Whose Bear?
November 1st, 2007
Two weeks ago a 450 pound male black bear opened a sliding glass door to a condo in Aspen, entered the condo, and attacked the occupant, a woman, who sustained serious injuries. The attack came at 1:30 a.m. The bear was killed by state and federal wildlife officers Saturday. The hunters were aided by the radio transmitter on the bear’s collar.
From the Aspen Times (here):
DOW kills bear that attacked woman
Aspen Times Staff
Aspen, CO
October 30, 2007ASPEN – State and federal wildlife officers on Saturday killed a male bear that attacked and injured an Aspen woman on Oct. 17.
According to a statement from the Colorado Division of Wildlife, officers located the bear using a GPS tracking collar placed on it earlier this year as part of a wildlife research project monitoring black bear behavior. They killed the bear about a mile east of Aspen around 3 p.m. Saturday.
“By verifying collar tracking data, officers are sure that they have eliminated the bear responsible for the earlier incident,” Wildlife Division spokesman Randy Hampton said in the statement. “Tracking equipment had enabled wildlife officers to get close to the bear on several previous attempts, but nearby homes made it impossible to safely shoot the bear on those occasions.”
On Oct. 17 the bear, which weighed approximately 450 pounds and was likely 5 to 10 years old, opened a sliding glass door and entered a Judith Garrison’s Aspen condo at about 1:30 a.m. The woman surprised the bear in the kitchen, and the bear clawed her in the face, causing serious injuries.
“Tests are being run on the bear to determine whether it had any diseases or health issues that may have contributed to the aggressive behavior,” Hampton reported, noting that neither this particular bear nor any other has been involved in any human encounters in the Aspen area since Oct. 17.
“Black bear attacks are uncommon, but these powerful predators can become dangerous when lured to developed areas by human food sources,” Hampton continued. “Residents are reminded to close and lock doors and eliminate bear attractants such as trash, bird feeders, pet food, barbecue grills and fruit trees.”
While most bears should be either in their dens for winter hibernation or heading in that direction, Hampton said there likely are still a few large males seeking to fatten up a little more before they den up.
And in the past some bears, particularly large males that have become very habituated to human-sourced foods, have stayed out all winter long, he said.
The bear had a collar! Somebody put that collar on that bear, for the purposes of tracking it. No doubt, that operation cost a pretty penny, not to mention the gear. No doubt, taxpayers paid for it.
Somebody was supposed to be tracking the bear. We assume that, because why else would anybody put a radio transmitter collar on a bear? It’s not a sport now, is it? If bear collaring is a sport now, why does the taxpayer have to foot the bill? And why put a radio transmitter in the collar, if bear wrestling and collaring is the main event?
No, we are quite sure that tracking the bear was the purpose. However, if the bear was tracked into town, why weren’t the city authorities warned? Why weren’t state and federal wildlife officers dispatched before the bear went into somebody’s condo in the middle of the night? Or if the bear wasn’t tracked, why not? (we discussed that issue in the previous paragraph).
The bear was apparently human-habituated to some degree, because he opened a sliding glass door. The door was undoubtedly shut. It is cold in Aspen. It is snowy there now, and was two weeks ago. Nobody left their sliding glass door open wide. The bear was clever, and not afraid of humans at all.
The bear had a collar. He was somebody’s bear. We don’t mean he was a trained bear. Far from it; that bear was a wild animal. But once a human puts a collar on an animal, that human takes on responsibilities for that animal.
We would like to know the names of the humans involved in collaring and tracking the bear.
Moreover, in a very real legal sense, the bear belonged to either the Colorado Division of Wildlife or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or both. Whoever collared that bear was working for some agency or university or BINGO, or a consortium of those.
We would like to know the names of all the humans involved in the “wildlife research project monitoring black bear behavior.” We would like to see their monitoring report. We would like to see their study plan. We would like to see their data. We would like to know a lot more about the “project.”
If the animal that attacked the woman in her kitchen at 1:30 a.m. had been a dog, a dog with a radio transmitter collar, we imagine that the dog owner would be behind bars right now awaiting indictment and trial for attempted murder.
The bear had a collar. That was somebody’s bear.
The story in the Aspen Times leaves important questions unanswered. But one thing is clear: wild predators on the loose do not mix well with people. Wild predators on the loose attack and sometimes kill human beings, even urbanites, asleep in their beds in their urban condos.
Bears, wolves, and cougars are wild predators fully capable of injuring and killing human beings. They are a type of wildlife that needs controls and management. Free roaming wild predators in human habitat are bad news. Humans roaming in wild predator habitat need sufficient protection.
