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Posted on 09/19/2006 9:06:21 AM PDT by DaveLoneRanger
A Ramsey Canyon nuisance bear thought to have been wounded by a gunshot in late August returned to the same residence Thursday morning, and this time it was shot and killed. The motor home of a U.S. Forest Service employee also was ransacked Wednesday by a bear at the Carr House in Carr Canyon, and the bear was shot and killed after the animal charged at the owner. "They always do. If they get in once, they come back," said Zac Ribbing, a local Forest Service trails foreman who owns the motor home.
The two bear killings follow two bears being killed last week. The Arizona Game and Fish Department says a mix of illegal immigrant leftovers and lower than normal natural food supplies are causing bears to look for other sources of food.
Bear at motor home
At 11:05 a.m. Wednesday, a passing motorist phoned the Forest Service after seeing a 3-year-old male bear attempting to enter the motor home.
Ribbing was at the Sierra Vista Forest Service office when the call came in. He and colleagues arrived at the motor home about 11:20 a.m.
Five people threw things at the bear and yelled at it, trying to scare the animal from the motor home. The bear had entered the trailer through the side entrance door and was inside scavenging for food when the people arrived, according to a report on Thursday by Arizona Game and Fish Department Field Supervisor Kurt Kahti.
The bear did not appear to be frightened by their actions and continued to eat food from the trailer's cupboards.
Ribbing shot at the bear while it was in the motor home, trying to scare the bear away, but it didn't work.
After that, someone sprayed the bear with a fire extinguisher and the bear left the motor home, though it charged the owner when it exited.
Ribbing shot the bear again with the .357-caliber pistol, striking the animal with a single bullet in the chest. The animal continued about 35 yards, then fell down, but was still moving, according to the report. The bear was shot once more and died.
"The Arizona Game and Fish Department has a policy handling nuisance bears," according to Kahti's release.
"Those that do not yield to humans and break into hard sided structures are the highest category and are euthanized as a public safety threat. This bear qualified for that action."
Bear returns to home
The bear thought to have been wounded last month after being shot at by a Ramsey Canyon resident returned to the residence Thursday morning.
This animal also fit into the state's definition of the most dangerous kind of nuisance bear.
On the morning of Aug. 29, a sow was shot and killed and a cub accidentally killed by a rubber bean-bag bullet after returning multiple times to the Ramsey Canyon Inn Bed and Breakfast.
In the evening of Aug. 29, an adolescent black bear pushed around a locked upright deep-freezer on the porch of a residence near the bed and breakfast.
The bear also attempted to enter the house through various windows, and when the resident, a local firefighter, tried to chase the animal off, the bear charged him.
The resident retreated into his house, the bear tried to enter a window, the man went out the front, and the bear charged again. The homeowner then shot at the bear with a .357-caliber pistol, thinking he had superficially wounded the animal, which ran into the woods, not to be seen again until this week.
The bear returned to the same residence Thursday morning. It tore and badly damaged the roof of a small sports-utility vehicle, then climbed onto the roof of the man's house, according to Kahti's report.
The bear began to tear into the roof. The animal came down and sat on a rock in the yard. The homeowner killed the bear with a rifle.
When the bear was examined after its death by a state wildlife manager Thursday, no old injuries were found that could have been incurred when it was shot at last week. The animal weighed about 130 pounds, was in good condition with about one inch of fat along the hindquarters and had fat deposits in the body cavity as well. Examination of its stomach contents found small amounts of grass, along with manzanita and juniper berries, in addition to apples and cinnamon rolls from the trailer.
Despite that, officials believe it was the same bear that was at the home last week.
(Editor's Note: Gentry Braswell is a reporter at the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review.)
The resident asked his identity not be revealed, citing frequent misunderstandings by people who do not consider the dangers such unafraid nuisance animals present along with their concern for the well-being of bears.
Contributors to recent bear activity
The Forest Ranger whose trailer was ransacked by a bear last Wednesday talked about these bears that have grown fearless of people.
The visit by the bear at his trailer was the first Zac Ribbing knew of by that particular bear, he said.
The bear ate some of the Forest Ranger's groceries before being interrupted.
"He had a couple apples, and some tortillas," he said. "He pried the door right out of the middle, actually, kind of peeled it open."
First, the bear tried to get in to the trailer through the skylights, he said.
Arizona Game and Fish noted a few conditions which might be contributing to the high activity of bears in local urban-wildlife interfaces this summer.
Such contributors to this kind of bear action are often a lack of food on the mountain, the presence of food and attractants in the residential areas, and the acclimation of bears to humans due in part to the presence of undocumented aliens passing through the mountain, Kahti's report said.
"Their (undocumented alien) camps have a large amount of trash. Bears lost their fear of humans and find that humans carry and leave food behind," the report said.
"The Arizona Game and Fish Department has a policy handling nuisance bears," according to Kahti's release.
"Those that do not yield to humans and break into hard sided structures are the highest category and are euthanized as a public safety threat. This bear qualified for that action." Fish and Game said this season is typically the time of year bears should be putting on fat for the winter hibernation, but that does not appear to be taking place. Rather, it appears many bears are using their fat reserve instead of adding to it.
Furthermore, since last winter's rains were light in Southeastern Arizona, food sources such as acorns, prickly-pear fruit and manzanita berries were not produced, leaving bears to search for other food sources, the report said.
