Bears await their fate after deadly attack
Source: Agencies |
July 31, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WILDLIFE officials say they have captured the fourth and final grizzly bear believed to have been involved in the fatal mauling of a man at a campground near Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday.
A sow and two of her three cubs had been trapped by Thursday. The final year-old cub was found in a culvert trap early yesterday.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say the bears will likely be moved to the state wildlife lab in Bozeman while officials decide what to do with the animals. Results of DNA tests to determine if the bears were responsible for the attacks that injured two people and killed Kevin Kammer are expected soon.
The bears' deadly rampage has set tourists in the Yellowstone National Park gateway community of Cooke City on edge.
Fibers from a tent or sleeping bag were found in the captured bears' droppings, and a tooth fragment in a tent appears to match a chipped tooth on the 300 to 400-pound sow.
But officials say that they will only decide the bears' fate only after the DNA test results have been completed.
"Everything points to it being the offending bear, but we are not going to do anything until we have DNA samples," said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim.
On Thursday, a day after the maulings at a crowded campsite, many in Cooke City carried bear spray, a pepper-based deterrent more commonly seen in Yellowstone's backcountry than on the streets.
Residents in the small tourist town tucked in the picturesque Absaroka Mountains said they were jarred by the nature of the attack. But they also expressed concern about the fate of the cubs.
Officials have said the sow will be killed if DNA evidence confirms that it attacked the victims.
Kammer, 48, was from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The two other victims, Deb Freele of London, Ontario, and Ronald Singer, of Alamosa, Colorado, were taken to hospital in Cody, Wyoming. Singer was treated and released, Freele was due to have surgery yesterday.
A sow and two of her three cubs had been trapped by Thursday. The final year-old cub was found in a culvert trap early yesterday.
Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say the bears will likely be moved to the state wildlife lab in Bozeman while officials decide what to do with the animals. Results of DNA tests to determine if the bears were responsible for the attacks that injured two people and killed Kevin Kammer are expected soon.
The bears' deadly rampage has set tourists in the Yellowstone National Park gateway community of Cooke City on edge.
Fibers from a tent or sleeping bag were found in the captured bears' droppings, and a tooth fragment in a tent appears to match a chipped tooth on the 300 to 400-pound sow.
But officials say that they will only decide the bears' fate only after the DNA test results have been completed.
"Everything points to it being the offending bear, but we are not going to do anything until we have DNA samples," said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim.
On Thursday, a day after the maulings at a crowded campsite, many in Cooke City carried bear spray, a pepper-based deterrent more commonly seen in Yellowstone's backcountry than on the streets.
Residents in the small tourist town tucked in the picturesque Absaroka Mountains said they were jarred by the nature of the attack. But they also expressed concern about the fate of the cubs.
Officials have said the sow will be killed if DNA evidence confirms that it attacked the victims.
Kammer, 48, was from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The two other victims, Deb Freele of London, Ontario, and Ronald Singer, of Alamosa, Colorado, were taken to hospital in Cody, Wyoming. Singer was treated and released, Freele was due to have surgery yesterday.
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