NJ bear on AT dragged camper from tent

[Chip]

NJ has a problem that I hope can be resolved. I also hope this is not a pre-cursor to similar problems in other nearby areas. I'm not an alarmist. I know 99.9% of bear encounters are peaceful, but a very easy "solution" would be to close large sections of these trails and parks during the spring, summer and fall.

"MONTAGUE, N.J. -- State fish and wildlife workers have trapped and killed a bear responsible for injuring a sleeping camper along the Appalachian Trail at High Point State Park.

State officials notified the public about the attack on Monday, more than two weeks after it happened.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday that delayed notice of the attack from the park and the need to finish an investigation caused officials to hold off making an announcement.

The male camper, whose name was not disclosed, was attacked around 6:30 a.m. on July 13 when a bear bit his leg and tried to drag him along with his sleeping bag, said DEP spokeswoman Karen Hershey. "


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...ion-apnewjersey

 

[AMF]

Folks need to take bear precautions more seriously regardless of where they are. Don't sleep in clothes you cook in, keep your pack outside the tent, & don't take any snacks to bed!

'Course, nothing prevents the occasional cranky bear attack. Setting up camp late one nite in early spring off the AT in Shenandoah, we had a bear calmly walk up to camp, make a few snuffling noises, & proceed to shred a tent (after we made lots of banging noise & flashed lites at him). Ranger said they were just waking up & not in a good mood!

 

[onestep]

I've seen several bear along the AT in Maine. Actually I've only seen the tail end of them as they where running full tilt away from me.

The AT in NJ is another story. Early one morning while eating breakfast at one of the shelters I noticed a large dark object out in the woods. It was early, slightly misty out, and I could not really tell what it was I was looking at. Then it moved! The bear was like a ghost. Silently it moved thru the woods often dissapearing from view for a second or two. It seemed to float as it circled the lean-to ever so slowly to the left. We packed up, and ever so quickly exited the lean-to to the right. It was really remarkable, as if being stalked.
A day or two later as I approached Deleware Water Gap I was greated with "hey mister watch out for the bear" type greatings. At first I dismissed the warnings as just kids being kids. There where lots of grade school "kids" on the trail heading up to Sunfish pond. Each small group of them had the same warning. Well long story short, the bear was sitting at the base of a tree not 100 feet up a steep hillside from the trail. In the tree where her 2 cubs. My heart stopped. Mama bear could be on top of me in three easy bounds! I was glad to get by her and out into the parking lot at DWG.

Onestep

 

[Rob S]

but a very easy "solution" would be to close large sections of these trails and parks during the spring, summer and fall.

Easier said than done. This happened at (or near) a shelter right on the Appalachian Trail. Besides, there are literally hundreds of miles of trails just within the DWGNRA, Stokes, High Point, and Waywayanda (to mention just a few areas) ........ so whaddya do .... close ALL the trails. Nah.

I live just a few miles from the DWG. Yes, there are a lot of bears in that area, and thus probably a higher percentage of "nuisance" bears. I am no bear expert, but every single time that I read about a bear "attack" in NJ, one common denominator aways seems to reveal itself everntually ...... carelessness or recklessness. About 2 years ago, a man and his son were "attacked" and swatted at by a black bear near the DWG. I don't remember the exact details, but the rangers soon discovered that the man was feeding the bear some bagels in an attmept to get a picture of his son with a bear in the background. (IIRC, he was fined by the ranger.)

I am not implying that this latest "attack" wasn't truly an attack, I dunno .... maybe it was. But it wouldn't surprise me even a little to find the man had food in this sleeping bag or tent, or had cooked steakums and onions the night before and never changed his clothes!

 

[Jim lombard]

Well long story short, the bear was sitting at the base of a tree not 100 feet up a steep hillside from the trail. In the tree where her 2 cubs. My heart stopped. Mama bear could be on top of me in three easy bounds! I was glad to get by her and out into the parking lot at DWG.

Onestep

Two weeks ago on the Bruce Lake trail in the Pocanos I saw two small cubs scramble up a tree just 40 feet away. I heard a large swishhhhh through the brush head in their direction....much too close to me for comfort High bush blueberries were just high enough to conceal her. My heart also stopped but they took off peacefully.

 

[snowshoe]

I live about a mile from that shelter. You can not take what the paper tells serious. I actually was able to get a copy of the picture of the incident with the bear grabbing on the sleeping bag with the person in it and talked to someone the day it happened while I was mt biking in that area who I beleive witnessed it. The situation could not have been that bad for someone to stand there and take a photo. I have a feeling there was a food scent on the sleeping bag and that was what atracted the bear. The bear draged the individual in the bag. If the bear really wanted to do damage it would have done it. As soon as the person yelled the bear took off. I would hardly call it an atack. You never hear the real side of the stories. I hike this area on a regular basis and never had problems with bears.

