Boy, 11, killed by bear at family campsite

[Sequoia]

AMERICAN FORK, Utah - Wildlife officers fatally shot a black bear Monday, hours after an 11-year-old boy was snatched from his family's tent and killed, a rare attack in Utah's Wasatch Mountains.

With 26 dogs assisting them in the search, authorities were confident that the bear was the same one that ripped through the tent shortly before midnight Sunday.

The bear was killed about 11:30 a.m. MDT near the area where the victim was mauled, said Lt. Scott White of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

"Truly a tragic event. ... Events of this type are extremely rare in Utah," Jim Karpowitz, director of the wildlife agency, said at a news conference before the bear's death was reported.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19293440/

That sure is horrid. I wonder why, maybe the kid had some food with him. Poor family, so tragic.

I can remember camping in Sequoia Nat'l Park when my kid was a baby. A bear came in during the night and I had my pots ready to bang together which I did. The bear went up a few campsites and tore into a young couple's car. The guy said he'd better take photos of it because his insurance company wouldn't believe him. That afternoon when most campers had gone off to do things we were at camp with a napping baby when the bear came into our neighbors campsite and opened up the back of a camper hatch and got a bag of chips. I screamed, off she went. When the knucklehead campers came back I told them and they 1) Why didn't you scare it off? 2) Dad, can we keep food out so the bear will come again? Mind you,the men all were guards at San Quinten.

[Mojambo]

1. Well, they are "godless killing machines."

Poor kid.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Just came back from camping in New Mexico, and we saw two bears during the week.

I felt priveleged to see them in the wild, but I also have an 11-year-old boy--an awful(hopefully rare) incident.

edit to add: are they still tops on the "Threatdown" list?

[Gormy Cuss]

3. And your story helps explain why now Sequoia NP requires the use of bear boxes.

We camped there about four years ago and there was a handout at registration with photos of bears in campers' cars and strong words about keeping everything in the bear box.

In the Wasatch story, all I can say is poor kid. What an awful for a child to die.

on edit: the family may have done everything right in terms of food storage and just had the bad luck to encounter a habituated bear. If the bear had found food in tents before, the bear would view a tent as a food storage spot.

[EFerrari]

25. (My family sat through a safety lecture by a ranger and later that night

the lady who'd sat right next to me ran screaming out of her tent because there was a bear in it, eating her candy.)


Edit: that was at Yosemite.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. I say we destroy all boys so this can never happen again.

[rucky]

18. DU-zy Alert!

:rofl:

[Coventina]

5. Just an FYI that I read some time ago: It's good to bring dogs

in bear country.

For some reason, bears tend to avoid being in the same area as dogs. And it doesn't seem to matter if the dog is large or small.

[Sequoia]

9. Interesting because at that same site in Sequoia

a camper across the road had a little black and white yipping dog who chased the bear up the hill and a couple of grown men grabbed cameras and went running up the hill after it. The bear turned around and started chasing the guys back down, the little dog took off again...it was funny. Especially seeing the guys running with their faces all white. Another camper yelled at them and called them stupid idiots and yelled, "This isn't a f*&^ing Disney movie!"

[Coventina]

10. People can be so incredibly stupid!

That camper was right, when you invade the bears' territory, you have to respect them.

[EFerrari]

26. My first husband did something very similar in our campground

in Yosemite. I wanted to kill him but decided to just divorce him because I didn't want to do more time.

[struggle4progress]

28. Park ranger told me once he encountered a woman smearing her kid with honey

with a bear nearby. She explained she planned to snap a cute picture of the bear licking the honey off the kid

[EFerrari]

29. Omg.

:(

[DemBones DemBones]

30. There was a story of a couple who smeared peanut butter on their kid's hand,

and the bear bit the girl's hand off. Some people have no common sense.

[hlthe2b]

16. Yes.... I always hike with my dog or a group of dogs. She wears

"bear bells" around her neck and I carry the giant-sized bear (pepper) spray--and the cell phone. I know we've been in the immediate vicinity of a mountain lion (from later reports) but have never seen them and have never knowingly encountered bears. I assume they are deterred by the dogs, but maybe we've just been lucky.

One thing is, for sure, they'd have to take out BOTH of us because I'd surely be like a mamma bear protecting my girlie and likewise she for me!

So, tragic about this little boy... truly.

[maxsolomon]

6. very sad for both humans & animal

the wilderness is real.

[devilgrrl]

7. I'm wondering if food was stored in the tent as well....

tragic indeed. :-(

[northofdenali]

8. Bear attacks aren't much of a rarity here, unfortunately -

but 98% of them are the result of idiocy by the camper/hiker. They ignore the "keep your food unavailable", "use bear-proof trash bins (in most parks)", "make noise" etc. Many of the attacks are by bears that have become used to humans because of food left on the porch/in the garage etc.

