Free Republic

Wildlife officials say they were forced to euthanize a friendly young black bear after it grew too familiar with people who regularly fed and took selfies with it. Since the beginning of June, Oregon police received regular calls about the bear, which was usually spotted near its favorite boat ramp at an Oregon park. On Thursday, they found the animal surrounded by a pile of trail mix and sunflower seeds that appeared to have been left behind intentionally by some passersby. The police concluded the bear had grown too habituated to human interaction, and could pose a threat to people's...

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)-On 31 May, 2019, at about 1 p.m., a woman hiking with her husband on a popular trail near Aspen, Colorado, was bitten in an unprovoked attack by a black bear. She was bitten on the thigh and required hospitalization for a short period. Most bears that show no fear of humans have become acclimated to humans. Bears that have no fear of humans are likely to test humans to see if humans are potential prey. Eventually, the bears have a good chance of causing harm.The case illustrates how effective a pistol could be at stopping bear attacks,...

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials report that the victim of the black bear attack on Sunday afternoon was Glenda Ann Bradley, 50, from Cosby, TN. Bradley was an elementary school teacher at Jones Cove Elementary. Her companion is her former husband, Ralph Hill, 52, also a resident of Cosby. The attack occurred between 2 p.m.-3 p.m. in the backcountry at the intersection of Little River and Goshen Prong Trails about 2.5 miles from the Little River trailhead where the couple parked their car. The couple entered the Park around noon. Hill left Bradley to fish on an island on...

Two Canadian runners encountered a black bear while on a nature jog and didn’t know what to do. Terrifying moment a fearsome black bear stalked two runners who were out for a jog in a forest.

BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) -- A woman says her dog has died after warding off a bear that broke into her family's North Carolina home. WRAL reported Saturday that the incident occurred in Black Mountain, a town outside Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Tiffany Merrill said she thought she was going to die when the bear broke in. She yelled to her children to shut their doors. Her dog Pickles quickly appeared. Merrill said the five-pound dog "started barking and got the bear's attention and got the bear outside and he saved my life." Merrill said she couldn't save...

A 95-year-old Vancouver Island, B.C., woman chased an "annoying" black bear out of her kitchen — twice in the same day. "I was annoyed," she said. "I told him to go and then he just went about halfway to the backyard and I said 'No! Go home!'" The bear finally got the message and left. But it wasn't long before it returned.

A Florida man Andy Meunier was taking his dog out for a walk when a bear attacked him. It was a short while after leaving his Naples home when he turned to see a black bear staring at him. Without warning, the bear attacked. Neunier recalls, “Everything went in slow motion,” “Everything went in slow motion. It was just as scary as you can imagine,” Meunier told ABC affiliate WZVN. “It was standing in front of me and I tried to turn left real quick and get back in the house, and caught an uppercut from a brown, or a...

A black bear bit through the tent and into the lower leg of a man who was hiking the Appalachian Trail and camped for the night at a national park in Tennessee, park officials said on Thursday. Bradley Veeder, 49, of Las Vegas, was sleeping around 11 p.m. local time in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Tuesday when the bear attacked, park spokeswoman Dana Soehn said by telephone. Because it was so dark, Veeder and nearby campers did not see the bear, which was initially scared away by his screams, Soehn said. Park officials said it was a...

A black bear cub scaled a 12-foot fence in its new enclosure at an Ohio zoo and escaped for about 15 minutes before being corralled and sedated. The Columbus Zoo was put on lockdown Saturday morning for a few minutes until workers could contain the 7-month-old black cub named Joan, said zoo spokeswoman Patty Peters. No one was hurt.

Crews from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation were able to capture a wild black bear that was seen in Cutler Bay. Officials were notified to the animal’s location near SW 86th Court and 207th Avenue on Friday after a nearby business said they saw the bear on their surveillance camera from the night before. The bear was eventually captured after a search of the area. FWC determined that it was a wild bear after checking with nearby facilities that house similar animals to see if they had reported any bears missing. The animal was taken to Zoo Miami, where FWC...

Professional Runner outruns TWO bears.

