Woman attacked by bear while running marathon in New Mexico

Officials say female black bear attacked after cub ran up a tree

Runner suffers bites, scratches and injuries to head, neck and upper body

Associated Press in Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico

Sunday 19 June 201620.55 BSTLast modified on Sunday 19 June 201621.31 BST

Wildlife officials say a bear attacked a woman who was running a marathon in a national preserve in northern New Mexico.

The woman suffered several bites and scratches and had injuries to her head, neck and upper body that were not life-threatening.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (DGF) said the woman was racing on Saturday afternoon when a female black bear confronted her in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Officers said the victim surprised the bear after the bear’s cub ran up a nearby tree.

Other joggers helped the woman until emergency crews arrived. She was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital.

The New Mexico DGF and the National Park Service warned people to stay away from the area.

Officials were trying to find the bear, to euthanize it and test it for rabies. Although rabies in bears is rare, the DGF said in a statement, “it is nearly 100% fatal in humans if not properly treated”.

Source … 

Young bear killed in California may have been mutilated for its body parts

Black bear ‘yearling’ was mutilated by the side of the road in California, possibly for his paws and gall bladder, which could sell for upwards of a thousand dollars

Nicky Woolf in San Francisco

Friday 3 June 201620.04 BSTLast modified on Friday 3 June 201621.55 BST

A young bear killed by a vehicle on a California road this week was found by highway maintenance workers to have been mutilated, possibly so that parts of it could be sold on the black market, according to officials.

The bear had injuries consistent with being hit by a car in the early hours of Thursday morning, not shot or poisoned, according to Andrew Hughan, an information officer for the California department of fish and wildlife, who said the black bear, the only species in California, was a “yearling” at two years old and 150 pounds – “something like a teenager”.

However, Hughan said that when the game warden arrived on the scene to retrieve the carcass he discovered that “the paws had been cut off and the gall bladder had been removed, which is pretty disheartening”.

The gall bladders of bears especially can sell for upwards of a thousand dollars on the black market, Hughan said, as many “in the Asian community” think it has medical or aphrodisiac powers, while the paws are often cooked and eaten.

In East Asia, bears are often kept in captivity and farmed for their gall bladders and bile inside, often in battery-farm conditions. It has been estimated that as many as 12,000 bears are farmed this way across the region, despite there being no medically recognised effects of the bile whatsoever.

Continued … 

Louisiana black bear removed from endangered species list

The US Department of the Interior said the ‘conservation success’ meant the subspecies no longer required protection but will continue to be monitored

In 1992, the Louisiana black bear was listed under the endangered species act, which provided protection for the animal as well as restoration of some of its habitat. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

Oliver Milman

Thursday 10 March 2016 17.38 GMTLast modified on Thursday 10 March 201623.31 GMT

The Louisiana black bear, the animal credited with spawning the phrase “teddy bear”, is to be removed from the federal list of endangered wildlife following a two-decade conservation effort.

The US Department of the Interior said the “conservation success” of the bear meant it no longer required the protection of the endangered species act, which bars any killing or removal of listed creatures. The black bear will continue to be monitored, however, and it’s expected that there won’t be an immediate return to hunting the animal.

Hunting black bears was very much in vogue in 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt set out to shoot a bear in rural Mississippi, aided by former slave and Confederate cavalryman Holt Collier, who had 3,000 kills to his name.

Roosevelt, a known big-game hunter, failed to locate a single bear until his assistants found one that had been injured by dogs that had tracked it down. The bear was tied to a tree and the president was invited to shoot it. But Roosevelt refused to do so, as he thought it was unsportsmanlike.

This refusal was depicted in a subsequent cartoon in the Washington Post, which in turn prompted a New York store to put two stuffed bears, called “Teddy’s bears” in the window. Roosevelt later gave permission for toy bears to be sold with this moniker.

Continued ...

Florida wildlife officials approve black bear hunting despite strong opposition

Black bears have bounced back in Florida to the extent they now need controlling, say its wildlife officials

Florida wildlife officials have approved a new bear hunting season only a few years after the animals were removed from the state's threatened species list, reports the Miami Herald.

After an impassioned public debate, mostly in opposition to the new hunting regulations, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 5-1 for a limited black bear hunt to help control the growing population.

Florida outlawed all bear hunting in 1994, but it says a growth in the bear population and an increase in the number of nuisance calls and bears killed by cars were the reasons for allowing a new hunt. A one-week hunting season in the autumn will be allowed in four areas of the state.