Deplorable, and that poor child and his family. When a bear becomes acclimatized, unfortunately the only solution is to kill it. There are many, many instances of acclimatized bears being trucked very long distances after being darted - and returning to the same site within days.

Noise is probably the best you can do (unless you have a BIG gun and time to use it). There's some great info here for folks camping in bear areas in any state:

http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=bears.harmony

<snip> Keeping bears away from human food is perhaps the most important thing we can do to prevent conflicts and confrontations between bears and people.

Great article by our state fish & game.

[Sequoia]

11. Thanks. Toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo too. Keep it in the bear box.

Everything you eat and use on your body, hair, mouth. IN THE BEAR BOX. It's annoying as hell and do keep noise makers near you.

[seemunkee]

12. Never heard of an unprovoked attack by a black bear before

Searching for food, yeah, I've seen the result of that but to attack a human is pretty odd.

[uppityperson]

20. Friend of a friend (I know) got eaten by a black bear in Glacier Bay

Was experienced with bears, being in bear country. kayaking and camping, vegan guy, took pictures of black bear roaming around camp. They found his shoulder/arm. Found the bear from the pictures, killed and autopsied and it was the right bear. Never could figure out why, just a bear gone bad.

[TahitiNut]

13. Well, that sure will deter other black bears from doing the same thing!

Ubetcha. :shrug:


Camping: Smorgasbord for ursa - like peasant under glass. Dessert is kid smeared with smores.

[hlthe2b]

14. Is rare for black bears to kill....

I wonder if NPS is enforcing the use of "bear-proof containers" for food. Unfortunately, they are sort of expensive and I imagine many would not use them regardless.

[natrat]

15. one morning at the campground by vernal falls in yosemite I

followed this bear around in the early quiet. I stayed 20 or 30 yards away from him as he went from space to space looking for brekfast. At one point i was 20 feet away with only the stream in between us.

[B Calm]

17. Here in Indiana it's raccoons that tear up camp sites. Never heard

of a raccoon killing someone, unless it was by rabies... Did you know that raccoons are a member of the bear family?

[bklyncowgirl]

19. On Assateague Island in Maryland & Virginia it's wild ponies--800 pound raccoons.

They go into tents and screen houses, open coolers and raid picnic tables.

In an effort to thwart these equine thieves, the National Park service put fences around the garbage cans with narrow openings. The ponies figured it out almost immediately, now the little colts slip through the gap and pull the cans over so the rest of the herd can feast. They put horse-proof grids across the driveways--the ranger said the ponies walk on it better than he does. I once saw a band go through a campsite checking out the tables until they found the mother lode--someone left their hamburger and hot dog rolls out. The ponies ripped open the bags, tossed them aside and feasted while the stud kept watch in case the owners came back. I suppose that if he felt that some irate camper was a threat to his mares and foals he could have attacked.

My absolute favorite was the little stallion who very delicately opened someone's cooler and found corn. I suppose I should have chased him but he was very clever and really rather considerate--a few good kicks would have reduced that cooler to broken bits of plastic. Besides any fool who leaves food out at a campsite deserves to get robbed. In bear country unfortunately, this means you can also get killed.

[uppityperson]

21. Oh crap, I feel for that family

[AZBlue]

22. When will we ever learn to respect nature????

This poor boy and his family. I feel so badly for them. We hear these stories all the time and we focus on the tragedy and ignore what should be learned and changed to prevent future incidents. Urban sprawl is taking the bears' territory away from them and they have no choice but to mix with us on ours as a result. What do we expect?? And then droughts and other environmental factors (many our doing) that cut out their food supply make them hungry - again, what do we expect to happen when we put them in this situation?? Why do we not address the problem instead of watching people being maimed and killed?? It's tragic!

[MedleyMisty]

23. Because it's easier to kill the bears - directly or indirectly

and then chant "Humans #1! Humans #1!" and go down to Tragedies R Us and buy some anti-bear bumper sticker.

Respect and care for other species? Yeah right, humans can't even respect and care for other humans who look different from them.

Note: This is not a comment on any posters on this thread or the family personally involved in this incident. Just a comment on the attitudes that prevent the change suggested by AZBlue.

[AZBlue]

27. You're right!

It's much easier. And, we don't like to care or be proactive - it's the bullying/snippy/all-for-me attitude that's so prevalent in our society today. It's so so sad!!

[Coventina]

31. "We're here! We're queer! We don't want any more bears!"

Sorry, couldn't resist the Simpsons reference.

[EFerrari]

24. That family had probably sat through 10 lectures on how to avoid

bears. And they probably had food in their tent. How horrible.

:(

[madokie]

32. one thing to remember about bears is they can run uphill as fast as you can run downhill

me know

[helderheid]

33. This happened not far from where I live

:scared:

So so sad.