her story to media outlets all across America, but no one has let me tell my side of what happened. My friends at the BEAR League offered to help me tell my story (they sometimes speak for us bears, because we can’t talk)


Several days ago, I was cruising around the village within the Tahoe National Forest, where I live, about two hours before the sun came up, when I sniffed some ripening avocados on the inside of a windowsill. I wanted to eat them. I checked around to see if I could get in to reach them. I found a door that was not secure, so I very easily and quietly pushed it open, without any trouble or damage to the door, and I walked in. There were no sounds or signs of any humans inside, so I ate the avocados and then went to the freezer---because I know there is always ice cream in freezers, and I love ice cream. Yep, there was ice cream…. several little containers, and I ate them all. They were so good, and I was a happy bear---until---Laura Rose suddenly appeared in the doorway to the kitchen and she started to scream as loud as she could and it scared me to death...I thought no one was there! The only thing I could think of was to get the Heck outta there as fast as I could. BUT! She was standing Right In My Way and the passageway was very narrow and not at all wide enough for both of us. I totally freaked out and tried to push her aside so I could get back to the open door where I came in. I’ll admit, I’m much, much bigger than she is, and I have thick fur and long claws and she has only a fragile nightgown and tiny, useless fingernails and we were both in a state of panic so I accidentally hurt her while I tried my best to get her to move so I could run away. I didn’t mean to hurt her. Honestly I didn’t. If I wanted to, I could have easily killed her…. But I would Not do that. I have lived my whole life in my village with my human friends. Many of them feed me and talk sweetly to me while taking pictures of me… they make me feel very welcome and comfortable around them. I am not afraid of them when I’m outside and free to run off if I want to. But this time I was inside a house…a house where I thought there were no people because it was super quiet, and no lights were on, and no dogs were barking at me, and the door was open for me to come in.


Laura Rose threw a quilt over me and then I couldn’t see and I really panicked but two more people came and got her out of my way and I galloped as fast as I could to the door that was still standing open and I ran away as fast and as far as I possibly could. All of this took place within about 10 to 15 seconds and it’s kinda blurry in my memory… probably in Laura Rose’s memory too.


The BEAR League told me she will be ok. She was in the hospital for less than 24 hours and the doctors fixed her up and she looks real good once again. I’m so happy to hear that. I would not have wanted her to not be ok. No black bear---that’s what I am---has Ever killed a person in California or Nevada or Oregon in all of history. I could not ‘bear’ to be the first bear who did something so awful.


Please tell Laura Rose that I am sorry, I honestly didn’t mean to hurt her. I just got scared when I got caught in her kitchen and couldn’t get past her so I could run back outside.”


NOTE FROM the BEAR League:


The vast majority of the news media has gone overboard to sensationalize this story and ignore the facts. The BEAR League is receiving calls from all over the country from intelligent people who see through the hype. They are all extremely disappointed in how this has been reported. Instead of telling facts… door accidentally left open, person inadvertently blocking bear’s only escape route… it was much more sensationalized to demonize the bears, terrify visitors and second homeowners at Tahoe and fabricate a gory-story that chose to leave out what actually happened. The news media has, once again, exploited Tahoe’s bears by not telling the facts and purposely making the bears out to be dangerous man-eating monsters… which they are Not. And the Department of Fish and Wildlife missed an

excellent chance to remind people who live in Bear Country to lock their doors and not block a bear’s escape route if he gets inside.


The BEAR League is beyond grateful that Laura Rose will recover and be fine… from the bear injuries (and we sincerely hope she will successfully win her battle against cancer). We are, however, not comfortable about the fact that this local Tahoe Vista bear will be killed if he goes into the trap that is set in the driveway of the unsecured house he easily entered to eat avocados and ice cream on that fateful early morning. Hopefully, the memories of Laura Rose’s screams and the nightmare of being trapped inside her house will keep him far far away from that neighborhood for a very long time.


 

DanoT

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Where I live and have worked in logging camps in coastal British Columbia, black bears are as common as field mice; shoot one and another takes its place.

The more modern logging camps have replaced garbage dumps with propane fired incinerators. However the bears smell the garbage burning and show up only to find ashes, leaving the bears hungry and unhappy.
 

Jerez

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Some years ago I worked for an organization that tried to get the town of Raton (border between NM and CO) to bear-proof garbage containers for businesses and residences after a particularly bad summer and fall bear year. We even got them funding to provide the containers for the town, but they wouldn't do it. Too much trouble and they'd need to retrofit some trucks. There was even a resident bear who lived in the culvert just outside the school playground. But still they wouldn't accept the offer.
 

4ster

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Some years ago I worked for an organization that tried to get the town of Raton (border between NM and CO) to bear-proof garbage containers for businesses and residences after a particularly bad summer and fall bear year. We even got them funding to provide the containers for the town, but they wouldn't do it. Too much trouble and they'd need to retrofit some trucks. There was even a resident bear who lived in the culvert just outside the school playground. But still they wouldn't accept the offer.
In South Lake Tahoe I think once you have a garbage incident with a bear you are required to purchase and use a bear box.
I have heard that in Mammoth many of the bear proof containers were no longer bear proof once the bears figured them out. Yogi and boo-boo ain’t so dumb.
 

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