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All Encounters Articles
In July, a grizzly defending her cubs attacked a couple hiking in Yellowstone National Park, it killing the man.
Again in Yellowstone, a man hiking alone was fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in August. In September, a Montana black bear hunter was attacked by a grizzly bear he mistakenly wounded. The guy's hunting partner tried to save him but ended up shooting and killing him.
Shoppers in a grocery store in Alaska were in for a shock when a young black bear cub walked through the automatic doors into the store, then climbed onto the produce display looking for a way to escape the excitement.
SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) - Police say a man has been hospitalized after being mauled by a bear in the southern edge of Superior.
The Duluth News Tribune reports Superior police officers were called to the southern edge of town on a report of a mauling about 8 p.m. Saturday.
Police say the man was with a female hunting partner who had set up over some bait, hoping to take a deer, when the bear appeared. The man tried to chase it off, but the animal turned on him.
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Bear No. 646 was eventually tracked to a location 1.7 miles southwest of the trapping/mauling site. It was shot dead from a helicopter by U.S. Wildlife Services at 7:15 a.m. on June 19.
After the incident at Kitty Creek, all bear research trapping operations were halted for 50 days until new protocol was established by now-retired IGBST head Chuck Schwartz. Even with the layoff, officials managed to capture a record 95 grizzlies in 2010, 75 of those for bad behavior. In all, 295 grizzly-human conflicts were reported in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), the most since record-keeping began in 1992.
Grizzlies are high profile this year.
A lingering winter and late berry crop kept bears in proximity to humans longer than normal, perhaps contributing to a stream of headlines about grizzlies killing people and people killing grizzlies.
Meanwhile, a young lady on a big horse charged out of the pack of grizzly stories near Glacier National Park. In a cloud of dust, the 25-year-old wrangler likely saved a boy's life while demonstrating that skill, quick-thinking and guts sometimes are the best weapons against a head-on charging grizzly.
Black bears in residential neighborhoods aren't exactly unheard of in Juneau. While many people stay inside when bears are about, one local woman says she had a different instinct when she saw her dog was in trouble.
It started out as a typical evening for 22-year-old Brooke Collins. She let her dogs out as usual but this time, she said there was a black bear outside who took hold of her dachshund Fudge. She said she feared for her pet's life and, in an instant, ran over and punched the bear right in the face to make it let go.
Bears are prowling the wilderness southwest of Aspen and attacking campers even though the humans properly covered food and despite an ample supply of berries.
Just in the past five days, bears attacked three times, including early Saturday morning, when a black bear tore through a tent and mauled the leg of a 51-year-old camper, causing injuries that required surgery.
"Sometimes bears do unpredictable things," said Pat Thrasher, spokesman for the White River National Forest.
BRANCVILLE, N.J. -- Environmental officials say the black bear that wandered into a campsite in a northwestern New Jersey state forest this week has been captured and euthanized.
DEP spokesman Lawrence Hajna says the 18-month-old male bruin was caught in a snare around 10:15 p.m. Friday, not far from the campsite in Stokes State Forest in Sussex County.
We have an odd relationship with polar bears.
As we watch them pace inside their zoo enclosures, or marvel at their portrayal within natural history documentaries, we are drawn to their big paws, fluffy white fur and button-like black noses. We find polar bear cubs adorable.
CTV Ottawa News' Leanne interviews, Martyn Obbart, Steve Herrero and Steven Amstrup at the International Bear Association Conference. Watch three segments here.
VICTORIA - When conservation officers respond to a bear or cougar in a populated area, the animal will usually be shot rather than relocated, says B.C.'s top conservation officer.
Risk to humans is the sole consideration when a conservation officer decides whether to kill an animal, said Tom Clark, conservation service head.
"It's a case-by-case basis, but it's based on risk to public safety. If wildlife calls are made and it's determined public safety is at risk, the expectation is that the conservation officer will have to destroy the animal," he said.
Two North Shore black bears were killed in separate incidents on Wednesday, the community's first bear deaths of the year.
