# Bear Attack Near Yellowstone Nat Park



## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

FYI: good reason to NEVER feed wildlife or leave food around. When bears, moose, bison, etc., get human food, they very quickly can become aggressive to get more...

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July 28, 2010

1 dead, 2 injured in bear attack at MT campground

By MATT VOLZ, AP

HELENA, Mont. - At least one bear rampaged through a campground Wednesday near Yellowstone National Park in the middle of the night, killing one person and injuring two others during a terrifying attack that forced people to hide in their cars as the animal tore through tents.

Three separate attacks left a male dead and a female and another male injured at the Soda Butte campground. The female suffered severe lacerations from bites on her arms, and the surviving male was bitten on his calf. Both were hospitalized in Cody, Wyo.

Wildlife officials did not release the identities or ages of the victims. A response team was being sent to piece together what happened.

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

Authorities were setting traps and seeking bear hair, saliva and droppings while measuring the bite wounds of victims to determine the type and number of bears involved in the attack.

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

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

It was not immediately clear how many people were in the campground at the time.

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

The 10-acre Soda Butte campground has 27 sites for tents and recreational vehicles in Gallatin National Forest, some five miles from the northeastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

It is located just off the mountainous Beartooth Highway about 125 miles southwest of Billings.

"It is a populated area for bears, not just grizzly bears but black bears," Gallatin National Forest spokeswoman Marna Daley said.

The campground, which is run by the U.S. Forest Service, has been closed, as well as two other nearby campgrounds, Daley said. Forest Service officials will consider closing more campgrounds after consulting with state wildlife officials leading the investigation, she said.


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## Justman (Jul 22, 2006)

Wow... Hard to think that one minute you're sleeping, enjoying the night and the next second a bear is tearing up your tent. That would make me want to stay at home. Fortunately, not too many bears in Texas...at least that I know of.


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

We drove right past that campground in 1998. We had planned to stay in one of them (there are several in the area), but they were all closed due to either snow or Bear Activity. Grizzlies are just downright nasty. Nice to see from a distance but not real tolerable of people. Its not the first case of them just going into a campground and killing people for seemingly no reason (I'm sure _THEY_ had a reason, just not one we can fully understand). That was one of the reasons we ended up with a hardsided trailer again... we often camp in Grizzly territory (I have no concerns about tent camping in Black Bear territory).


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## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

Further info on the bear attack just outside Yellowstone Nat Park:

4th bear caught after deadly MT campground attack
By MATTHEW BROWN, AP
Friday July 30, noon, Eastern Time:

COOKE CITY, Mont. - The last grizzly bear believed involved in the fatal mauling of a Michigan man at a campground near Yellowstone National Park has been captured, and Montana wildlife officials are awaiting DNA tests to confirm their suspicions.

A sow and two of her three cubs had been trapped by Thursday while the final year-old cub was found in a culvert trap early Friday. The bears, still held in the culvert traps, left the Soda Butte campground in a three-truck convoy Friday morning, bound for the state wildlife lab in Bozeman.

Fibers from a tent or sleeping bag were in the captured bears' droppings, and a tooth fragment found in a tent appears to match a chipped tooth on the 300- to 400-pound sow. But officials say they will decide the bears' fate only after seeing the results of DNA tests that are expected Friday.

"Everything points to it being the offending bear, but we are not going to do anything until we have DNA samples," said Ron Aasheim, a spokesman for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Evidence indicates all three cubs were present for and likely participated in what Warden Capt. Sam Sheppard called a sustained attack on Kevin Kammer of Grand Rapids, Mich. He was pulled out his tent and dragged 25 feet and the bears fed on his body.

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

Cooke City resident Cliff Browne, 70, said visitors and residents of the Yellowstone gateway community would be relieved to hear the news of the final capture.

Living in proximity to grizzlies is part of life and he said he's not particularly scared of bears, but this one was different, he said.

"I hate to see them have to put it down, and I'm not one of those bleeding-heart environmental protectionists, but I don't see any choice," Browne said Friday morning.

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

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

When he felt the bear biting his leg, he started punching the animal, she said. His girlfriend screamed, and the bear ran away.

"He is doing fine," Luron Singer told the Post. "He went fishing today."

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

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

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

"She basically targeted the three people and went after them," he said.

In 2008 at the same campground, a grizzly bear bit and injured a man sleeping in a tent. A young adult female grizzly was captured in a trap four days later and taken to a bear research center in Washington state.