These animals are not the cute and cuddly kind. Think plague rats.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:46 am
Years ago, I drew an Oregon bighorn sheep tag. I passed on two rams that were better than the one I shot because I could not bring myself to shoot livestock. A sheep with a collar or an ear tag is livestock. I also saw a ewe with a collar in a place there were not supposed to be sheep. She had a lamb with her. Her collar had quit transmitting 8 years before. I got her ear tag number.
The real bear story this year is the the north end of Yellowstone, where outside the Park there have been 5 grizz maulings in the last 6 weeks or so. They are trolling the Park line for gut piles left by successful achery and now rifle hunters. It is still too warm for hibernation in that part of the world. The Bozeman paper said the last one was probably sleeping in the foothills above the Yellowstone River, and eating apples on farmsteads at night, judging by the scat findings in the mauling area. Of course, the tv news here is that the grizz population is in dire need of protection because of bear deaths to human caused events, and the local knowledge is that there are 600 or more bears in the Greater Yellowstone area right now. They are in competition with the introduced wolves for food.
The elk and moose are being relentlessly chased by wolves and moving closer to human habitation for security reasons, so the great predators are moving close to human habitation to find prey. Everybody is moving to town!!
Perhaps we need garbage dumps again. Those were great bear feeding stations and socialization opportunities. Not unlike the McNeil River salmon fishing spot for great bears in Alaska. Spent pizza instead of spent sockeye. Instead of a rush of fish on the the tide, a rush of garbage when the trucks dump.
We are victims of too much television and Walt Disney and too little common sense. We should learn to live with what we create. It appears the animals have.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:53 am
Been a strange Fall. With the drought, the hyperphagic phase has been much stronger than normal. There have been at least two black bear attacks, plus the five or six or seven hunters swatted by grizzly bears so far. You would think by now that these brilliant wildlife student/managers would have a clue about unusual circumstances requiring some kind of unusual actions. A 450-pound bear, any bear, is a big, strong predator, capable of killing any puny human. Shot was too risky? Well, not taking the shot certainly had a risk as well. Could get interesting if Ms. Garrison has a good attorney.
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:14 am
They will sneak around and snatch you up when you least expect it. They will torture you and roll you over, probe your soft spots and punch holes in you.
Then they will put a collar on you for sporting purposes and walk away, oblivious.
Wally Bulges, wye byes, monkey shiners, nest robbers, mist netters, population extirpators: wildlife biologists are without a doubt the cruelest and stupidest animals in the woods.
Tell me what animal population was ever aided by the insane machinations of wye byes. Spotted owls? Barred owls? Hybrid wolf-dogs? Salmon? In every case and thousands more besides, the wye byes have failed utterly to do any good, and instead chronically inflict grevious harm on people and animals alike.
I hope she has a good lawyer, too, whom I hope sues the pants off the human perps. If we hang a few wyes byes for their gross negligence and incompetence, we might improve the species.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Mike, Everyone seems to have problems with bears. Here’s a link to this older article, yet pertinent:
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20070809/NEWS/108090059
Note the density, and numbers of bears smacked by vehicles in this locale. One must carry a high powered handgun in order to pick-up the newspaper from the driveway very early in the morning. Temporary problem that will be partially solved next time an armed American is threatened by an aggressive 300+ pounder trying to claim space.
You might be jailed, face severe fines, and your protection consficated, but at least you are still alive.
Could it be that NEGLECT of our Public Lands has forced more wildlife into areas where there is food, and ultimately into our yards? Even if you are 30 miles distant from any “wilderness” or “forest”?
A problem bear here was “collared and tagged,” relocated over 150 miles away and was back in a matter of weeks, wreaking more havoc, but keeping the biologists busy. In the end, I think they killed it.
Better late than never.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 pm
In the news the talk is about human obesity in these Yew Nited States. Perhaps the wye byes should go to Jellystone, and dart fat tourists. Take some blood, a tooth, some hair, put a gps implant in them, and then plot their movements. See if it is Mickey D’s or Dairy Queen, or the deep fat fried chicken at home that is the problem. See how they breed and how they raise their young. Find out how they pass on the knowledge to get real fat. I can see a great PhD project right there.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Tallac’s Tahoe bear report is another one from Bizarro World. Another bear in a house, this one shot by sheriff deputies. But the real stunner is the weeping and wailing on the part of the Bear League. I kid you not, they would have preferred a human death to a bear death. Nice neighbors, the Bear League folks. Like living next door to Dr. Frankenstein.
Now, those guys ought to make an interesting study. Let’s dart and collar the Bear League folks. See where they go at night, and which rocks they crawl under.
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Holy mackerel! Call the bear league lady, and she can join Timmy Treadwell. What a coconut! The dang bear weighed six hundred and sixty frickin’ pounds, a behemoth! Huggy wuggy. Bang on the wall and Bruinie would be able to come right through it, thank you very much.