Hunters applauded the decision, but critics such as The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) delivered petitions to Governor Rick Scott with the signatures of more than 90,000 people trying to stop the hunt of Florida's largest native land mammal.

Continued ...

Elusive black bear spotted again in Phoenix suburb

MESA, Ariz. (AP) — A black bear that caused a stir when it ran through a field in a Phoenix suburb has been spotted again, a state wildlife official said Tuesday.

Residents reported seeing the bear twice between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. in east Mesa, Arizona Game and Fish spokeswoman Amy Burnett said.

Wildlife personnel had been searching near the Mesa airport, but the animal hasn't been located. The agency is halting the search for now, she said.

"It's called off until we have another confirmed sighting," Burnett said.

Bears typically move around in the evening and morning, so a sighting in the middle of the day would be unlikely, she added. Anyone who does see the bear is advised to call Game and Fish or local police.

"Do not approach it," Burnett said. "Don't try to feed it."

Continued ...

Most of California man's body eaten by black bear

A wild black bear ate most of a Northern California man who likely died earlier of a heart attack, officials said Friday.

Humboldt County Deputy Coroner Roy Horton said he believes 65-year-old Marion Williams died outside his trailer in a remote area before the bear came upon him.

Authorities discovered the remains on Monday after friends reported Williams missing for five days.

Continued ...

Bear escapes habitat at Texas zoo; no one hurt

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A 220-pound black bear who managed to climb out of a South Texas zoo exhibit took a dip in a pond with some harbor seals before staffers tranquilized him.

No one was hurt in the incident Monday at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. Zoo spokeswoman Cynthia Galvan said Tuesday that the male bear, named Oscar, is staying in his sleeping quarters, out of public view, until repairs are made to cracks in the concrete wall of the bear grotto.

Oscar apparently made his way out by digging his claws into cracks in the grotto's concrete wall, Galvan said.

Continued ...

Black bear sighting in Vietnam indicates conservation success

A rare Asiatic black bear has been recorded by WWF camera traps in Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam.

Due to its white patch on its chest the Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus),is also known as the moon bear or white-chested bear, and is classed by the IUCN as a vulnerable species.

The sighting is an important indicator of the success of the conservation efforts by WWF and the Vietnamese government to improve the quality of the area’s forests and preserve the unique species diversity.

The framework of the Carbon and Biodiversity Programme (CarBi) covers an area of more than 200,000ha of forest, along a vital mountain range that links Laos and Vietnam in Southeast Asia.

Continued

Black bear euthanized after frequenting area

SHALIMAR, Fla. (AP) — A 350-pound black bear found sleeping in a Florida Panhandle tree has been euthanized.

The bear had been caught, tagged and removed from the same area twice since April but kept finding his way back to the neighborhood near Panama City.

A spokesman for Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told the Northwest Florida Daily News (http://bit.ly/1xc7TSC ) that the bear was euthanized because he created a risk of causing traffic accidents and other problems in the busy area.

Continued

Black bear digs through insulation to get honey

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A black bear in Juneau, Alaska, didn't let a few floorboards keep him from getting at some honey.

The male bear walked up the stairs of a porch at the home of Janet and Donald Kussart and tore through the floorboards and some insulation to get his treat, the Juneau Empire reported (http://is.gd/su9At7 ).

The bear was wearing an Alaska Department of Fish and Game tag.

A neighbor, Ira Winograd, said the bear must have smelled a beehive the wall of the house, so he tore it up to get to his meal. Afterward, the bear ambled along a walkway and eventually darted into the forest.

Janet Kussart said people are used to having bears in the Starr Hill neighborhood.

On Saturday, a different bear fell through a skylight at the Juneau home of Alice Bishop and Glenn Merrill as they prepared for their son's first birthday party.

Continued

Bear In A Hammock: Hammock Later Removed By Owner

The Huffington Post | By Michael McLaughlin

Posted: 05/31/2014 1:04 pm EDT 

A black bear that had wandered through a Florida neighborhood causing a ruckus capped things off by climbing into a resident's backyard hammock.

The furry visitor spent about 20 minutes on Thursday evening hanging out in theDaytona Beach hammock, TV station WKMG reports.

Soon after the bear headed into the woods, homeowner Vincent James took down the hammock, WESH reports.

Neighbor Rafael Torres snapped photos of the bear from about 60 feet away after noticing that something had rummaged through his garbage.