Browne said he didn't expect to change his routines because of the attacks.

"You can't live in fear," he said. "It's not going to change my going out hiking."

About 600 grizzly bears and hundreds of less-aggressive black bears live in the Yellowstone area. The grizzlies are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.


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## deanintemp (Apr 3, 2007)

What are the laws for carrying personal protection in those parts?


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

hautevue said:


> Further info on the bear attack just outside Yellowstone Nat Park:
> 
> 4th bear caught after deadly MT campground attack
> By MATTHEW BROWN, AP
> ...


That is 600 to many, I'd feel better if they were list as extinct, as far as I'm concerned we don't need Grizzlies or wolfs.


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## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

Well, the wolves are predators, and keep the moose, bison, elk and caribou population down by taking the halt, sick and lame. Wolves seldom can get a Dahl sheep (climbs too high). All we have to do to see what happens when animals have no natural predators is to look at the local squirrel population. At least here in Baltimore, we're overrun with the critters, and their only natural enemies are cars. I'm not saying that we should turn wolves loose in the city [grin!] but that natural predators are needed, and perform a useful service.

Grizzlies eat mostly berries, grasses, fruit of plants, etc. About 90%+ of their diet is vegetarian. Yes, they will eat the carcass of a bison or a moose, but very seldom do bears take down a bison or a moose unless the animal is so injured that it can't run. Rather, the grizzly scavenges the carcass after the wolves kill it. The grizzly drives off the wolves. The bear is a lot bigger and faster--grizzlies can run 35 mph for a short burst--that's why we were told to not try to run away if we get too close to a grizzly bear. The wolves just wait until the grizzly fills up and wanders off to sleep.

Wolves go after the calves of moose and bison in the spring, and the "halt, lame and wounded" at other times. We were fortunate to see a pack of 5 wolves stalking a small group of about 10 bison, in February, at Yellowstone. Patience is the word for them! After 10 hours of slowly stalking the group, the bison spotted them and simply trotted away. Wolves usually won't attack a bison--too big and is in a herd for protection. The Ranger said that wolves attack in a pack, and try to cut out a single bison and separate it from the herd, while running through 4 foot deep snow on the side of a hill. They work for their meal!

Anyway, dem's me thoughts!


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

I'm a supporter of all living creatures (with the exception of Mosquitos, Yellow Jackets, and perhaps a couple others...).









It's easy to think we're at the top of the food chain and then every now and then a Bear, Shark, Cougar, decides to show us that we're not quite at the top at all times.

I'm not supporting the bears in this case. I don't want them viewing us as food, but it is a stark remider that the wilds are _REALLY_ wild!


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## forceten (Nov 14, 2008)

I wonder if we are safe in our RV's? I'm sure a bear could break down our doors, but would they?


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

forceten said:


> I wonder if we are safe in our RV's? I'm sure a bear could break down our doors, but would they?


Bears are really opprotunists. They're going to go after the simple meals. It's the same reason they'll let the Wolves make the kill and then go after the carcas. That's why attacks are actually not that common. Sure, they can, and occasionally do go after a car or trailer, but usually they peel it open to get to the food that's been left inside.

Personally, I feel relatively safe in my TT in bear country. I do keep the campsite picked up, so food doesn't get left out, and coolers, etc get locked in the car at night. Heck, even in a tent, I'd bet you are more likely to run into unfriendlies of the two legged variety than those of the four legged.


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

Any bear can open a RV up like a can of tuna, you are in no way save from a bear even a Black bear, not even in your car ot truck.

I will give the Grizzly a break they are true American animals and have a place here, But the wolfs have to go they have no place here and should have never been place here in the US. They are wolfs from Canada and are much larger than the American wolf and they are devastating our Elk populations. In a pack they take down full grown healthy bulls all the time. Also they have no tolerance for other canines and are killing what is left of the true American wolfs. If we don't do something now we will nave nothing but Grizzlies and wolfs left.

Now if we could just teach them to eat politicians that would take care of most of our problems


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## CdnOutback (Apr 16, 2010)

Don't these wolves have to go through Customs? Heck, I'm sure the border was there when they crossed and they should have been stopped! I was..


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

CdnOutback said:


> Don't these wolves have to go through Customs? Heck, I'm sure the border was there when they crossed and they should have been stopped! I was..












That was my thoughts exactly!


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## CdnOutback (Apr 16, 2010)

Border Patrol were real friendly and let me in too!


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