Bear acted defensively in attacking hikers, Yellowstone officials say

Source: CNN

The grizzly bear that attacked and killed a man in Yellowstone National Park acted in defense, park officials said on Thursday, adding that they have no plans to kill the bear.

The female grizzly attacked a hiker and his wife around 11 a.m. Wednesday after the couple surprised the mother with her cubs, they said.

The victim, Brian Matayoshi, 57, died at the scene. His wife, Marylyn, escaped the attack without injuries.

Park officials were adamant that the bear's reaction was defensive and that the park does not have plans to track down and kill the bear.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/07/wyoming.grizzly.attack/

bear. No one could be that stupid, can they?

at how stupid people can be around wildlife. My sister is a forest ranger, and she can tell stories that would curl your hair.

Seen the aftermath of a few of them. What I found ironic was that when they started allowing guns in national parks, city folks were worried about hicks and rednecks like me getting drunk and having target practice in campsites. I was concerned about city folks and suburbanites panicking at the sight of a bear and start shooting away with his .32, causing said bear to stuff the pistol down the persons throat.

Hopefully we are both wrong.

in 2000, we saw someone try to put their toddler on a buffalos back. Luckly the bison bolted before they got very close.

see if he will come to us." All to many people think that they can just go up to the cubs. They forget that momma is often in hearing distance of her baby. It is also possible that they came around a corner and got to close by accident. Only the wife will be able to say.

I watched a guy hang on a tree hanging off a cliff just to get a "better" picture of a waterfall, had the tree branch broken or he slipped, he would have been killed.

From the article:

Park Superintendent Dan Wenk said all signs indicated the Matayoshis did everything right.

"Upon seeing the bear, they began to back down the trail and when they turned to check, the bear was in full charge towards them," Wenk said.

..........
It's sad and my heart goes out to his loved ones. Had they been armed, with a gun and the proper knowledge to use it, this may have ended differently.

His wife would've ended up dead too! The proper response to a charging momma grizzly is too drop to the ground, cover your head, play dead, and be no threat. She then paws, bites, claws, you and leaves. You don't hike in grizzly country without knowing what the fuck to do.

other than a .50 cal BMG, most other guns would simply irritate the bear more. In nature, there are winners and there are losers. The furless ones don't always come out on top.

I live on a lake. My wife swims in the morning. Today she told me of this awesome cute little bird's nest that she passed on her morning swim. So, tonight we were swimming in the lake, and she insisted I come see the cute little bird nest. So I did. And the momma bird freakin' attacked me. Swooped at my head. I literally had to dive underwater to avoid getting my head pecked. Not once, but three times. When I came up for air, the bird was there to swipe at my head.

AND IT WAS JUST A BIRD.

Bears...don't fuck with them.

.

Those guys will attack anything. I've seen them terrorize cats, dogs, and people that get too close to their nests. It's funny at first, until you realize they really will hurt you.

I was on the lake. Literally, swimming in the lake. My wife pointed out this nest to me, on a low-hanging branch near the water. We could see the baby birds. Then, out of nowhere, the momma bird swooped out of the trees and dive-bombed for my head. I ducked under the water, and no sooner had I resurfaced when she made another pass at me. Not a Blue Jay...dark, with a white breast. About half the size of a Jay. It was freaky.

.

But they're dark gray with light-gray breasts. They also have a white stripe in each wing.

They're VERY feisty parents, and they'll attack anything that comes anywhere near their nests. Too bad all human parents aren't that good. :)

When I was a teenager in Miami, a bird built a nest in the rafters of my parents' house. It was just above the front door. I was terrified to go out the front door because that momma bird would swoop down and peck at me. I think it was a mocking bird, which is common in South Florida. To this day, I avoid birds' nests.

Number two, NEVER surprise a feeding bear.

Talk, talk ,talk and noise, noise, noise will save your life.

black bear with two cubs who used to walk through the campground early in the morning to get a drink of water in the lake. Sometimes she saw me when I was doing my chores. We never got close to each other, but sometimes I felt she was showing her kids off to me and she never seemed spooked by the other campers either. I guess it depends on the mama bear's temperament and this one was very calm.

As long as they know you are there and non threatning they will leave you alone, even with cubs. I would highly suggest making sure mama always knows your there. ;)

them come very close to me. We also get black bears in our neighborhood quite often so I have had a lot of opportunity to watch them. :)
They seem have a much different demeanor than a grizzly.

