July 4, 2000 Missoulian article by Michael Jamison: Rangers kill bear in Glacier.
CAG Comment
To CAG's knowledge there never has been a black bear killed in the Bitterroot Ecosystem (SBE) for mauling a human. Probably because there are so few bears.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service wants to change all that by placing grizzlzy bears in the SBE beginning in the year 2002, even in the face of overwhelming evidence the environment no longer exists with the advent of dams on the Columbia river system, globial warming, decline in whitebark pine, etc.
No amount of 'smoke screen' is going to change or cover up the fact the USFWS is operating on 'warm fuzzly feeling!'
End CAG Comment
WEST GLACIER - Rangers have killed a black bear that attacked a hiker last week in Glacier National -Park, shooting the animal after the bold bruin tried to break into a cabin near Two Medicine Lake.
The area, which had been closed following the attack, is now open.
Park rangers had been searching for the bear since June 26, when it charged and bit 24-year-old Jason Sansom, a hiker visiting the park from Malstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Sansom and his wife encountered the bear on the south shore of Two Medicine Lake, a popular hiking area located in Glacier's southeastern corner, not far from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Sansom, who received multiple puncture wounds to both arms in the attack, walked out of the woods on his own and later was treated and released at Browning Hospital.
The 128-pound male bear proved elusive for much of the week until it appeared Saturday on the porch of the boat concessionaire's residence, not far from the northeast shore of the lake. The bear stood and looked in the cabin windows and attempted to force open both windows and doors, witnesses reported.
Rangers were notified and shot the bear Saturday evening.
Glacier Park guidelines call for killing black bears that show aggression toward humans, as well as black bears that pilfer human food or become overly friendly with vacationers.
Park rangers seem certain they shot the right bear, basing their identification on two photographs snapped by Sansom in the moments before he was mauled. A more conclusive identification is expected once DNA tests are complete, comparing the dead bear's genes with those found in a pile of bear scat located about two feet off the trail from the place where Sansore was attacked.
Sansom's photos, combined with paw prints and previous sightings of the bear, helped confirm it was the same brown-colored bear that had prompted a short-term closure of the Two Medicine front-country campground June 13.
At that time, the bear was showing no fear of humans and ignored park rangers' attempts to haze it from the car campground. Since the June 26 mauling, that campground has been open only to hard-sided campers, remaining off-limits to tents. Park officials reopened the area for unrestricted use after killing the bear.
Black bear attacks on humans are uncommon in Glacier, where the last such mauling came in 1978. In that incident, a camper in the park's southwestern region was bitten while in his sleeping bag. There never has been a human fatality associated with a black bear attack during the park's 90-year history.
Nevertheless, park officials remind visitors that all bears are dangerous and should not be approached. Hikers are urged to carry bear spray, to make loud noises while walking, to hike only in daylight and to always hike in a group.