Did the bear look like this......and smell like a six pack of Labatt Blue......?
Posted on 08/13/2003 6:26:52 AM PDT by ZULU
DEP official: Bruin wasn't trying to eat Vernon hiker
By Rob Jennings, Daily Record
A 400-pound black bear that pounced on a Vernon hiker was not trying to eat her, New Jersey's top environmental official said Tuesday in refuting a description by his spokesman about Sunday's apparent attack in Wawayanda State Park.
Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell added that he "had no reason to doubt the victim's account" of being chased and pulled down by the bruin on the Wingdam Trail.
The trail remained closed Tuesday evening, with the bear on the loose and unlikely to be found, Campbell said.
"In any incident like this, where we don't have other eyewitnesses, we rely on (her) account. We don't have any basis on which to doubt the victim's account," Campbell said.
A black-bear expert in Minnesota, though, said Tuesday that he didn't find the 18-year-old woman's story credible.
The woman, whose name was withheld by Campbell, told a conservation officer and park official that the bruin let her go after she elbowed it in the snout. She said she then hid among trees as the bear reared on its hind legs and briefly looked for her before fleeing.
"It's difficult for me to believe the account. I've never heard of a bear jumping on and just letting go. The whole thing is just bizarre and unprecedented," said Lynn Rogers of Minnesota, a biologist who has studied bears for nearly four decades.
"The idea of this bear standing around, looking bewildered -- it's so bizarre that it makes it difficult for me to believe the account," Rogers added.
Campbell said that DEP spokesman Jack Kaskey's earlier characterization "that the bear was trying to eat the victim was inappropriate and erroneous and not supported by the victim's account and our scientific understanding of bear behavior."
Kaskey said the bear grabbed the woman with the pad of his paw, and that she had welts on her right side and scrapes from falling on to the ground.
The woman later ran to her home, about three-quarters of a mile away, and alerted her father, who then called police.
"We're concerned about the very aggressive and apparently predatory behavior that was recounted by the victim," said Campbell, adding that the incident "is not typical of black bears and quite extraordinary."
"It's highly atypical behavior for a bear to behave in this predatory way… . We're really at something of a loss here to explain why it occurred in this case," Campbell said.
"I don't know if we've ever had an incident quite like this in New Jersey," the DEP commissioner added.
A culvert trap had not snared the bear as of Tuesday evening, and Campbell was not optimistic that the bruin would be found.
"An aggressive male, and the victim's account supported it as a male, can cover a range of 60 or more square miles. It's not likely we'll track the same bear," Campbell said.
If found, the bear would be killed.
Sunday's incident was the third encounter between bears and people in northwest New Jersey this year that resulted in minor human injuries.
In May, a bear swatted a 2-year-old Sparta boy on his head. Three days later, a West Milford man was hurt after grappling with a bruin that was fighting with the family dog in his backyard.
The incidents have fueled support for New Jersey's first statewide bear hunt in 33 years, approved by the Fish and Game Council last month and scheduled for six days in September. Current estimates range from 1,500 to 3,200 black bears in New Jersey, up from 100 when hunting ceased.
The hunt would be restricted to areas north of Route 78 and west of Route 287, where black bears breed most heavily.
Kaskey said the Vernon hiker told officials she had just crossed a bridge in the Vernon section of the 17,541-acre state park, at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, when she turned around and saw the bear watching her from 30 yards away.
She backed away slowly, but the bear charged. She began to run but was pulled down by the bruin, Kaskey said.
Rogers said he was skeptical.
"It seems so unreal to have a bear pursue a person and knock a person down, and then when she elbows it in the face … I've hit a bear in the face with a camera case and she never flinched. It didn't faze her," Rogers said.
Rob Jennings can be reached at rjenning@gannett.com or (973) 989-0652.
Vass you dere Charlie????
This political hack is telegraphing the Democratic McGreevey Administration's intent to kill the proposed bear hunt - once again caving in to the Bambites in New Jersey.
I guess the 7-11 was closed...
Haven't the bears heard that wild animals are supposed to be cute and cuddly?
Full-quill NH3? Anhydrous ammonia?
I'd high-tail it into the next state.
Just kidding, but you meant "weak ammonia solution" in water.
Like the "hydrogen peroxide" you buy in the drug store...it is 3% H2O2 and 97% water.
--Boris
1. Black bears are herbivores, not carnivores, by nature. As a result, they generally avoid people and will rarely, if ever, "prey" on human beings or on any other animals for that matter.
2. Grizzly bears are generally carnivores, are much larger than black bears, and are more likely to attack humans than black bears are. Outside of zoos, there isn't a grizzly bear living within a thousand miles of New Jersey.
3. Having said that, there is an interesting difference in the temperaments of black bears and grizzly bears. Grizzly bear attacks on humans are almost always related to encounters in the wilderness involving a mother bear who is protecting her cubs, or involving an unfortunate human being who happens to find himself between an adult bear and a food source. Black bears, on the other hand, have been known on rare occasion to attack humans in the woods for no apparent reason at all. The incident described here is not likely to involve this type of attack, since these rare attacks involve black bears that "go nuts" for some reason and do not back down from their target like this.
No surprise that Campbell is now trying to cast doubt on this woman's first-hand testimony. Look for Fish and Game Council member Jack Schrier, the sole anti-hunting animal rights nut, to make statements in a similar vein.
NJ Hunters, if you're not a member of NRA, ANJRPC, NJ State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, or all of the above, you have no one to blame but yourself when hunting is ultimately banned here.
I deliberately put the term "go nuts" in quotes because it isn't exactly accurate -- as you said, many of these attacks have simply not been explained. I was always under the impression that an "unexplained" bear attack is more likely to involve a black bear than a grizzly bear for some reason. A Canadian female cross-country skier was killed in one such attack a couple of years ago while training in the summertime in Quebec, and as far as I know nobody has ever figured out exactly what that attack was all about.
Did the bear look like this......and smell like a six pack of Labatt Blue......?
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