Lethal black bear attacks are a one-in-a-million occurrence, according to news reports I read today.

http://earthsky.org/biodiversity/most-black-bear-attacks-though-rare-are-by-predatory-males-in-wilderness

I thought this was interesting when I heard of the study just before the 4th of July.

North American Bear Center in Ely, MN.

http://www.bear.org/website/live-cameras/live-cameras/lily-a-hope-den-cam.html

I've been watching these bears for about a year and a half. Lynn Rogers, biologist at the bear center, has been studying the bears of the North Woods for 20+ years, I think.

Lily bear has a den cam during the winter. In January, 2010, Lily gave birth to one cub, (Hope). This past winer she and Hope denned together and in January 2011 Lily gave birth to 2 cubs (Faith and Jason). Sadly, Jason died this spring, but Faith, Hope and Lily are a family and probably will den together this winter. Thousands of people around the world watched the births of Lily's cubs.

I hope you'll take the time to look around the site. :)

It seems very fascinating.

Any informed person would walk the other way to avoid accidental confrontation. I'm glad that the park rangers will not pursue the female who was just being a bear.

meant no harm. It's a really unfortunate situation. :(

where some ASPCA guys were gathering a litter of puppies from a vacant lot (three had frozen to death). Suddenly, the camera swung around, and you see this dog charging toward them like a runaway freight train! I thought she was going to have the ASPCA guys for lunch, but fortunately, she seemed to be more interested in recovering her pups. They just opened the cage with the pups in it, and she climbed right in!

:headbang:
rocktivity

relieved that the bear will be able to raise her family and the cubs won't be orphaned. Wild animals following their nature can't be blamed when they clash with homo.

My utmost sympathies go out to the widow. But, I know if I am hiking some day and a bear kills me, I REALLY do not want the bear killed.

The mother bear was just doing what instinct tells her to do. If hikers continue to choose to hike in bear country, they should have their UDAP Bear Spray. Attacks can happen so quickly that a hiker needs to practice grabbing their spray 5, 6, or 7 times before they go hiking.

And is it like pepper spray, i.e. what does it do to make a bear hestitate or break off an attack?

Could look it up on google but prefer get an opinion from you because obviously you are familar with it.

Tks ...

To be used only as a last resort to fend off a charging bear. The ideal thing is to never surprise a bear, and hikers should make plenty of noise when hiking. True, you may miss an opportunity to see a bear which may be in the vicinity, but that is the way to be safe, or at least as safe as is reasonably possible, in bear country.

_____________________
the range of pepper spray varies, the longest I have seen it (purported to be) is 32 feet.

This was about 5 years ago. Even though we had pepper spray, I was pretty nervous the couple of times we did some backcountry trails. The one day we were about to hike up Mt. Washburn when an excited group of people came down the final part of the trail. They had just run into a mother black bear and her cubs. The bears were on the trail itself, fairly close to the parking lot. Fortunately, it was a large family and it seemed like they had reacted carefully once they encountered the bears. We made the smart (albeit disappointing) decision not to take the trail.

Note: We had checked in with the park office beforehand, which is another good thing to do. They can update hikers and campers on bear sightings.

It works on bears the same way it works on humans: makes it hard to see and breathe.

I carry it in a quick release clip on my belt when hiking in grizzly country. From the videos I've seen, I would expect the bear to get withing 10 -15 feet of me before being deterred! It would require a very cool head, and careful rehearsing and practicing of what to do. It actually produces a kind of cloud of pepper spray between you and the bear. It is not a stream that you have to carefully aim.

Although, I am happy to say that I have never had to use it!

People see Grizzly's and humans interacting on TV and think they can just walk right up to a bear, and it's not going to hurt them. But these are WILD animals, who will defend their young just like humans will.

in this thread are saying the same thing.

since I'm the first reply to it, I'm wondering if I'm the first to read the whole thing.

:)

I was walking two of my mom's Rottweilers on a road, alongside the woods.

The dogs smelled or heard something, and decided they wanted to walk up an embankment, into the woods to check it out.

I heard a rustling, and figured it was a deer or something, so I wasn't too worried. Where I lived wasn't known for having bears.

I get up the little embankment, and there are two bear cubs, each about the size of my dogs, and a mamma black bear.

Fortunately, they didn't seem to notice us, and the dogs had their heads all the way down sniffing at the ground, and didn't see the bears.

I yanked them back as hard as I could and ran like hell for home.

Nature ain't gonna roll over and die for us. In fact, she'll be here long after our self-important asses are GONE!

It's a sad story, but when you go into bear habitat you assume the risk.