Posted on 06/18/2007 8:29:23 AM PDT by george76
An 11-year-old boy is killed by a black bear overnight at a popular campsite in American Fork Canyon. This morning authorities are searching for the bear.
The boy was asleep inside a tent he was sharing with his family at the Timpooneke Camp area, about 10 miles up the canyon. The family was camping about two miles up a dirt road from that campground.
The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent with several sections, and the 11-year-old was in a section of the tent by himself.
Around 11 p.m. family members heard a scream and a loud commotion. They found the tent ripped open, and the boy and his sleeping bag gone.
Harris said the body was found about 400 yards from the tent in the direction of another campsite, where a bear sighting had been reported earlier in the weekend.
Crews are using dogs to search for the bear this morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at ksl.com ...
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Always - always keep food away from you in bear country. I usually store it hanging in a tree at least 100 meters away.
Poor kid....!!!
You can usually spook off a Montana black bear with a few loud noises...VERY unusual....???
Terrifying story.
I wonder if the boy had food in the tent. It is important to keep all food out of the tent when camping in bear country. This includes anything (toothpaste, mouthwash,.. etc) that may have a scent to attract the bear.
Identifying Bears:
If you see a Bear... climb a tree.
If the bear climbs up the tree and kills you... it’s a Black Bear.
If it knocks the tree down and kills you... it’s a Grizzly Bear.
Ghastly. Prayers for his family.
Wondering - black bear? Are bears hunted there?
A bear tried to pull a Girl Scout out of her tent in PA a couple weeks ago - she wriggled free of the sleeping bag and it wasn’t really serious about eating her. The Scouts had been careful with food and toiletries, taking the proper precautions. But bears aren’t much hunted in the north-east and don’t have much fear of humans.
Mrs VS
Shame. But that is nature. Prayers to the family.
There can be no covenant between lions and men
Homer, Iliad XXII
I’ll never understand camping in a tent. Uncomfortable, dangerous and SO MUCH WORK! Sleep out in the back of your house if you want to see stars.
"relieved to have you post that joke on all of the bear threads instead of me from now on" BTTT.
This is completely unusual in Utah. The campground is not far from Robert Redford’s Sundance ski resort.
Amazing and scarey!
Prayers for the family. A very sad and horrible event.
You’re correct. Bear bags strung high in the trees is usually the only safe way to prevent this type of occurrence. Even bear canisters need to be stored away from your tents in an area that doesn’t present an opportunity for the bear to get too curious about the rest of the campsite. Bear canisters only keep the bears out of your food, not out of the storage area they’re in.
A friend of mine had an incident at a campground where they had storage bins for folks to store their canisters. One group just placed unprotected food in the bin and a bear(s) got into the bin. Canisters were strewn all over the place, needless to say, the dopes who just placed their food in there went hungry.
It’s possible the boy had snacks or some such in his section of the tent. I’ve had this problem multiple times with the boys in my Scout Troop. Especially the younger ones who tend to dismiss the threat with the typical “It can’t happen to me” mentality.
SZ
Recently a bear pulled a sleeping boy scout out of his tent...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/943370/posts
A woman from Ohio is hospitalized with serious injuries after a bear attacked her near her home in Ashtabula County ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1636916/posts
If I do that, I raise my chances of being attacked by a black bear significantly. I get black bear at my home in NJ every day, at least once. I choose to camp over the border in PA where I can legally sleep with my weapon.
Loud noises....
Like a few well placed .45ACP rounds...
I simply do NOT understand these camping activities in primitive areas (spelled bear h-a-b-i-t-a-t)....
..Without posting alert, well-equipped & armed adults to provide physical security... as these young people sleep....
Common sense eludes us again...
Morning CC,
Do you know anything about the area? Just curious, as I’m looking for some inside info. on a good camping area to take some older Boy Scouts this fall. Hiking, climbing, biking type of stuff.
Cheers,
SZ
Fawn, I’m with you. If I were to ever feel the need to rough it for a weekend, I’d stay in a hotel where there’d be no connecting air conditioned hallway to my morning breakfast.
It is more comforting to sleep with a 44 mag. under the pillow.
Prayers for that poor family. I can’t imagine just enjoying a family outing and it turning into this.
There was a fatal bear attack not too far from here last year. A poor little six year old girl was killed and her mother and little brother injured.
You can finish the joke :
if there are no trees and lots of snow...
