Black Bear Attack

[StarMetal]

For all you that have been hearing about that black bear attack at Cherokee Park, in SE Tennessee...well that's just a few mile down the mtn, and across the valley from me. We do have a rather large bear population, but the interesting thing about that is Cherokee Park is just a few miles from the bear refuge where the "bad" bears from Smokey Mtn National Park go to when they give visitors trouble there.

Joe

[waksupi]

Joe, I know black bears pretty well. I don't think they told all of the story. I'll bet you, that either the kid, or the mother, found a cub they were messing with. Sure recipe for trouble, = no sympathy on my end, if these were the circumstances. No reason to hunt down the bear and kill it..

[KCSO]

Makes not much difference, to a 350 pound animal a 40 pound anything is mostly just food. Folks just can't seem to understand that. I can't count the number of folks here that have tried wolves and found out that the nice puppy always grows up to be a wolf. No matter how cute a bear is a bear and under the right circumstace you will get hurt. I dodged several blackies doing reforestation in Minnesota in the late 60's and I wouldn't trust one any more than a lion or a grizzly. When you see a bear you head the other way quick unless you are prepared to deal with him, but nobody camping in a park is allowed to be prepared so no we have to kill a bear to get even.

Joe
Bad Bear? What is a bear but a big animal mainly concerned with turning anything edible into bear scat? If he was cornered, mad, hungry or protecting cubs he was just being a bear. After running groups over the rockies and having 1/2 of them say look at the cute___________ ( fill it in with any big dumb animal) lets get a close up ! I pretty much feel that the animals are just helping with natural selection and I don't get real upset when some body gets Treadwelled.

I once had a fellow try and get a close up on a mama moose, no wasn't in his language until mama pounded his Nikon into a muddy mess and pinned him up a tree, and I'm kinda sorry she got the camera.

[StarMetal]

Here's what our news reported here:

Tri-Cities Bear Encounters Common
We have an update tonight on the family attacked by a black bear in southeast Tennessee. The attack happened yesterday in the Cherokee National Forest. The ohio family was at a pool below a waterfall when the bear attacked. Witnesses say the bear picked up the 2-year old Luke Cenkus in its mouth as the boy's mother, Susan, and other visitors tried to fend it off with sticks and rocks. 6-year old Elora Petrasek ran away down a trail, but was later found dead with the bear standing over her. Experts tell us contact with black bears is not uncommon, especially in parts of our region.

BENTON, Tenn. - Authorities put out traps baited with honey buns and doughnuts Friday in hopes of capturing a potentially crazed black bear that killed a 6-year-old girl and mauled her mother and 2-year-old brother.

It was only the second documented attack on a human by a black bear in modern Tennessee history, said state Wildlife Resources Agency spokesman Dan Hicks.

“There is a chance that the same bear would attack someone else, so I hope they do catch him,” said Lynn Rogers of the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minn.

Black bears generally avoid humans, animal experts said. Rangers at the Cherokee National Forest, where the attack took place Thursday, said a disease, tumor or parasite might have made the animal more aggressive.

The 350- to 400-pound bear attacked the family at a waterfall near a campground after several adult visitors tried to drive it off the trail, Hicks said.

The bear bit the boy’s head, then went after the child’s mother after she tried to fend off the attack with rocks and sticks, Hicks said. The animal picked up the woman with its mouth and dragged her off the trail.

The girl apparently ran away, and about an hour later was found with the bear hovering over her body, Hicks said. A rescuer fired a shot that scared the animal off, Hicks said. Authorities said they did not know whether it was wounded.

Dogs failed to pick up the bear’s trail in an overnight search, and authorities set out traps in the thousand-acre area around the attack site.

The girl was identified by the U.S. Forest Service as Elora Petrasek. Her mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, of Clyde, Ohio, was in critical condition at a Chattanooga hospital, while her brother Luke Cenkus was upgraded to stable condition. Both are expected to recover.

2-year-old’s skull punctured
Luke suffered a bite wound that punctured his skull, while his mother had eight puncture wounds to the neck and too many claw and tooth injuries to count elsewhere on her body, doctors said.

Authorities have not been able to talk to Susan Cenkus because of her injuries. “She may not remember the attack at all,” Hicks said.

Rogers, the bear expert, said there have been only 56 documented killings of humans by black bears in North America in the past 100 years. Rogers said the current population of black bears in North America is around 750,000, and there is generally fewer than one killing a year.

In May 2000, a woman was killed by a black bear near Gatlinburg as she walked on a trail near a Smoky Mountains campground.

Joe Clark, a wildlife ecologist with the U.S. Geological Service who has been studying black bears for about 20 years, said injuries or sickness can make them more aggressive. They also may attack when surprised or, in the case of females, to protect their cubs.

“I’ve never experienced any type of aggression in all my time in the woods,” he said. “Typically you won’t encounter one because they sense your presence a long time before you sense theirs.

“As the populations of people and bears continue to grow there will be more opportunities for this type of thing,” Clark said. “We are dealing with a large, powerful wild animal.”

If captured, animal will be killed
Authorities at the Cherokee National Forest said that if the animal is captured it will be killed so tests can be done to determine if it was ill.

“We may never find it,” Hicks said. “It may be on the top of another mountain by now.”

The attack occurred in a mountainous area, 10 miles from the nearest highway. The national forest covers 1,000 square miles along the Tennessee-North Carolina line.

No more than six groups of campers were at the campground at the time, and they were evacuated after the attack, Hicks said.

He said that this is the time of year when bears are usually active, and that there have been 42 bear sightings in the area in the past couple of weeks.

[trooperdan]

I agree that it is a shame to blame the bear. I wonder how they are going to know they have found the "right" bear? Unfortunately, a lot of bears may be killed to be sure they got the "right" one.