Oh by the way the paper says the bear bit the person in the leg. They forgot to say the person was in the sleeping bag. The bear did not know he was going for a leg. I have the picture as proof.

 

[Chip]

That'd be a great picture to see, can you post it ?

"Attack" or no the bear is dead. The problem is the population of bear and few public officials are inclined to take the steps required to seriously reduce the population. My concern is it might be easier for the politicos to limit access to certain areas rather than risk being labled as an animal killer.

 

[una_dogger]

Bear/human interactions

If the bear really wanted to do damage it would have done it.

I'm not so sure I agree with this statement. I have read that when predators are becoming habituated they are initially inhibited in their attempts at interacting with humans, sort of a "testing the waters" phase. Something inside worries me that is what we may be seeing here.

Isn't this the same area of NJ where this Spring a bear walked into a corral, killed a 250 pound pony, and dragged it up the hill and proceeded to go to work eating it in clear view of the house? (sorry, not trying to start 'urban myths' here, if anyone can clarify/expand upon this, please jump in)

Sabrina

Edited to add these additional thoughts:
We have a bit of a growing bear problem here in NY on the AT where I live. Actually, the problems haven't occured on the AT yet, but they are occuring in the suburban fringe that surrounds the AT; now in the form of food scavenging. Because much of the AT does coexist alongside this suburban fringe, I'm not so sure that careless hikers are the real problem. Its careless residents who encourage the habituation of these bears, and perhaps its the solitary hiker who is first going to experience the bear:human interactions. Food for thought..

 

[Steve-o]

I guess I'd rather be bitten in the leg than in the bag.

 

[snowshoe]

Here is the picture

Hope you enjoy the picture. Not sure who took it, it was sent to me.

 

[Sherpette]

Well I am glad that the bear was easily scared away by the hooting and hollaring. The fact that it was probably means that (As someone else mentioned) the bear didn't realize what it was biting, just that it smelt like something yummy to eat (Possibly a candybar or nuts and berries of some kind). I'd like to say that the response to the attack was a bit hasty and an overreaction, but I don't know how things are run down there. I think it is also interesting to hear all the time about a real "Problem" of any animal, whethere bear, mountain lion, or wolf. Fact of the matter is, we are in their home. No matter what trail we are on, we should always (And I feel most of us are) be aware of our surroundings and know how to react. In this case here, it seems that these hikers did the right thing, made noise and the bear ran away. I just feel sometimes that we forget just whose home we are visitng when out in the woods.

 

[jjmcgo]

Some posters assign blame to the humans, some local people here to the bears. The problem actually is politicans overruling wildlife management officials regarding bear hunts. Last year's was cancelled. This year's hasn't yet been announced. You can only put so many bears in a square mile or they spill over into other areas. That's been happening for several years now. Northwestern NJ is oversaturated with bears who are hungry and migrating out.
New York last week protested to New Jersey, and Pennsylvania has been quietly complaining about the spillover.
Also, please be advised that humans are not moving into or developing homes in "bear country." New Jersey has been developed for a long time. The area the trail passes through supplied the colonists with various ores. It is filled with mines and abandoned villages. Abandoned not because the economy failed but because a dam was planned there and homes bought that were to be submerged.
It's the bears who were moved into people country. We need about a 750-bear killoff to get the problem under control. If they take 375 as speculated, we will be in the same situation as last year when we needed a hunt and didn't have one.
As you can see here, DEP made the announcement not Wildlife Management. DEP also covered up the news for two weeks. It was the DEP commissioner who overruled WM on the hunt and is now suppressing the news about the predictable effects of its uninformed policies.

 

[snowshoe]

jjmcgo I respect what yopu have to say butI have to disagree with you. Being a NJ native, It is a people problem. All bear problems are due to humans. You just never here the facts only what the press says. Northwest Jersey has only recently been getting more built up. I was born in this area and we have never had the bear problems until more people moved into the area in the last 15 years. Yes the bear population has increased but it is increasing at a faster than normal rate. With the abundance of food like Garbadge, the bears are not having the normal 2 cubs but it is becoming common for them to have 3-4 cubs. The NJ Highlands are much more built up but bears originaly were found in isolated areas of the Kittatinny's as well as North Jersey. All public land. This recent atack or I should say incident happened in an area that has over 30,000 acres of public land. I would hardly consider built up. It happened in an area that sees a high volume of inexperienced campers. I know for a fact that most of these campers who come through during the summer leave food around. That is why the bear hung around and acted like it did.
Look at Yellowstone and the ADKs. All the camping areas there have problems. Even in NJ the problems only ocure at campsites or heavily developed areas like Highland Lakes and West Milford I have never herd of bear problems in my neck of the woods. But I also live next to public land and not nearly as devoloped as other areas. I even have a bear that lives the swamps behind my house. He never caused a problem yet. I think it is a human/Development issue. If it was political the bears would be hunted. That would mean more money for NJ. I am not against the hunt in anyway. I just hate the reason why everyone says we should have a hunt.
The NY news just showed an actual vidoe of the incident. If you get to see it you will see a whole different side than what the paper says.