I get all that.
I’m just saying it’s UNusual, that’s all.
Besides.....I’d rather NOT be camping next to the family which allows their kids to sleep with loaded hand guns.....eh...???
...then it’s a polar bear.
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, wildlife officials point to bears desperate for food as the continuing cause of people-bear incidents
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
Scripps Howard News Service
August 21, 2001
This part of Utah sees a high concentration of hikers, bikers and basically humans of all stripes including boy scouts. I prefer much more remote areas, and don’t frequent the American Fork or Mt. Timpanogos areas.
Part of the problem in these bear attacks is that they’ve become accustomed to humans. I’m sure this bear has taken up the nasty habit of scavaging on the remains of campsite garbage. It’s easy food.
This time, the bears instincts for fresh kill associated with campgrounds and food probably got the best of him. What a tragedy.
Bingo..the poor kid might have snuck a few cookies...peanut butter or somesuch..a bear’s sense of smell is unreal....
Uh... 'cuz it's more fun than camping in the city? I hate to break it to you, but people have been doing it for a really long time. Sometimes life isn't about perfect safety.
or the other old line...”I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you...”
Bears are just sweet little cuddly fuzzballs that only want a few snacks. Didn’t you see the movie Open Season??? Its the hunters that are bad not the cute fuzzy bears.
“In 28 years of law enforcement this is the first bear attack that I know of in Utah County,” Harris said.
As the number of bears increases and the number of campers and hikers in bear country increases, incidents like this will grow in numbers.
People camping or hiking in bear country should include at least one person familiar with firarms who is capable of taking down a bear and is armed. People camping in bear country should also be required to have a dog of an appropriate kind with them - Plott Hound, etc.
i agree with u totally
First thought I had was to wonder how much food he had in the tent with him.
Bears are intelligent animals. The more intellignet an animal, the more unpredictable the behavior and the more hikers and campers in bear country, the greater likelihood of this being repeated.
I get hit if I tell that joke.
I see you are from New Jersey.
New Jersey is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
There have been numerous attacks by black bear in New Jersey on livestock and threats on persons and entry into homes there. Their population is growing and the number of bear-human encounters there is growing.
Bear rightfully recognize humans as a harmless food source in Jersey as they are no longer hunted there - there WAS a bear season years ago which kept the population reduced to a very small number in a restricted part of the state - the Delaware Water Gap. The recent increases in bear human encounters there have everything to do with the elimination of that hunting season and nothing at all to do with incerased construction in wooded areas.
There's no real objection to primitive camping --
THE POINT ---
....Is found in my qualifying remarks/conditions for a greater margin of safety in these environs... intentional, alert, equipped and armed security...
Its amazing how many people are trying to rationalize this attack as due to some degree of carelessness on the part of the campers with no evidence to indicate it was the case.
Bears are opportunistic omnivores, e.g. they eat anything they can get ahold of and overpower - roots, berries, rodents, deer, even other young bears, etc. This bear just concluded that there was something edible and available there and took advantage of the opportunity for a meal.
“Common sense eludes us again...”
Common sense is an endangered species in America.
poor kid.
Poor child...What an awful way to go.
“Besides.....I’d rather NOT be camping next to the family which allows their kids to sleep with loaded hand guns.....eh...???”
People who camp or hike n bear country should have a person present who is familiar with firearms and capable of taking down a bear, and approproately armed. Campers hould have a dog of an appropriate type to warn of an approaching bear - just common sense.
Thanks for the info. I’m with you, I don’t like to go to highly frequented areas for the reasons you stated about bears. They’re used to humans and the trash, etc.
I don’t know if you can call it safer/saner, but at least in a less frequented area the behavior of the animals is a bit more “predictable”(?) in that you can take the usual safety measures and have a very good chance of avoiding this type of incident.
Ditto the tragedy comment. It strikes a bit closer to home as my son is 11 and going on his first longterm Boy Scout camp in July (I’m going as well) to an area that has the potential to create this very same scenario. I was already planning on bear bags and canisters but will be putting more emphasis on the precautions and educating all of the Scouts because of this incident.
Thanks again,
SZ
The tragedy is there was no dog with them and nobody who was available to blow the bear away with an appropriate firearm and the ablity to employ the same.
I waste no tears on dead bears - there are too damn many live ones around.
Have fun and stay safe!
cc
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