Does sound like an odd attack, if it happened the way they are saying. It is almost funny they are baiting the bear with honey buns and doughnuts!

[StarMetal]

When I first moved here the local hunter residents are very anxious folks to tell you all about hunting. Take the UPS man for example. He told me to nail a tuna fish can to a tree about head height and cut it open partly. Said I'd have a bear in a few days. Now my neighbor friend down the mtn road from me said the best thing to draw a bear in is honeybuns. Sounds like he's right. He also made it very clear that it's illegal to bait bears in TN.

As for identifying the bear that did this horrible deed they are going to have a bear lineup and the mom is going to pick him out. NO NO...boy I'm bad....just kidding trying to make a horrible thing alittle lighter. I'd be broken if it was my little girl. To me it sounds like the bear was totally at fault on this one. There were no cubs, they weren't feeding the bear...they were just enjoying sitting where there were and you know the rest.

I don't see how they possibly can get the right bear. A good set of bear dogs should have been able to stay on that bear and let me tell you that have them here too as there is a legal season for that. They put radio collars on the dogs and track them. I've seen them track a bear for miles and miles and miles with that set up. Some of the neighbors got $3000 in a good bear dog here. These fellows that have the dogs will do anything to not shoot the bear because their fun is in running the dogs and by TN law dog bear season is the ONLY time that dog can be in the woods. So they let you go along and shoot the bear, give you their gun if you don't have one, tag, and take the bear to the check in, to the meat processer for you...or if you don't want it, they will get rid of to someone else for you. Anything to not have to shoot it and end their season.

Anyways I'm sorry about the little girls unfortunate death...very saddening.

Joe

[Scrounger]

I agree that it is a shame to blame the bear. I wonder how they are going to know they have found the "right" bear? Unfortunately, a lot of bears may be killed to be sure they got the "right" one.

Does sound like an odd attack, if it happened the way they are saying. It is almost funny they are baiting the bear with honey buns and doughnuts!

Good Heavens! They might attract some Cops or Patrolmen. Very thoughtful of you to warn our LEOs here.

[BruceB]

Based on quite a bit of experience and decades of living in bear country, and that means living OUTSIDE CIVILIZATION where the bears are, I say that ANY bear can be a problem on any given day. The one thing that can be predicted is that the animals are UNpredictable.

We sold our home in the bush of the Northwest Territories in 1997. Less than one year later, a man was killed in his sleeping bag and then partially eaten by a black bear which was apparently healthy and "normal", less than a mile from where we had built our place. Until I fenced an area around our house, I was killing bears fairly routinely if they tried to establish a routine of hanging around. Just passing through, no problem. Hang around, and...curtains.

However, once we had a child, there was no mercy. Our Anatolian Shepherd Dogs did a damned good job of sanitizing the place of bears, too, but one of the M-14s usually had the final say. And, Canada or not, I ALWAYS carried a .44 revolver with heavy cast loads whenever I set foot out of the house in the non-hibernation months.

Do not trust any bear, under any circumstances (unless it's dead, of course).

[9.3X62AL]

They would trap me, if they baited with maple bars or cinnamon rolls.

Until Summer 2002, every bear I'd seen in the wild was hauling ass in the other direction--or had stumbled into habitation by accident. There is ALWAYS a gun with me in the back-country, and I think an M1A is an excellent idea for just about any freebooter found therein--furry or otherwise adorned.

[Bullshop]

I am with Bruce B on this one. As we say here making good bears out of bad ones.
BIC/BS

[Hairtrigger]

The family lives about an hour from me. It seems the local news stations know very little about bears but need a big story.

[StarMetal]

Watched the local news. They didn't get the bear yet. He didn't go for the honeybuns. The wildlife dept. said something about the bear having some brain disease making it crazy.

Joe

[Dale53]

From the hews report,

>>>It was only the second documented attack on a human by a black bear in modern Tennessee history, said state Wildlife Resources Agency spokesman Dan Hicks.<<<

This is absolute B*lls**t!!! Someone is mauled in the Smokey Mountains every year. Most of them are tourist caused but some of them are NOT. I used to backpack by myself in the Smokies for many years every autumn for nine days (I had limited vacation time). I was "treed" one night for many hours in a three walled shelter. A mother bear (a good 350 lbs if she was an ounce) with two cubs. She was looking for food (the mast was light that year) and tried to run me out of the shelter. The confrontation lasted about six hours (she would leave and then come back). From that time forward I ALWAYS carried even tho' it was a National Park. It is common knowledge amongst regular back packers that the Park administration keeps quiet about the maulings as they don't want to reduce the tourist trade.

To put things in a proper perspective regarding bears and humans. Just think of a "junk yard dog" that weighs from 200-500 lbs and you will get a bit better idea of a bear's potential for damage. Their strength is prodigious (that means REALLY strong:mrgreen: ). I have seen them walk over to a car, smell some food in the trunk and slip their claws in the crack of the trunk and simply lay the trunk lid back on itself. A locked trunk does not even slow them down. Park bears are the most dangerous of all because they have lost their fear of man.

I've hunted bear in Ontario in the bush and been in on a large number of "autopsies". My guide, who had years of experience in the bush, told me that bears are emotionally unstable. One out of ten bears will try to "take you" and tomorrow the numbers are the same but it will be a different bear. I got my bear and didn't need to get another (save the rest for someone who hasn't yet got one). I found it a really good hunting experience and really glad I did it.

Dale53

[StarMetal]

...and just think...two seasons ago they shot a 410 pounder about 150 yards from my mailbox. That same year in the neighboring areas two over 600 pounds were taken, a 610 and a 627.

Joe