Guyon
Member
Hikers are usually villified on hiking boards if they mention firearm carry.
However, this story should be enough to remind folks that they call it the wild for a reason.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/14/bear.attack.ap/index.html
However, this story should be enough to remind folks that they call it the wild for a reason.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/14/bear.attack.ap/index.html
Six-year-old camper killed by bear
Hunt for black bear is on
Friday, April 14, 2006; Posted: 5:25 p.m. EDT (21:25 GMT)
BENTON, Tennessee (AP) -- Using traps baited with honey buns and doughnuts, authorities Friday tried to capture a potentially crazed black bear that killed a 6-year-old girl and mauled her mother and 2-year-old brother.
It was only the second documented attack on a human by a black bear in modern Tennessee history, said state Wildlife Resources Agency spokesman Dan Hicks.
The attack took place Thursday at a waterfall near a campground in the Cherokee National Forest, where rangers said the animal might have been suffering from a disease that affected its behavior.
"It's a pretty rare thing. Black bears generally don't attack people," ranger Monty Williams said.
Witnesses said the bear snatched up the boy in its mouth as the mother and other visitors tried to fend it off with sticks and rocks. The 6-year-old girl ran away but was later found dead about 100 yards down the trail, a bear standing over her, authorities said.
A rescuer fired a shot that scared the animal off, Hicks said.
Both the mother and boy were listed in critical condition at a Chattanooga hospital but were expected to recover. The boy suffered head wounds, mostly likely from being bitten, while the mother had eight puncture wounds to the neck and too many others to count elsewhere on her body, doctors said.
Authorities have not been able to talk to the mother because of her injuries. "She may not remember the attack at all," Hicks said.
Authorities would not release the victims' names but said the family was from Ohio.
Lynn Rogers of the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota, said that there have been only 56 documented killings of humans by black bears in North America in the past 100 years. Rogers said the current population of black bears in North America is around 750,000, and there is generally fewer than one killing a year.
In May 2000, a woman was killed by a black bear near Gatlinburg as she walked on a trail near a Smoky Mountains campground.
Joe Clark, a wildlife ecologist with the U.S. Geological Service who has been studying black bears for about 20 years, said injuries or sickness can make them more aggressive.
"I've never experienced any type of aggression in all my time in the woods," he said. "Typically you won't encounter one because they sense your presence a long time before you sense theirs."
"As the populations of people and bears continue to grow there will be more opportunities for this type of thing," Clark said. "We are dealing with a large, powerful wild animal."
Authorities at the Cherokee National Forest set out traps for the bear and said that if the animal is captured it will be killed so tests can be done to determine if it was ill.
"We may never find it," Hicks said. "It may be on the top of another mountain by now."
The attack occurred in a mountainous area, 10 miles from the nearest highway. The national forest covers 1,000 square miles along the Tennessee-North Carolina line.
No more than six groups of campers were at the campground at the time, and they were evacuated after the attack, Hicks said.
He said that this is the time of year when bears are usually active, and that there have been 42 bear sightings in the area in the past couple of weeks.
