Posted on 04/16/2006 1:45:18 PM PDT by george76
A black bear was caught in a forest recreation area Sunday and was being sent to a veterinary school to determine if it was the same animal that attacked a family, killing a 6-year-old girl.
Authorities found a bear in the same trap where they detected paw prints on Saturday in the remote Cherokee National Forest Chilhowee Recreation Area...
The bear, which was captured near the site of the attack, looked to be the same weight as the 350- to 400-pound bear that attacked a mother and her two children on a trail in the recreation area on Thursday...
The bear bit the girl's 2-year-old brother, Luke Cenkus, on his head and punctured his skull, officials said.
Their mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, tried to fend off the bear with rocks and sticks but the bear attacked her, dragging her yards off the trail.
Her 6-year-old daughter apparently ran away and almost an hour passed before a rescuer found her body about 100 yards off the trail with the bear.
The man said he shot twice at the bear with a pistol before it ran away.
Luke Cenkus was in fair condition and their mother remained in critical condition...
(Excerpt) Read more at wjla.com ...
Unusual for black bears to attack humans. How tragic.
Wonder how they're going to confirm it through a veterinarian... Do they have some kind of forensics on the bear that did the attacks?
Is it being tested dead, or alive?
Animal experts plan to compare the bear with hairs that were shed during the attack, said Bob Miller, a spokesman for Cherokee National Forest and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They also will look for gunshot wounds since the bear that attacked the family was shot.
I guess I could have answered both my questions if I'd clicked the link first...
DNA
Is it being tested dead, or alive?
The bear was killed. They have a hair sample so will do a DNA check.
I wondered too if rabies was plausible as an explanation.
This was a prolonged attack over some time period, with different acts of attack in different locations. Not typical at all of black bear behavior.
FYI the College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville is right next to Dr. Bass's forensic anthropology lab (the body farm). With the biochemical expertise of the CVM and the Forensic department at UTK, I believe they would have the best chance in the world for a forensic analysis.
Calling Jesse! Calling Al! ...better get down there.
Good one. I saw the mother on the news yesterday and she looked bad. However, why wasn't she watching her kids? Why wasn't she prepared for what could happen in the wild?
Chalk this one up for the hunting community, because for a couple of days, bear hunters won't be disgusting people. I still cannot let her have a pass for not watching her kids just because she is black. Yah, I pulled the race card, why can't I do that? It's in style these days.
Just a thought, when will the media proclaim that the bear was a racists, influenced by the rednecks in TN?
Black bears can be quite aggressive.
I was reading one of Jeff Cooper's columns a few months ago and he mentioned that it is no longer believed that Brown and Grizzly bears are more prone to attack humans than Black bears.
The family from Clyde, Ohio ...
Hmm.. I find it hard to believe that black bears are anywhere near as aggressive as grizzlies, unless perhaps they had young cubs with them. Grizzlies always seemed to have a hair-trigger temper.
I don't know myself, just repeating what I read. I will say Cooper is pretty sharp.
Bear Kills 93 Year-Old New Mexico Woman
The 100-pound elderly woman didn't have a chance against a 275-pound bear in the kitchen of her home...
A 93-year-old New Mexico woman was mauled to death by a black bear that broke into her home over the weekend, stunned wildlife officials have confirmed.
Adelia Maestas Trujillo of Cleveland, in north-central New Mexico, was killed "by multiple bite injuries," said Scott Wilson, associate director of the Office of Medical Investigator.…
http://www.maineguides.org/referendum/bear_attacks02.shtml
Well, it is uncommon, and much of the conversation about it here on FR has been about that aspect.
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