Other neighbors said the bear had searched for food by going through trash cans and knocking down bird feeders since Wednesday.

No one was harmed by the bear's presence, but one prime spot for a nap has been destroyed.

Source

Black Bear Visits Florida Man's Home Twice

Tramaine Gaines was in the kitchen of his Florida home this week eating pizza when he noticed something big searching through his things just a few feet away.

"I look to my right and to my disbelief I see two eyes looking at me in the darkness," Gaines said.

Those two eyes belonged to a black bear that had made himself at home inside the screened patio of Gaines' Lake Mary home.

"The bear was actually on his way back in[side]," said Gaines, who captured the encounter with the bear on his cellphone.

Read on and watch video:

Michigan Black Bear Shot By DNR Isn't Same Animal That Attacked 12-Year-Old Abby Witherell

Authorities from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources trapped and killed a black bear after it mauled a 12-year-old girl in an attack earlier this month. Or so they thought: the stage agency admitted Monday that they bagged the wrong bear.

DNA evidence showed that the black bear shot and killed by DNR officers in Wexford County, Mich. on Aug. 18 wasn't the samebear who attacked 12-year-old Abigail Wetherell of Haring Township while she was jogging on an unpaved road in the woods near her grandparents' home Aug. 15. She was attacked twice by the bear, and it took 100 stitches to close her puncture wounds and deep cuts.

Read on

Beloved "Bozo" the Black Bear Shot Dead, Town Mourns

Largest black bear killed in the state was fed by a Poconos man for 17 years

Seventy-one-year-old Leroy Lewis had a unique friend: an almost 900-pound black bear he had been feeding by hand for 17 years. He named the bear Bozo.

On the first day of Pennsylvania’s new archery season, a hunter shot Bozo dead in the animal's Poconos habitat. The Nov. 15 bear kill should have been a great trophy for hunter David Price, as Bozo is now the largest black bear ever taken down in state history.

But for Lewis and many residents of the Bushkill community, the death of the beloved Bozo was a tragedy, reports the Pocono Record.

"I'm devastated. I'm just devastated," Lewis told the Pocono Record Friday. "I mean I feel like I lost a friend. He used to come knock on the door when he was hungry."

The 879-pound bear is the heaviest on record in Pennsylvania by 15 pounds. Bozo surely got to be that size because of the store-bought pies, doughnuts, table-scraps and sweets Lewis would feed him.

"I fed him for 17 years and I raised him from a cub," Lewis, who worked for years as the Fernwood Resort groundkeeper, told the Pocono Record. "He loved doughnuts and anything sweet. I was never scared of him."

After the community-wide outpouring of grief became known to Price, the hunter who bagged Bozo told the Pocono Record that the whole affair has been upsetting. Price had no idea that the 17-year-old bear was a regular friend to the Fernwood Resort and surrounding residents.

Continued:  http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Town-Mourns-Bozo-the-Black-Bear-Killed-by-Hunter-109949654.html

Excitement about black bear sighting turns to dread over animal's fate

"Want to take a walk with me to the mailbox?" my husband asked.

Evening was just around the corner and since we both spent the better part of the day inside, we were overdue for a bit of outdoor exercise.

"Sure," I said. "Just give me a minute to get ready and I'll join you."

I slipped into shoes, stuck the phone in my pocket and grabbed the camera. Even for a short walk, I make a point of taking a camera along just in case. I've been out too many times without one and missed some exciting shots.

Our mailbox is about a half-mile away. To get there, we meandered down our dirt driveway and the unpaved road, flanked by houses on one side and a 120-acre wood on the other.

After stopping to chat with a neighbor, we continued along. Mosquitoes were coming out and I was eager to get the mail, return home and jump into the lake before the bugs got the best of me. But a few steps farther along, all thoughts of biting insects vanished when I caught sight of something I had never seen before.

"Ralph! " I commanded, pointing ahead. "Stop! There's a bear right there!"

No sooner had the words escaped my lips than a black hunk of a creature emerged from beneath a broad oak tree. Instantly, the animal noticed us and shifted gears. When I first saw him, he was nosing something on the ground but seconds later he was lumbering across the road toward the safety of the woods. Midway, he stopped to size up the two humans who had interrupted his foraging.

While all this was happening — less than a minute — I was prying the camera from my pocket and directing it toward the bear. Click. One shot was all I got before the bear disappeared into the woods.