Pedals, a beloved American black bear who walked upright and strolled around the suburbs of New Jersey like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon come to life, was believed to have been killed by a hunter last week, animal welfare activists said. His age was not known. Since 2014 residents of Rockaway Township have posted videos online of the bear strolling through their neighborhoods and backyards with admirable posture, his forepaws pulled close to his chest. Many commented that on first glance, Pedals resembled a man wearing a bear suit. But it appears that local celebrity was not enough to save Pedals during...

We might be stating the obvious here: You should always approach an animal with caution after it has been shot, especially a ticked-off black bear. In all fairness, who would think a bear could survive a fall out of a tree that high after being shot three times? But regardless, this young man learned the hard way . . . never jump the gun too fast after shooting a bear. Bears will often let out what is known as a death moan as the animal is taking its last breaths, so it’s a good idea to wait for that signal...

A Boy Scout leader from Boonton suffered bites and scratches after being attacked by a bear while hiking at Splitrock Reservoir Sunday afternoon with three young scouts, authorities said. Christopher Petronino, 50, managed to fend off the black bear using a rock hammer after the animal pulled him into a small cave. Petronino and the scouts were later able to draw the bear out of the cave with food, Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Bob Considine said in a statement. The group had set out to hike on the trails that cover the 625-acre wilderness, and they came along the...

SORRENTO -- Florida's first statewide black bear hunt in 21 years is set to begin Saturday morning, but that didn't stop hundreds of protesters from gathering across the Sunshine State to speak out against it. With only hours until the beginning of the bear hunt, demonstrators gathered at Lake Eola Park on Friday weren't backing down. "The people of Florida, so many of them, are just grief-stricken over this," said TV journalist and animal rights activist Jane Velez-Mitchell. Over the last few years, bears have attacked three women in Seminole County and killed several people's pets. Some Seminole County residents...

Was an 85-Year-Old woman a victim of Disneyitis?  She was born two years after the release of the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. She, much like Timothy Treadwell, appears to be a victim of severe anthropomorphism (thinking of animals as humans).  In this case, she was feeding several black bears.  One of them broke into her house and killed her.  From missoulian.com: KALISPELL - The elderly woman attacked by a black bear inside her home west of Kalispell over the weekend has died from injuries she sustained in the incident. The Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks personel stated the problem...

Barbara Paschke, 85, died as the result of injuries she suffered during a black bear attack inside her home ... from injuries she suffered during a black bear attack inside her Ashley Lake home last Sunday afternoon. The woman, Barbara Paschke, died at 10:30 a.m. while she was hospitalized at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. She died due to injuries from the attack ... The attack occurred inside Paschke’s home between Batavia Lane and Ashley Lake Road; although it’s not clear how the bear got inside Paschke’s home, it exited through a window, investigators said. The attack was severe, officials said,...

A woman who recorded the terrifying moment she encountered a black bear outside a cabin in Alaska has garnered international attention because of the way she begged and pleaded with the large mammal to please, please leave her kayak alone. Mary Maley was on a solo kayaking trip from Ketchikan to Petersburg, Alaska, when she decided to stop at a U.S. Forest Service cabin in Berg Bay. Before she could head out on a four-mile hike, she met her nemesis, the bear. Maley posted a video .. “I had just carried my tent, food, and all my gear into the...

GREENWOOD TOWNSHIP, MI — A 46-year-old man was injured in what the Michigan Department of Natural Resources suspects was a black bear attack. ... a black bear came from behind, knocked him over and attacked him. "Using his hunting knife, the man stabbed the bear, which scared it off. The bear is thought to be injured," the DNR said in a news release. "The DNR was informed about 45 minutes later." Sgt. Jon Wood spoke with the hunter and advised him to seek medical attention. The DNR's Law Enforcement Division is continuing to investigate the incident. The DNR plans to...

A Midlothian woman survived a bear attack Saturday at Douthat State Park in Bath County that left her with 14 stitches in her back and 14 in her leg. An adult female black bear believed to be the attacker was tracked and killed early Sunday. The bear attack prompted the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to close several miles of trails on the west side of state Route 629, which was scheduled to be reopened today. Laurie Cooksey was hiking Saturday with three of her four children after a day of canoeing and camping the night before. When they...