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From: njgill@ix.netcom.com (Nancy J. Gill)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Does a bear...?
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 05:25:49 GMT

Following up on the recent postings about bears attacking campers, the San Francisco Examiner ran this sidebar to an article about bears in its Sunday, August 18, 1996, edition:

BEAR ATTACKS

• Tom Stienstra EXAMINER COLUMNIST

No one has been killed in an attack by a California black bear, and attacks are so rare that each merits full investigation by the state. But regardless, attacks are on the rise.

Since 1993 there have been seven verified incidents, while in the previous 10 years, there had been only three.

Here is a synopsis of bear attacks documented in the past 10 years in California, provided by bear expert Bob Stafford of the Department of Fish and Game:

*July 1996: In Angeles National Forest in Southern California, a bear entered a campground at night and bit a woman's foot while she was in her sleeping bag. No report was made, the campers went back to sleep, and four hours later, the bear returned and bit the head of an 8-year-old boy, one of the most serious bear-caused injuries ever recorded.

*April 1996: In the town of Mammoth in the eastern Sierra, a bear approached a man working on his pick-up truck at his home, bit him in the butt, then ran off.

*June 1995: At Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe, a bear approached a camp late at night, apparently in search of food, reached out and gashed a 13-year-old boy, leaving him with scrape wounds and a headache.

*April 1995: In Shasta-Trinity National Forest, a man found what he thought was an abandoned cub but was actually a 70-pound yearling, put it in his vehicle and said he was driving it to an animal protection facility. In the two days that followed, two women joined on the trip, and while driving in the town of Mt. Shasta, received minor injuries from the yearling while in the car.

*August 1993: In San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles, two near identical but separate incidents occurred within three days of each other at campgrounds. In each case, a bear grabbed 13-year-old males who were sleeping and tried to drag them away. Though the boys were scared, only minor injuries were inflicted.

*May 1993: At Shasta Lake near Redding, a man camping with garbage littering his campsite woke up to a bear drooling on him. When the man sat up, the bear swatted him on the head, leaving a small gash that required three stitches, then ran off.

*August 1991: In the Marble Mountain Wilderness in Siskiyou County, a man was trying to photograph a bear within a few feet when he suddenly noticed it was a female with two cubs. The bear charged him and bit him around the shoulders. When the film was developed, it included a photograph of a bear with an open mouth one foot away.

*May 1986: In the Trinity Alps north of Weaverville, a man camped in a tent found himself caught in the middle of a fight between two bears. One of the bears attacked him, biting him in the shoulder and swatting him once in the back of the head. The man hit the bear with a tent pole, the bear retreated, fought again with the other bear, then left.

*September 1986: In remote Siskiyou County near the Oregon border, a man who had been feeding bears at his house for 30 years was cuffed around but otherwise uninjured.

Note that none of the victims were reported to have been menstruating (not even the females.) In fact, several of these attacks would seem to have been instigated by the humans, which leads to the second bear story to hit the Bay Area newspapers lately--in which we learn that the bears may have more to fear thjan the campers:

Yosemite Campers Kill Bear -- Apparently While Saving Food (Friday, August 16, 1996)
Steve Rubenstein, Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Staff Writers

A group of campers stoned a 2-year-old black bear to death in a backcountry campground at Yosemite National Park, rangers said yesterday.

The incident, which occurred Monday night in the Little Yosemite Valley area, about five miles from the Yosemite Valley trailhead, was reported by witnesses to rangers on Tuesday, according to acting Chief Ranger Don Coelho.

``There does not appear to be a good reason for what they did,'' Coelho said, adding that the attack on the bear did not appear to be self-defense by the campers. ``It looked like it had been stoned to death.''

A park ranger found and photographed the dead animal, which weighed about 100 pounds. Coelho said it had died from ``blunt trauma.''

Investigators questioned the campers, believed to be a youth group and two chaperones from Huntington Beach in Orange County. No arrests were made, but Coelho said rangers are taking the incident ``extremely seriously'' and will "attempt to prove a case'' of destruction of wildlife. Rangers allowed the youth group and two chaperones to continue their trip, and they were expected to leave Yosemite yesterday.

Park wildlife biologist Steve Thompson, whose department was investigating the attack, said the chaperones were throwing large rocks to drive the bear away from the campers' food, which had been improperly stored. At least one of the rocks struck the bear in the head, he said.

Rangers were trying to determine if additional injuries were inflicted on the animal and whether others participated in the attack. Thompson said rangers issued citations to the chaperones, who were not identified.

News of the attack was the talk of park employees, who were angry and horrified. Many employees used radio scanners to monitor rangers' conversations about the attack.

``None of us can believe anyone would do this,'' said Allen Mourton, assistant manager at the Tuolumne Meadows store. ``It makes you wonder what people are teaching their kids. We all want to make sure that nobody gets away with something like this.''

Representatives of the National Park Service declined to provide information about the incident, saying it was ``under investigation.''

"Bein' middle-aged and old takes up
most of your time, doesn't it?"

        Ringo Starr
        A Hard Day's Night

Nancy J. Gill
(njgill@ix.netcom.com)
http://www.netcom.com/~njgill/