"Should we follow him?" Ralph asked eagerly.

I shook my head. "There's no way we'd be able to find him. He's too fast, the woods too dense. It's too late to try."

We continued to the mailbox on a cloud of excitement.

"I can't believe we saw a bear!" I repeated about a dozen times. "I'm so glad you were with me. I don't think anyone would have believed me if I'd been alone."

Equally awed, Ralph said, "It looked like a big dog. I'm amazed you saw it."

"Me too," I admitted. "I still can't believe, after 21 years living here, we actually saw a bear! That's so incredible! I wonder when we'll see it again."

My elation didn't abate. I uploaded the picture I took soon after we got home and left an excited message on my daughter's voice mail. My natural high remained throughout the night and following day. It wasn't until about 24 hours after spotting the bear that my euphoria took a nosedive, settling into sorrowful despair.

Read on:  http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-16/news/os-lk-sherry-boas-071612-20120716_1_mailbox-voice-mail-fwc-spokeswoman-joy-hill

Rare Sight: Black Bear Photographed at Grand Canyon

A hidden camera caught a rare picture of a large black bear roaming near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon last month.  The picture was recently released by park officials.

It's highly uncommon to see bears around this area because there are only a few natural water sources and it offers only marginal habitat, said Greg Holm, wildlife program manager at Grand Canyon National Park.

Holm told OurAmazingPlanet he thinks the bear may have been driven by thirst. "It's very, very dry this year," he said. "The theory is that that bear or some bears may have been traveling into the park to find new sources of water."

Wildlife biologists use several wildlife camera traps, like the one that snapped a photo of the bear on June 14 near Hermit Road, to gain information about animal populations in the park. Cameras are particularly helpful in studying elusive carnivores, which are typically nocturnal. The devices operate via heat and motion sensors to trigger them to automatically take pictures when there is movement within the camera's range.


This is a "reason for people to be more cautious about bears in the area," Holm said. Use common sense, like not feeding bears or approaching them, he said. While bears generally avoid people, it's always good to remember that uncovered trash, recycle bins, pet food and even bird feeders can act as bear attractants.

http://www.livescience.com/21571-grand-canyon-black-bear-photo.html

Dog walker escapes bear attack in Middle Smithfield Twp.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is investigating a Wednesday night black bear attack in Middle Smithfield Township near the Great Bear Golf Course.

Marie Klingel, 54, told state police in Swiftwater that while walking a dog along Great Bear Way, a small black bear came out of the woods and tried to attack the dog.

Klingel said she got in the middle of the potential animal fight and was scratched and bitten by the bear, though not seriously.

Pennsylvania Game Commission Northeast Regional Office spokesman Bill Williams said Thursday his office still is gathering information on the incident before it can make a full determination of what happened.

Williams said anytime an animal makes contact with a human, "it's an issue" to be concerned about.

He said it's rare for a bear to come into contact with a person. When it does happen, there often is a common thread — a dog.

"When we've seen it, it's usually someone who is walking their dog," he said.

Derek Storey, who lives nearby at Tall Timber Circle, said Klingel is a dog-walker for many people in the Great Bear community, including his family. He said the dog she was walking at the time of the attack was not hers.

"Everybody (in the Great Bear community) is upset," he said.

Efforts to reach Klingel on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Storey said Klingel called him for help after the attack Wednesday night, knowing he is a paramedic and lived nearby where the attack happened.

Continued:  http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120706/NEWS/207060335/-1/rss01

Wandering Cape Cod bear captured in Boston suburb

BOSTON (Reuters) - He's baaack: A male black bear captured on Cape Cod earlier this month, where it was tranquilized and moved to central Massachusetts, showed up again on Tuesday just six miles from downtown Boston.

State officials said they had captured the bear in a tree in the Chestnut Hill area of Brookline, just west of Boston, and confirmed it was the same bear which roamed the Cape for about two weeks before being captured and relocated on June 12.

The bear was identified by a tag placed in its ear. It had probably traveled about 100 miles.

"Because this bear was in a highly congested urban area, an interagency Large Animal Response Team was deployed to the area," said the Massachusetts' wildlife agency, known as MassWildlife.

The 180-pound bear was then shot with a tranquilizer dart by the Environmental Police. Later, MassWildlife officials transported the animal to a remote location in western Massachusetts, about 150 miles away.

The Boston Globe reported that the bear was spotted in a white pine tree in the backyard of Alan Leventhal, chief executive of Beacon Capital Partners, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States, and on Boston University's Board of Trustees.

