Patty Lanke forwarded Bears Unlimited a description written by the man that took the image and was an eyewitness to much of this encounter.

This happened on Laurel Falls Trail in the park. This is also the same trail where an individual was bit by a bear a few months back, hence the heightened concern over this incident. Basically the bear came out of the forest walked up the trail towards the falls for possibly 50 yards then reentered the forest. As our intrepid photographer continued up the trail, after the bear disappeared back into the forest, continuing onto the falls. At this point the bear reappeared, came out of the forest, walked across a bridge by the falls and then retreated back into the forest ending this bear viewing opportunity. My guess is that he was just checking out the falls as was everyone else. LOL!

Nothing sinister here! Just a bear checking out his territory! He saw as many as 40 different people and did nothing aggressive or threatening. He never tried to approach people nor did he watch any one or group of people. He was also not fed by anyone as this individual saw and recorded this incident. He did allow for some nice photography though. Best of all worlds here, a non aggressive bear, that appears to be non food conditioned, was sufficiently wary of humans to not approach, was non aggressive but still curious of people. A good situation for visitors, the Park Service and the bear!

This is a situation that needs monitoring and possible a little hazing action by the Park Service. A 12 gauge bean bag or slug will instill a bit more fear of humans into this bear and help keep him wild and alive. The hope here is that people Will Not Feed this critter and turn a curious bear into a hazardous bear. Please remember that the vast majority of food conditioned bears will be killed.

I do not know if there is a data bank that counts all North American incidents in a given season so I am not too sure if this year is statistically higher than any other year. I also believe that there may be more media attention to these bear incidents due to a couple high profile bear incidents, such as the case of Laurel in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the mauling death in Shoshone National Forest.

I do see a disturbing trend though. At least two of the black bear attacks have come from what appears to be predatory black bears. Normally, these bears are very shy and avoid humans. I will continue to look at these attacks and study the reports and the necropsies on these bears when they are put down. Please remember that these bears are very aggressive and will attack and eat you. You are nothing more than food to a predatory black and it is generally way to late to stop an attack once it commences.

The other trend that is more disturbing is the number of food conditioned bears in our forests and park preserves. Please remember, if YOU feed a bear You are the one that is responsible for this bears death. The vast majority of human food conditioned bears will be destroyed. Once a bear is conditioned to human food it will seldom go back to its natural foods. I hear the chatter that the bears just need to be trained to eat their own food again, sorry this seldom happens. If a bear is successful at gaining human food once, it will take 50 negative hazing efforts to have the bear forget about that one success. Bears are eating machines and the easiest place to obtain food is where they will be. If it is a huckleberry patch, white pine nuts, a trash can or a human hand feeding, the bear only see’s calories. It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that bears only feed on natural foods. Let’s all help to keep bears wild and alive.

In Lolo National Forest in Montana an Ellensburg, Washington man was bitten in the ear by a black bear while sleeping in his tent. The common thread here is that we have a food conditioned bear looking for goodies. The investigation found that a few camps away, an or some transient individual’s improperly stored food and guess what, the bear found it. Long story short, the bear found getting food from humans was easier so he decided to see what was in the tent besides a people. After a bite, taking 21 stitches to close, the bear found no food and went on his merry way. Unfortunately biting humans gets you a death sentence so this bear was captured and destroyed along with its cub. From the information that I received from Malcolm Edwards, US Forest Service supervisor for the Libby district in Lolo, the bitten man did not sleep with his food, a very bad idea, and had a clean camp. Again being at the wrong end of a bear, food conditioned by others! Just about all of these food conditioned stories end in the same manner. Bear gets human food; loss’s its fear of humans, gets into trouble by biting or worse and then gets captured and destroyed. Stop feeding the bears and keep an ultra clean camp and we can stop the unnecessary death of bears.