 

[una_dogger]

JJmcgo and snowshoe, I enjoy reading both of your viewpoints. I personally find predator urbanization a fascinating topic, albeit it never plays out well for the predator in the grand scheme of things.
JJmcgo, good points on the mgmt issues, and the cancellation of the hunt. As much as I loathe to see an animal suffer, I accept the fact that culling is necessary to wildlife mgmt; these bears have limited resources; as you both point out; and naturally, they opt for the easier pickins, garbage.
One observation I made of that photo, is that bear, from that angle, looks underwieght; and that's flies in the reason of what is most observed of urban bears; specifically; larger body weight and higher cub rate due to higher caloric intake (trash). I've read a few case studies on bear attacks on humans (consumption driven, not defense style attacks) and in every case the bear was under a certain body fat range at a certain point in the summer season. So I am not convinced that this bear wasn't looking for food and getting brave. Case in point, a bag that smells like food he has probably experienced, and with favorable outcome (eg, found garbage to eat). But I am still surprised that the bear, even if he saw what appeared to him to be a bag, and one that smelled like food, was brazen enough to approach a site where people were commonly present.
Animals learn by association, that's something we all need to remember, just like was mentioned earlier, when we are in their home. What gets me is when local residents are careless with thier trash or birdfeeders, and bears come calling. The association is formed there. Careless hikers only reinforce that association but also (using some animal psychology here), by moving on the next day, unlike Joe Homeowner, what does the bear learn from that??
Hikers are easily intimidated? They are not territorial and will move on? Sorry if this all sounds speculatory, but I do think its a management issue and one that needs to be addressed proactively; not just through annual culling and removing the offenders from the gene pool (removing thier opportunity to pass on the lessons learned), but through much more aggressive public awareness campaigns.

Thanks for listening,
Sabrina

 

[mommabear]

Just read a little online article on what to do when you encounter a bear. It's short and doesn't say whether they're talking Grizzlies or Black Bear, but I know when I ran into one in the woods by myself, I handled it the way they suggest here and everything went fine. It was a good experience.What to do when confronted by a bear

 

[jjmcgo]

Good stuff, Una Dogger

Supposedly, over half the humans who ever lived are alive right now. Same thing with Jersey bears, the majority are probably under 5 years old. So, they're smaller than you expect. The 3-year-old males are the wanderers. They've been kicked out by mom to make room for the new ones and they hit sexual maturity and get kicked around by bigger boys. Those are the ones we see in the suburbs.
The bear in this picture probably hasn't roamed the developments. He's more likely to be a berry picker but the woods are getting picked pretty clean.
They're amazing in their ability to find greenbelts to navigate through moderate-density suburbs. One poster mentioned the shadow moving behind the vegetation. I've seen that. If you get to see one leap from a squat, you will be mighty impressed.
Good point about being skinny late in the season. The guy in Alaska who got killed last year and Siberia's leading bear expert were both killed by bears they trusted ... in October.

 

[DougPaul]

Just read a little online article on what to do when you encounter a bear. It's short and doesn't say whether they're talking Grizzlies or Black Bear, but I know when I ran into one in the woods by myself, I handled it the way they suggest here and everything went fine. It was a good experience.What to do when confronted by a bear

Instructions look like they are for a Grizzly, but the picture looks like a black bear.

Doug

 

[SAR-EMT40]

The rolling into a ball and playing dead is for a grizzly attack, I believe. I have read over and over that you should play dead if a grizzly attacks. Your only real hope is that the griz is just going to maul you and then leave you alone. If you keep fighting then the griz will keep showing you who is boss. If the griz wants to eat you then fighting isn't going to make a difference anyway. You'll only die tired. On the other hand. A Black bear is different. If he actually makes contact then it is a predatory attack and you should fight for your life. A black bear is less likely to risk injury to get a meal. At least that is what I have read and plan on doing.

Keith

 

[ExploreTheEast]

I've been watching this thread develop over the past couple days, and all I can say is-- I'm glad my g/f doesn't visit vftt! She'd never come backpacking again if she read this!

 

[Chip]

one of the non-lethal benefits to hunting is that it re-trains animals to avoid human contact. a big part of the bear and coyote "problem" is that they've lost all fear of us, and with all the poor food handling, have actually learned we may represent an easy meal. Proper food handling, a hunting season and maybe hikers armed with those aerosol blast horns would go a long way in training the animals to head the other way.
Re. animal populations vs development; "Extirpated" is a term often used to describe bear, deer and moose populations in the Northeast during the late 18 and early 1900's. So if there are "any" here now, the populations have increased. Most state biologists agree these populations are now increasing dramatically, even just year over year.