One of the bears was destroyed on Seymour Mountain after a close encounter with a jogger around noon.
Scott Smith had been running along a trail near the Mushroom parking lot, when he sensed he was being followed. He spotted a black bear and continued to run, prompting the bear to chase him, according to conservation officer Simon Gravel.
VANCOUVER -- Human-bear conflicts are down so far this year, government statistics show, despite recent headlines that might lead you to believe otherwise.
Over the last three weeks a series of incidents in B.C. has left one Lillooet-area woman dead from a black bear attack, one man seriously injured after being attacked by a grizzly bear at Rivers Inlet, a jogger attacked by a black bear near Mount Seymour and one North Vancouver woman terrified after a black bear attacked her dog and tried to force its way into her home.
The first thing to know about bears is they are unpredictable. There is no sure way to survive a bear attack, whether it's a grizzly or a black bear, although the lighter-coloured, humped grizzly is bigger and generally more aggressive.
The safest option, of course, is avoiding an attack altogether. Making noise when you're hiking in the wilderness is a good start, whether you talk loudly, clap your hands or call out, giving a bear you haven't yet seen a chance to retreat
Alaska Wildlife Troopers recently cited a Juneau man they say has been illegally feeding dog food to as many as 15 black bears at his home.
Arnold W. Hanger, 66, is accused of spreading AttaBoy! dog food on rocks and logs around his property near Tee Harbor, north of Juneau, for years, troopers said. As a result, 10 to 15 bears had been hanging around the area and scaring neighbors, some of whom have small children, trooper Sgt. Matthew Dobson said.
It has been a busy week or so for black bear activity and other wildlife in Whistler, with conservation officers making the decision to kill the first bear of the season because it entered a home in Alta Vista. Other recent bear-human encounters included two other home invasions, a bear raiding golf bags at a local course and a cub hit and killed by a vehicle on Highway 99.
A cougar sighting was also reported in Spring Creek last Wednesday (June 22).
It was a large, adult male black bear that conservation officers trapped and shot last Wednesday after it entered an Alta Vista home while two people were inside. The previous day (June 21), the bear went “deep into the house and into the kitchen” where it found food, said Chris Doyle, conservation officer.
A hiker in Teton Canyon used pepper spray to fended off a reported grizzly bear Sunday, Wyoming Game and Fish officials said Thursday.
Former Colorado resident Chris Laing was hiking about a mile up the north fork of the Teton Creek Trail, the trail that goes to Table Mountain, when “he contacted a reported grizzly bear sow with two cubs of the year,” Wyoming Game and Fish Specialist Mike Boyce said.
The bear was apparently chasing Laing’s dog when it veered off and headed for Laing.
May to October, it's an odd day in Whistler that I don't see a black bear. Sometimes I have to go out of my way not to. I've bumped into them taking out the garbage, walking down the street, at Starbucks Creekside, outside Village 8 Cinemas, running on the valley trail, biking everywhere and on skis (in a November snowstorm so fierce that the animal itself was caked in white like a Polar Bear). I like the fact that we live in such proximity to black bears, and I get pissed when people's carelessness in yards, homes or on the road results in their death. I'm neither afraid nor overly trusting-after all, they're black bears. I have healthy respect and treat them like the wild, wary animals they should remain.
If you go out in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise. A teddy bear picnic it is not, as local [black]bear populations rise from a winter of hibernation to a poor berry yield. Though fewer berries doesn't mean a higher chance of attack, it does indicate bears will be roaming closer to roads and garbage sources in search of food.
New data released in a report of the Journal of Wildlife Management this month confirms previous information that 88 per cent of fatal [black] bear attacks in Canada and the U.S. are the result of predatory behaviour of a male black bear.
Being "bear aware" has been on the minds of many people in recent days, with a reported attack on hikers near Bozeman on Friday and another incident reported near Seeley Lake on Saturday.
Friday's attack on two hikers by a grizzly bear near Big Sky resulted in non-life threatening injuries to the two people.
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