July 18, 2000 Missoulian (AP) article by Paul Queary: Alaskan brown bear kills, and eats camper.
JUNEAU, Alaska - In a rare predatory attack, a brown bear killed and partially ate a man at a campground a few miles from a bear-viewing site in far southeastern Alaska.
CAG Comment
Brown bears of Alaska are closely related to the grizzly bear and are not the only ones that will attack and eat humans.
This incident in another reason for not following the lead of the agencies directed by the Clinton/Gore administration that want to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Selway Bitterroot Ecosystem (SBE) where it is suspected there is not a quality grizzly bears habitat.
Doesn't make much sense does it in view of the fact that the reintroduction of grizzly bears into the SBE is not needed because they are threatened or endangered and will in no way enhance the quality of human life
End CAG Comment
The body of George Tullos, 41, of Ketchikan, was found Saturday at the Run Amuck campground near Hyder, a small community on the Canadian border about 75 miles northeast of Ketchikan. The attack apparently happened sometime late Friday.
"The bear attacked him," state trooper Sgt. Steve Garrett said Monday. "It was not a matter of slapping him around. The bear ate on him."
After the bear was shot and killed, biologists found the victim's flesh in its stomach, said Bruce Dinneford, regional management coordinator for the state Division of Wildlife Conservation.
The U.S. Forest Service maintains a bear-viewing site near Hyder, but the campground is more than three miles away from the tourist attraction, said Paul Larkin, who operates the viewing area and also serves as the community's administrator.
The 300-pound male bear showed up about 10 days ago and quickly became a problem for a town of 140 accustomed to bears rummaging through garbage and scroungmg for food, Larkin said.
Larkin said the bear ate garbage at the dump near .the campground and sometimes scared locals as they disposed of their trash. The night before the attack, it drove a group of campers away from their gear and pawed through their supplies.
"This was a bear who was an opportunist, taking advantage of what he could find," Larkin said. "We don't see many bears like this, thank goodness."
The night before the attack, Larkin and others tried to trap the bear so it could be moved out of town, but were thwarted by a faulty trigger mechanism in the trap.
Tullos, who was in Hyder for the summer to work at a restaurant, had apparently gone to the secluded area of the campground to sleep, Larkin said.
After his body was found Saturday, workers at a nearby sawmill spotted the bear at the dump. Knowing he was suspected in the mauling, the workers shot the animal, Larkin said.
In addition to tissue from the victim, Larkin said the bear's stomach also contained grass and berries, indicating the animal wasn't completely a "garbage bear" accustomed to the easy pickings in human trash.
Predatory bear attacks are very rare because bears perceive humans as a threat rather than prey, said Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the state wildlife division.
"Bears typically do not attack someone as dinner," Bartley said. "There's generally about half a dozen cases a year where someone is injured by a bear. About four of those six cases tend to be hunters."