The agency said that black bear sightings have been reported in a number of towns west and south of Boston recently but could not confirm that all sightings were the same bear.

The Boston Globe reported that the bear was spotted in a white pine tree in the backyard of Alan Leventhal, chief executive of Beacon Capital Partners, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States, and on Boston University's Board of Trustees.

The Brookline Police Department tweeted photographs of the bear in the tree, with a caption that was a twist on the classic children's book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See":

"Black bear, black bear what do you see? I see Brookline police looking at me."

The so-called Cape Cod bear was first spotted May 27 in the Cape Cod area, the easternmost part of the state. State wildlife officials think the bear swam across the Cape Cod Canal from the mainland.

The Massachusetts bear population was last estimated at 3,000 in 2005, with most bears in northwest and western parts of the state, including the Berkshires region.

The black bear population has been slowly growing and expanding its range into eastern and southeastern Massachusetts, state officials said. Of the three species of bear found in North America, the American black bear is the smallest.

(Reporting By Ros Krasny)

http://news.yahoo.com/wandering-cape-cod-bear-captured-boston-suburb-060522803.html;_ylt=Asdz94HWIG6t42OajixG9_ftiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNxdHA1cmxjBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBPZGRVU1NGBHBrZwMwZGQ2MGY1ZS00MGVkLTM4NjYtYjkzNS04ZWMxMjU2YjE4NmUEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3RvcF9zdG9yeQR2ZXIDYTNkMDA0OTAtYzA0OS0xMWUxLTkyYmYtNzI4MWFhYjExNzky;_ylg=X3oDMTFtOW42ZDltBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lfG9kZARwdANzZWN0aW9ucw--;_ylv=3

Faithful pet fights off black bear in US

A NEW Hampshire woman survived a bear attack thanks to her pet dog Kai, FOX station WFXT reported yesterday.

Tracey Colburn, 46, said she had just finished a pot roast dinner on Saturday night when the dog needed to go outside to use the bathroom.

As Ms Colburn opened the door of her Grafton, New Hampshire, home, she was confronted with a massive black bear standing on the front porch, alongside her cubs.

"She [the bear] was very, very angry and aggressive," Ms Colburn told station WMUR.

Kai, an eight-year-old Husky-Labrador cross, leaped at the mother bear in a bid to protect his owner.

Ms Colburn said the bear took a swipe at her when she ran out onto the porch as it mauled Kai.

"That's when I thought, 'I'm going to die,'" she told WFXT.

At that point, Kai repeatedly bit the bear, giving Ms Colburn enough time to escape.

She suffered injuries to both arms and received 25 stitches. Kai has been limping since the attack but otherwise appears fine, the report stated.

"The bear would have killed me ... he [Kai] saved my life," Ms Colburn added.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/the-other-side/dog-saves-owner-from-bear-attack/story-e6frfhk6-1226400925418

Black bear euthanized after eating Canada murderer - via D R Shoop (update on earlier story)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada (AP) --

Canadian conservation officers have euthanized a black bear that ate the remains of a convicted murderer.

British Columbia Environment Minister Terry Lake said Monday the bear's description matched that of one seen guarding a cache that contained the remains of Rory Wagner, 54. Examinations of fur at the scene as well as teeth and claw marks confirmed the bear that was euthanized is the one that ate the remains.

Lake said the animal was put down because bears remember food sources.

Officials suspect the bear pulled Wagner's body from his car after he died on a remote logging road.

Wagner pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1994. He and two others were charged with a killing a man who they believed had sexually assaulted a family member. He served his prison time and was released.

Wagner, who was living in Kamloops, British Columbia, was reported missing May 23. Police said his death was not suspicious. Hunters found the site last week.

Regional coroner Mark Coleman said it is not yet known how Wagner died.

Coleman said an autopsy showed the man was dead before the bear got him out of the car. Coleman said toxicology results to reveal how Wagner died would not be complete for several weeks.

Royal Canadian Mounted Poilce Sgt. Grant Learned said Wagner was on life parole and had been living in an approved facility in the city. He said Wagner had attended work May 21 and said he wouldn't be coming in to work in the following days.

When he failed to show up at his residence May 22, a warrant was issued for his arrest. His body was found shortly after.

"The degree of decomposition would suggest the body had been removed (from the car) after death," Learned said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/06/04/international/i0
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