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DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. — Patrice Miller, 71, lived by herself in a small yellow house beneath towering mountain peaks on the edge of a burbling river in this Sierra County village. She doted on her cats and her exotic orchids, and was known to neighbors for her delicious homemade bread. One fall afternoon, after Miller had failed for several days to make her customary appearance at the town market, a store clerk asked authorities to check on her.A short time later, a sheriff’s deputy found Miller’s lifeless body in her kitchen. Her right leg and left arm had been partially gnawed...

A North Carolina man uses a bear suit to scare black bears off his lawn. Some Wyomingites said trying that with a grizzly would be insane. They could maul you, or worse, try to get frisky. A North Carolina man uses a bear suit black bears off his lawn. Some Wyomingites said trying that with a grizzly would be insane. They could maul you, or worse, try to get frisky. (Rodney Clark) A North Carolina man took a creative and goofy approach to bear deterrence —stepping out of his house in a bear suit to spook away a black bear...

A flurry of black bear attacks has been covered in the media in the summer of 2024. Five people were injured in the attacks. The first occurred in Alaska at a campground near Anchorage, by a male bear. The bear injured a woman’s face after scratching and biting its way into the couple’s tent. She was treated at a hospital. There was no food or other items that usually attract bears inside the tent and it’s not clear what prompted the rare encounter, Wardlow said. “These folks who were involved did everything right and this is just a very unusual...

In spite of intense pressure from deep green “environmentalist” and “animal rights” groups, Florida Governor DeSantis signed HB 87 on June 21, 2024. If Governor DeSantis had not signed the bill, it would have become law on June 22. HB 87 restores the right of people to protect themselves, their pets, and their homes from destructive, rogue black bears.Animal rights groups wanted to continue a failed policy that demanded people ask permission from a bureaucratic agency before they were “allowed” to shoot a destructive bear.From clickorlando.com:DeSantis signed HB 87, Taking of Bears, which allows people to claim self defense in...

On June 7, 2021, Florida Governor DeSantis received HB0087 along with 24 other bills. Because the bill was sent after the Florida legislature had adjourned for the session, Governor DeSantis has 15 days to sign the bill, allow the bill to become law, or veto the bill.The Florida legislature overwhelmingly voted for HB0087 on March 8, 2024. The bill is titled Taking of Bears. It restores the ability of people in Florida to protect themselves, their pets, and their dwellings from black bears without having to ask permission from the Florida state bureaucracy first. The legal ability to defend pets...

On November 8, 2023, the Sierra County Sheriff’s deputies performed a welfare check on 71-year-old Patrice Miller at her home in Downieville, California. At the house rented by Miller, they found a gruesome scene. The door had been broken in, and there was bear scat on the porch. What was left of Miller’s body was inside. The bear had been feeding on it for several days. California has a rapidly growing bear population and rapidly increasing numbers of bear-human conflicts.Downieville is a small village at the confluence of the Yuba and North Downie rivers, 54 miles west of Reno, Nevada....

A 71-year-old woman who was found dead inside her home had been fatally mauled by a black bear... Patrice Miller’s body was discovered inside her Downieville home in November last year by police who had been called to carry out a welfare check. Officers discovered a grisly scene with evidence that a bear had been inside, likely for several days, feeding on the woman’s remains. ... Initially, investigators thought she had died before to the bear’s entry. However, an autopsy report completed last month revealed Miller was killed when the animal swiped or bit her neck, Sierra County Sheriff Mike...

Daniel Ducharme, 31, likely died immediately after losing control of car on I-91... A man who was dragged by a bear following a car crash was most likely dead at the time, Massachusetts State Police said. First responders found the man outside of the car in Hatfield on Sunday morning and saw a bear in the woods nearby... A preliminary investigation suggests that earlier that day, the driver, Daniel Ducharme, 31, of South Hadley, was traveling south on Route 91 when he lost control of the car, struck the guardrail multiple times, went down an embankment, and struck several trees...

The mere thought of scaling a mountain is terrifying enough for some, but throw a literal wild bear into the mix and the situation escalates to a whole new level of scary.. ... scrambled up enough rocky slopes and edged along enough narrow pathways to know that it requires a lot of attention. Sometimes just trying to hold a conversation without losing your balance is challenging enough, so I can't imagine what it must be like trying to fend for your own life. One person who can, and who actually succeeded in this area, is a climber who found themselves...

A Pennsylvania woman is recovering in a hospital after a vicious assault by a mother bear .. The incident reportedly took place around 8:30 p.m. just outside the victim’s house. Lee Ann Galante, 55, stepped out to let her dog, a small black Pomeranian, enjoy the backyard, ... With injuries across her arm, face, neck and head, Galante’s condition necessitated urgent medical attention, police said,.. She was rushed to the nearby hospital following the attack ... "I thought I was going to die." A woman who was hospitalized after being mauled . ... Galante shared her ordeal from her hospital...