Save a cow. Eat more bear-burgers.
Bear in your neighborhood ping!
"Their (undocumented alien) camps have a large amount of trash. Bears lost their fear of humans and find that humans carry and leave food behind,"
Any way we can get the bears to feed on illegal immigrants?
I pepper spray 'em. Works real good but you do have to get close up to make sure they get a good blast in the face if you don't want them to come back.
Aye, windage is a consideration, but this bloke shot the bear on the roof. Ye must have a heck of a charge on that pepper spray to hit that far.
There was some talk of allowing our bears to feed on semi-comatose Massachusetts tourists, but the alcohol the bears would thereby ingest could make them a little hard to handle.
There is always senator Kennedy. There would be enough alcohol to assure unconciousness in the bears..
Don't you know that Senator Kennedy is trying to make the United States energy-independent through better use of ethanol? Of course, unlocking the awesome potential of this energy source requires much scientific experimentation, and sacrifice.
Ethanol power. It's the Kennedy Way. Senator Kennedy has sacrificed his liver to us, the little people, to make our lives better.
Never bring a cinnamon roll to a bear fight.
Lol...never had a bear on the roof. The bears around here have esp. You can go a year without seeing a bear, but as soon as you buy a new trash can a bear will show up to rape it!
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ROFL!!!
Huachuca bump ! !
I think we should leave the bears alone and let them patrol the border
Translation: he has PETA tree-huggers for neighbors.
I suspect that Ted Kennedy is far more gifted in his prodigious production of methane!
You have a phone call from Arizona !
The preacher went out a huntin', it was on one Sunday morn' It was against his religion, but he took a shotgun along He got himself a mess o' mighty fine quail and one old scraggly hare And on the way home he crossed the path of a great big grizzly bear Well the bear got down lookin' ready to charge The preacher never seen nothin' quite that large They looked each other right smack in the eye Didn't take that preacher long to say bye The preacher, he run till he spotted a tree He said, "Up in that tree's where I oughta be" By the time that bear made a grab for him The preacher was a sittin' on top a that limb Scared to death, he turned about He looked to the sky and began to shout "Hey lord, you delivered Daniel from the bottom of the lion's den You delivered Jonah from the belly of the whale and then The Hebrew children from the fiery furnace So the good books do declare Hey lord, if you can't help me, For goodness sake don't help that bear" Yea, look out preacher! Well, about that time the limb broke off And the preacher came tumblin' down Had a straight razor out of his pocket By the time he lit on the ground He landed on his feet right in front a that bear And Lord, what an awful fight The preacher and the bear and the razor and the hair Flyin' from left to right Well first they was up and then they was down The preacher and the bear runnin' round an' round The bear he roared, and the the preacher he groaned He was havin' a tough time holdin' his own! He said, "Lord if I get out a here alive To the good book I'll abide No more huntin' on the Sabbath day Come Sunday I'm headin' to the church to pray" Up to the heavens the preacher glanced He said, "Lord won't you give me just one more chance" So the preacher got away, he looked around Seen a tree where he'd be safe and sound Jumped on a limb, turned about Looked to the sky and began to shout "Hey lord, you delivered Daniel from the bottom of the lion's den You delivered Jonah from the belly of the whale and then The Hebrew children from the fiery furnace So the good books do declare Hey lord, if you can't help me, For goodness sake don't help that bear" (Transcribed from the Jerry Reed recording by Mel Priddle - August 2005))
LOL.
" For goodness sake don't help that bear..."
Huachuca bump ! !
We always keep our leftover illegal imigrant in the fridge...
"He had a couple apples, and some tortillas,"
OBVIOUSLY an illegal bear.
Calling Freeper Kanawa...
Russians I've spoken to who're old enough that their parents or grandparents lived under the tsars tell me that the little brown bears you see in circuses are naturally friendly, that peasants used to feed them, and that they used to haul water for people working in the fields and do other useful work and that the kids would ride around on them.
HaHa, I just finished reading a story about bears becoming more aggressive and fearless towards humans, because of all the trash being left behind by illegal aliens.
Once a bear identifies people with food it is dangerous.
What they need there is some good Tennessee Plott Hounds to hunt these bears with. After being treed a few times by these they'd redevelop the fear of humans and the dogs they bring.
Aren't you supposed to spray yourself down with the pepper so the bear will be merciful and end things quickly?
There are supposed to be quite a few bears here where I live in the north GA mountains, but except for a stuffed and mounted bear at a local fishing tackle and bait shop those two are the only bears I have seen in the 9 years I've lived here. I think the flood of people moving into these mountains lately has probably caused the bears to retreat further back into the mountains.
Couldn't his release of large amounts of methane abruptly be used to propel a large ship?
Sheik, not only are we blundering off the post topic here, but I fear you misunderstand the basic physics behind the Jacuzzi Jet Drive.
However, with the shallow draft enabled by jet propulsion, I suppose we could go up shallow streams to look for bear?
In any case, he has poor hydrodynamics..
In any case, he has poor hydrodynamics..
This was just a few miles from where I live.
When out walking wear a little bell so the bears know you are near and hopefully leave the area. Carry some pepper spray just in case.
Check the bear scat to see what kind od bears are around. Black bear scat contains berry seeds and small animal bones and fur. The griz scat has little bells and smells like pepper.
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