In a second Montana incident, Kootenai National Forest closed the popular Sylvan Lake Campground over the Fourth of July holiday weekend due to a black bear that was roaming the campground raiding coolers and tents with stashed food. These were left out by thoughtless campers, or should we call it as it is, stupid campers. As of this blog entry time the bear is still alive but it will most likely find the same fate that most of these animals find, death. This bear found coolers filled with food over a period of a couple of weeks, became food conditioned, “ picnic baskets all around Boo Boo” and then became a nuisance. Duh, does this sound familiar to anyone? My question here is, why were no citations written to these wizard campers that provided this food to this doomed bear? Maybe it is time to make the consequences more severe than just an empty cooler. Yellowstone National Park has it right, leave a cooler out and receive a talk and citation from a ranger and an expensive visit with the US Magistrate. Things need to change and they need to change before someone is seriously injured or killed by a food conditioned bear.

I think that Bears Unlimited will begin to pressure state and federal game officials to begin a rather aggressive policy on inadvertent bear feedings. Otherwise we will just see more dead bears. If you would like to help in this effort please contact us at Bears Unlimited.

I think that it is unfortunate that I advocate giving citations to people for behavior that should be common sense and behavior that is talked about in education programs setup by land managers and then fairly well ignored. I do not think rangers should be cops; they should be able to do their real jobs without having to look after some dimwitted visitor. Unfortunately, in the real world the only way to stop some behaviors is with a monetary hit to a wallet. As in Yellowstone, with a strong education program and the threat of expensive citations, this problem has diminished considerably in the past 20 years. I believe that other federal and state agencies should follow these guidelines to diminish this ridiculous issue in national forests and other public lands that are inhabited by bears. We will have two winners if this process is begun, fewer dead bears and fewer hours spent by wildlife officials in trapping these food conditioned bears. Oh yes, not to mention the feelings of the wildlife officials that actually kill the animals that they are trying to protect. Let us take the battle back to the people that cause the problem.

Near the town of West Milford a bear attacked and slightly injured an individual but killed his dog. This incident was judged to be a defensive attack by the female bear.

This individual was hiking in an area of thick vegetation, lots of raspberries, with his unleashed great dane. Turning a corner they come across a bear with cubs. The bear leaped from the brush knocking the male to the ground. With the bear on top of him this guy kicks the bear in the stomach, the bear moves off of him and the dog comes to the mans rescue. Unfortunate dog in this case. He was killed in the ensuing short struggle. The bear went back to cover and the attacked individual escaped. Rangers were called and an investigation was begun. The dog was removed from the scene and from reports he died at a local animal hospital. My thoughts to the dog’s owner, I know how special companion animals are.

This is another case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. This female bear was startled to see a person and a large dog close to her cubs. Her natural reaction was to defend her family and she did this. It is fortunate that the victim only received minor cuts and bruises in this case. During the investigation information was gathered that this bear was acting aggressively toward other hikers in the area for an undetermined amount of time. It was determined that this bear would be put down for the safety of the general public.

What caused this incident? This was a defensive action by the bear, there was no food conditioning nor predatory behaviors presented by this bear. The unleashed large dog probably did contribute to the aggressive actions of the bear. The man was cited for this violation of park laws.

Did the bear need to be destroyed? This is a tough one as I see it. The general rule is that when a bear inflicts injuries or death on a human that is a death sentence for the bear. In this case the bear acted in a defensive manner and was only protecting its young. Something that most mothers do! Based on previous aggressive behavior plus this incident New Jersey wildlife officials decided on the conservative course, destroying the bear. If you take anything away from this incident please remember this. As soon as an animal injures or kills a human the first and foremost action of all wildlife services is the protection of people. Prior to that they are there to service the animals that they are tasked to protect. It is a very difficult decision to make in these cases but the die was cast once this bear started to become aggressive. The attack, even though understandable, was a line that cannot be crossed. Sad reminder of the awesome responsibility of our land managers!

Now, what has happened to the cubs? They will be watched to see if they are old enough to survive on their own. If they are they will be allowed to live in the wild. If not able to fend for themselves they will be captured and sent to a wildlife rehabilitation center until they are able to live in the wild. At that time they will be released back into the wild.

I want to thank Kelsey Burgess for this update and the information provided. Kelsey is a wildlife biologist with the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Service.