Spare the Bear

[surfnole]

Yellowstone park officials euthanize bear that killed hiker

"The adult female bear was killed because it had eaten part of the Montana man's body and hid the rest, which is not normal behavior for a female bear defending its young, spokeswoman Amy Bartlett said
.............
Hundreds of calls and emails over the bear's fate have poured into park offices over the past week, Bartlett estimated.
...............
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock's office received more than a dozen calls and emails from people seeking the governor's intervention to spare the bear,
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Crosby is the sixth person killed by grizzlies since 2010 in and around Yellowstone. There are an estimated 750 bears in the park and nearby areas of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming."

http://news.yahoo.com/yellowstone-park-officials-euthanize-bear-killed-hiker-191317168.html

That's one person per year. Bears seem to pose a greater threat to hikers than sharks to surfers.

 

[BelemNole]

My Facebook has been filled with outrage over this but I think it was the right decision. Had the bear only killed the guy I would agree that it should have been spared. But she ate him and cached his body for later feeding. People loved that bear, named her, had been watching her raise cubs for 20 years. And he did everything wrong. Hiked alone off trail in known bear territory around a momma with cubs. But all that is moot once she ate him and cached the body.
The cubs will be placed in a facility tomorrow.

 

[BigBlueNole]

Damn that bear for being a bear....

 

[cmanole]

A 259 pound bear? No wonder it ate him...

 

[noleville]

Once she ate him and hide the body that told the experts that she at that point decided that humans are legitimate food sources. And as they pointed out, once that happens they go to where humans are, just as they would go where wild prey is.

 

[cmanole]

Once she ate him and hide the body that told the experts that she at that point decided that humans are legitimate food sources. And as they pointed out, once that happens they go to where humans are, just as they would go where wild prey is.

Really?

 

[FSUTribe76]

A 259 pound bear? No wonder it ate him...

Good catch. She must have been either diseased or starving. I looked it up out of curiousity and the average female grizzly that's inland (versus the coastal that are much bigger) is still around 500lbs. Right after hibernation they actually lose up to hundreds of pounds but she should have packed it back on by then.

 

[goldmom]

My Facebook has been filled with outrage over this but I think it was the right decision. Had the bear only killed the guy I would agree that it should have been spared. But she ate him and cached his body for later feeding. People loved that bear, named her, had been watching her raise cubs for 20 years. And he did everything wrong. Hiked alone off trail in known bear territory around a momma with cubs. But all that is moot once she ate him and cached the body.
The cubs will be placed in a facility tomorrow.

I agree with B. She ATE the guy and cached it which shows that she was coming back for seconds. This fundamentally changed the scenario because she would have seen humans as food from then on.

The cubs were young enough such that being placed in a zoo facility equipped to raise them will leave them with no memory of humans as being yummy. No need to put them down.
The guy should have known better because he worked in Yellowstone. His misfortune was self inflicted but it also led to setting up others for danger from Mama Bear who would have then attacked other humans to eat.

 

[BelemNole]

Good catch. She must have been either diseased or starving. I looked it up out of curiousity and the average female grizzly that's inland (versus the coastal that are much bigger) is still around 500lbs. Right after hibernation they actually lose up to hundreds of pounds but she should have packed it back on by then.

That number must be wrong, she was a big healthy bear if it's the one everyone thinks it is.

 

[Lemon Thrower]

...............
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock's office received more than a dozen calls and emails from people seeking the governor's intervention to spare the bear,
.................

Yellowstone is mostly in Montana.

 

[BelemNole]

Think you meant Wyoming.

I've been told that female griz in Yellowstone typically weight 250-300 lbs, so she wasn't underweight.

 

[OrlandNole]

So they punished the bear for being thrifty? Smh...

 

[More Kirk Less Spock]

Anything that wants to eat me is fair game as far as I'm concerned.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Think you meant Wyoming.

I've been told that female griz in Yellowstone typically weight 250-300 lbs, so she wasn't underweight.

I can't quickly find anything specific to female bears in Yosemite and they are definitely much smaller than those coastal behemoths in Alaska where the largest male was 2,215 lbs, but 257 sounds very light to me. The little Florida black bear which is basically a Pygmy averages in the 150-300 range. So a Brown bear only saying 250lbs (If accurate) would likely be malnourished.

This site (if reliable) says the brown bears in Yellowstone average around 325-600lbs and female brown bears are usually a quarter smaller than equivalent males. So you'd expect the females to be in the 325-500lb range especially since the one in question would be a fully grown adult.

http://www.yellowstone-bearman.com/bears.html

Again, I am by no means a bear expert, but 250 seems very scrawny for a brown bear. Heck the largest Florida Black Bear weighed in at 740lbs and it's not incredibly unusual to see a healthy female crack 300lbs and they're considered the smallest of any bear subspecies in North America.

 

[BelemNole]

I know you're a google expert, I'm just relaying information from people who actually are familiar with the bears in the park. It's mid- to late summer in the park and she was an old bear. But even the park website says females run 200-400lbs. So she was within normal range. Probably would have been heavier come October when it was time to den up.

 

[FSUTribe76]

I know you're a google expert, I'm just relaying information from people who actually are familiar with the bears in the park. It's mid- to late summer in the park and she was an old bear. But even the park website says females run 200-400lbs. So she was within normal range. Probably would have been heavier come October when it was time to den up.

First of all, when did I *=^+ in your Wheaties? Enough with the personal attacks, I haven't said peep about you. you really shouldn't get heated over anything said on a message board. As a matter of fact the only time I've gotten %+^y is when someone tried hacking my accounts from here. So settle down.

Second, I'm not saying I know definitively as I haven't had anything to do with wildlife %*%* since I interned with Florida Natural Areas Inventory as an intern in college so it's been 20 years almost since I've had anything to do with it. All I'm saying is that to me, a 250lb brown bear seems scrawny and that would likely be why human meat was on the table, I can't even begin to fathom why my stated opinion not fact on this is controversial or concerning to you. It boggles my mind.

 

[BelemNole]

To you. Ok. I'll take that for what it's worth.

 

[noleville]

Are all brown bears grizzles? For some reason I thought that brown bears were a lot like black bears, they're pests but usually scare off easy. While the grizzly was brown but was a separate type of brown bear..

 

[BelemNole]

In North America they are the same.

 

[Gonolz]

Since it seems to be all the rage these days, was just wondering if a bear could sous vide people meat in a hot spring?

 

[ericram]

She must have really enjoyed the sweet human meat to squirrel some away for later. Cleaver girl.

 

[FSUTribe76]

Since it seems to be all the rage these days, was just wondering if a bear could sous vide people meat in a hot spring?

Sure why not. Here's a Yellowston Brown Bear chasing down a quick parboiled moose that slipped (or was lured into by the bear maybe?) into a hot spring and almost killed itself (note the fur that was boiled off).

 

[noleville]

That bear has no shot to catch that beast on the open road. But it looks cool as hell to see the chase.

 

[cmanole]

I would bitch slap a 252 pound bear...

 

[DFSNOLE]

I would bitch slap a 252 pound bear...

Once.

 

[surfnole]

I don't think you are asking for an attack if you walk in grizzly country alone. People in Alaska and Canada do it all the time.