On February 15, 2024, the Florida House passed CS/HB 87: Taking of Bears. The bill passed 88 to 29. It will now be sent to the Florida Senate. The bill has been prompted by a burgeoning black bear population in Florida, which has increased exponentially from 300 – 500 bears in 1974 to 2,650 in 2002 to an estimated 4,350 in 2016. No official population estimate has been made for eight years. The bear population increased 60% from 2002 to 2014/15. If the trend continues into 2024, the black bear population will be estimated at over 6,000. Cubs are not...

On June 16, near Groom Creek, in Arizona, 66-year-old Steven Jackson was sitting on his camp chair, having coffee at an outdoor table, when a 300 lb male black bear attacked him. The attack appears to have been unprovoked and predatory in nature. Groom Creek is a few miles South of Prescott, about 100 miles north of Phoenix, at about 5000 – 6000 feet above sea level. The temperature on the morning of the 16th was 70 degrees Fahrenheit. From Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office: At approximately 7:50 this morning, the YCSO dispatch center received multiple 911 calls about a man...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Multiple sightings of a black bear have been reported in Middle Tennessee over the last week. On June 7, a bear was spotted in the Lewisburg area of Marshall County. The next day it was seen on Barker Road near Columbia. What appears to be the same bear continued northward into Williamson County, spotted in Thompson Station. It was next seen in Nashville in the Paragon Mills Road area. Most recently, it was seen a few miles south of there on Townes drive Now that the bear is being sighted in Nashville in a highly populated...

On Thursday, May 12, off-duty police Sgt. Lawrence Clarke, 55 years old, had his property damaged, livestock killed, and his grandson threatened by an aggressive black bear that had become habituated to people. When the bear proved to be resistant and unafraid of people, he was forced to shoot the bear to protect lives and property.AmmoLand has obtained a copy of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection report of the investigation of the incident.On Friday, May 6, 2022, the Newtown police department received multiple nuisance wildlife concerning a black bear matching the description of a known problem bear....

A black bear broke into a cabin near downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee, on Saturday and attacked a man inside. The bear broke through partially-locked French doors and went straight for the kitchen, according to CBS News. After the man found the bear in the kitchen, the bear attacked him. The man escaped the attack and called 911 from inside a locked bedroom, CBS News reported. Family members then drove him to the hospital. ... A man vacationing in Gatlinburg was injured over the weekend when a black bear entered his cabin and charged at him, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency announced...

MORRIS — A 10-year-old boy was attacked by a bear Sunday morning, state officials say. Environmental Conservation police and state troopers responded to a report that a black bear had attacked the boy in Morris around 11 a.m. Sunday, a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection spokesperson said. The boy was taken by ambulance to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital for medical treatment, the spokesperson said, noting the child’s injuries appear to be non-life-threatening. "The bear was still present near the scene and was located and euthanized by EnCon police," they said.

video in article Next time you’re in Monrovia, don’t challenge any bears to a boxing match. At least, not these two bears. Security camera footage captured two bruins engaging in a brief round of fisticuffs mid-day in a residential street. Though the fight ends in a draw, both bears should be proud of their efforts, and homeowners should be thankful they didn’t damage any of the nearby cars.

Video shows a bear taking on an Alabama bird feeder — and people can’t get enough of the wild match up. The curious bear was spotted on its hind legs, not quite able to reach the feeding containers that dangled from the top of a pole on Thursday, Aug. 11, according to a social media post. “My neighbor built a new birdfeeder that is a lot higher than the last one,” Facebook user Heather Fath Messick wrote. “The bear is trying to bring it down.” The footage she shared online shows the bear grabbing and shaking the bird feeder’s tall...

An archery hunter from Laramie, Wyoming, found a GoPro camera last week that someone had lost months ago. He charged it up and was surprised to find footage that was actually taken by a black bear... ...“After four months of it sitting there, a big old black bear found it and not only managed to turn it on but also started recording himself playing with it... [video at link]

Contrary to what a viral video suggests, it’s unrelated to the pandemic.There was recently a video circulating on Twitter that can only be described as shockingly cute. Made viral by the Austin-based science communicator Joe Hanson, the clip shows two black bear cubs wrestling on the patio of the Chisos Mountains Lodge at Big Bend National Park, teetering like toddlers covered in fur. The camera pans to reveal their mother, staring into the distance with what looks like an apathetic glare. And as if that wasn’t enough, the camera captures a third cub sitting in a bucket. It’s the exact...