Posted on 08/29/2015 2:40:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The trails have been closed indefinitely at Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area in Burlington after a bear approached a hiker.
Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has closed hiking trails at Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Burlington due to the apparent bold behavior of a black bear there that followed and approached a female hiker early Friday afternoon.
DEEP’s Wildlife staff say the male bear – which is approximately 1 ½ years old and possibly weighs about 150 pounds – followed the woman for quite some time shortly after noon. It also approached and circled her when she stopped walking and at one point it appears that its mouth made contact with the hiker’s leg. The hiker was not injured in the incident.
Video of the bear taken by the woman, Stephanie Rivkin, showed tags on its ears that had been placed there by DEEP staff in previous dealings with the bear. DEEP records show the bear was first tagged as a yearling in its winter den, as part of the agency’s effort to track the bear population, and was also captured and relocated at least one other time.
Rivkin said when the bears approached her, she thought, “This is something I’ll never forget. Please God let me get back to my car.”
She said she’s received some negative feedback concerning her video.
“For all of the people who don’t know the whole story, yet are posting ridiculous comments about me, I will post the rest of the videos so you can see for yourself that I did nothing to antagonize or even approach the bears. I also had no bad intentions when I reported the bears. And stated very clearly that I did not want any harm to come to the bears. That part is beyond my control,” Rivkin said.
Rivkin’s friend Crista N Oronde Moore wrote on Stephanie’s Facebook page, “So happy she is ok and impressed on how calm she remained, that may just be what prevented her from being hurt!”
DEEP has posted signs at Sessions Woods notifying hikers that the trails there are closed until further notice.
DEEP spokesman Dennis Schain said, “DEEP staff had a chance to talk with this woman after her encounter with the bear. We are relieved she was not injured. This was certainly an unusual incident as bears do not often approach people.”
Schain added, “We did respond immediately when woman made it to our building at Sessions. Our Wildlife staff went out right away to try to locate and euthanize the bear. They saw it but were not able to take action before it disappeared into dense woods. We did set a trap at that location. Our EnCon officers and Wildlife biologists are keeping an eye out for the bear and will respond to any reports of its presence. We will euthanize it if we have the opportunity to do so. That is the appropriate action to take after seeing this bear’s behavior today.”
I bet she takes her pepper-spray next time, as a minimum.
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That has to be the definitive answer to that question.
Isn’t that a completely different situation? He deliberately tried to associate with bears. This woman was just hiking and came upon them.
I’d be curious to know if it was her time of the month. Bears have an incredible sense of smell.
Certainly different. Just saying that some people out there do not realize that they are called wild animals for a reason. They are not friends. They don’t want to be your friend. If they need food, you are food.
Forget the danger from bears..CT is full of two legged predators. It’s insane, IMO, for a woman to go hiking is a fairly deserted area ALONE..
No her calmness almost got her eaten with black bears one needs to fight and be very aggressive
This bear was testing the waters looking to eat her. she need to be aggressive with this bear
You need to do some research on black bear attacks that video show how exactly how they take larger prey.
If the bear is black, fight back."
Loud warning shots work wonders.
The facts say otherwise. It didn't eat her. It didn't even hurt her. How can you argue with success?
Not trying to be crude...just honest.
The tagged bear seemed to expect a positive interaction with a human. I wonder if someone has been feeding him?
Because the bear made contact with her, her behavior was totally wrong and inappropriate for the situation.
She was just very lucky not to have been mauled.
Being lucky doesn’t make proper.
Aggression only works if the animal believes it. The bear was testing her. If she had run, he would have attacked. If she had fought, he might have challenged her since she was about the same size. By just going about her business, she indicated to him that she was ignoring his challenge because she could. That kept him from acting.
Aggression may have scared him off sooner, and that is exactly what I would have done. But she was a woman by herself (a mistake in bear country, a mistake for men as well) and by keeping calm, she didn’t let him see her was either prey nor as someone to challenge.
A curious bear would have watched at a distance or maybe approached and left. This bear was aggressively pulling up to her for a challenge.
Nope you are wrong by being calm she invited further aggression that is way the bear made contact with her.
She was just very lucky the bear didn’t follow up its attack.
i’m not sure but i thot male bears can determine human female menstrual cycles.
I remember seeing a video of a grizzly way up north in Alaska waltzing right past a guy sitting on the riverbank. Them Grizz’s don’t have any experience with predators and don’t really care as much as you would think.
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