Bear – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Watch: Bear swims for its life after getting swept away in raging rapids

Officials have been making public warnings about staying out of the Yuba River because it’s raging, but a bear failed to heed the warning.

Local officials in California have been making public warnings about staying out of the Yuba River because the spring runoff has more than doubled in size because of the heavy snowpack, making it far more dangerous than usual.

But a black bear failed to heed the warning.

On Saturday, the bear attempted to cross the Yuba River and got swept away in the raging whitewater.

Video of the event was captured by Volunteer Fire Chief Mike Stewart, who was standing on the back deck of the Washington Hotel adjacent the river, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The video shows the bear getting swept down the rapids and going underwater several times as its frantically swims as hard as it can toward the safety of the shore.

“No human could have survived that,” the Washington, California Fire Department wrote on Facebook.

“That bear was swimming for its life…a dog or person would have been gone,” a commenter wrote on Facebook.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Momma bear rescues panicking, crying cub in swift river crossing

The bear did finally make it to shore and shook off the water like a dog.

Stewart told ABC10 the bear weighed about 300 pounds.

“Well, I guess we should add another language to the ‘Stay out, stay alive’ campaign!’” the Washington, California Fire Department wrote on Facebook.

Photo courtesy of ViralHog.

Man shoots bear; a day later, the same bear attacks the man

An Oregon man who shot a bear that had been harassing his chickens had the tables turned on him when the injured bear attacked him.

Craig Lankford of La Grande shot the bear Tuesday evening, and when he went searching for it Wednesday morning, he encountered it near his property and shot it again. Shortly after that, the bear attacked Lankford.

Responding to a 911 call around 7:37 a.m., medical services and Sheriff Deputies arrived on the scene at the same time. Roads were closed as was the adjoining Mount Emily Recreation Area due to the danger of the injured bear.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Yellowstone officials seeking man who caused death of bison calf

The Oregon State Police and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife arrived a short time later and made a search plan to find the bear, which they did at 10:44 a.m. The bear was shot and killed. A necropsy proved it was the same bear involved in the attack.

Lankford was treated at an area hospital. He suffered injuries to his arms and head but is expected to recover.

“We are grateful Mr. Lankford survived this encounter and wish him a smooth and speedy recovery,” ODFW Watershed Manager Jeff Yanke said.

From the ODFW:

Wounded bears can be dangerous. ODFW is aware of at least three incidents when wounded bears attacked hunters who had shot but not killed them. None were fatal.

Bear attacks are rare but tend to occur when bears are wounded, when they are being fed by people and lose their natural wariness, or when they are surprised by people or their dogs. Oregon has not documented any fatal bear attacks.

Oregon is home to an estimated 25,000-30,000 bears. Everyone recreating outdoors or living in bear country is encouraged to take simple steps to reduce the risk of bear encounters and conflict. More information is available at https://myodfw.com/articles/help-keep-bears-wild.

Generic photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

Bear kills dog in Jasper National Park, a warning for pet owners

The mauling of a dog by a bear Saturday in Canada’s Jasper National Park underscores the risk associated with bringing pets into the wilderness.

The fatal mauling of a dog by a bear Saturday in Canada’s Jasper National Park underscores the risk associated with bringing pets into the wilderness.

Parks Canada, which manages the country’s national parks, confirmed Monday that a black bear attacked and killed one of two dogs being walked by visitors on the Wabasso Lake Trail.

Jasper National Park, in Alberta, described the incident in a news release: “They were approached at close range by a black bear and the bear attacked one of the dogs. The hikers then deployed bear spray in an effort to deter the bear.”

Parks Canada did not mention the type of dog or whether its was illegally allowed off-leash. But Jasper National Park stated: “This is a sad reminder that all pets should be kept under control and on-leash at all times within a national park.”

A team of human-wildlife confrontation experts responded to the incident, which remains under investigation. The area is closed while experts try to locate the bear involved in the attack.

–Generic black bear image courtesy of Alan D. Wilson

Black bear breaks into nature center, kills beloved deer

A nature center in Asheville, N.C., has announced the passing of two beloved white-tailed deer after a wild black bear broke into their enclosure.

“With heavy hearts, the WNC Nature Center is sad to report the loss of Becca and Curly, our two white-tailed deer, last week,” the facility stated on Facebook. “They were found in the early morning, and though there are still some unanswered questions, it would appear that a wild black bear entered their exhibit and either directly or indirectly caused their passing.”

Becca, who was brought to the facility as a fawn in 2013, was featured in the Oscar-winning movie, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

Curly was born in 2012 and kept illegally as a pet before joining Becca at the center in 2020.

Chris Gentile, director of the WNC Nature Center, stated in a news release:

“This was an unfortunate accident that has never before occurred within our animal collection. While it’s a rare occurrence for something like this to happen, our Animal Care and Maintenance Teams have taken additional measures to dissuade and deter wild animals from entering our animal exhibits.”

Gentile told News 13 that the facility has since bolstered perimeter and exhibit fencing, and completed other improvements designed to prevent future intrusions by bears from the surrounding wilderness.

Gentile added: “Obviously we’re talking about two animals that have been with us for a while. I think the best thing to say right now is, our team is healing from this. It’s a very sad day for us.”

For her part in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Becca was trained to stand in front of a bluescreen for footage edited into a touching scene with co-star Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes. (The scene is posted above.)

Watch: Tiny cub getting assist from momma bear is ‘cuteness overload’

A newborn cub was lagging behind, prompting momma bear to hastily go back to retrieve it as traffic waited for the road to clear.

Traffic in a small Connecticut town came to a standstill Sunday when a momma bear appeared in the road and hastily retreated to retrieve its newborn cub, which was lagging behind.

Momma bear dragged the tiny cub into the middle of the first lane, dropped it and apparently told it to follow her. Before exiting the road, momma bear turned to ensure the cub made it safely across.

The encounter occurred in Avon with footage captured by a bicyclist.

The person who posted the video described it like this to ViralHog:

“I was riding my bike and came across a Mama Bear trying to cross the road with her newborn cub. The Mama bear was very protective and stared at both sides of the road to ensure that there was no danger and then began crossing the road. She had to go back and drag her cub onto the road, after which this little tiny cub cutely crosses the road.”

Also on FTW Outdoors: Angler pulls 57-pound trout through the ice; ‘I was frozen’

The reaction from viewers was predictable. A sampling from the commenters on the YouTube post:

“Oh my…cuteness overload, I’ve never seen a baby cub so small. Thank you for posting this.”

“That cub is so very tiny! I love that the people stopped to allow mama bear to get her cub across safely to the other side.”

“Beautiful.”

“That is the smallest cub I have ever seen.”

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Bear stuck in ice given Pop Tarts during ill-advised rescue attempt

A Minnesota bear that picked the wrong place to hibernate wound up stuck in the ice in a culvert alongside a road near Wannaska.

A Minnesota bear that picked the wrong place to hibernate wound up stuck in the ice in a culvert alongside a road near Wannaska, leading to an ineffective and ill-advised rescue by a well-intentioned public.

Area residents discovered the stuck bear Sunday and attempted to dig the bear out that evening, as reported by TwinCities.com.

“We were going to go out there and take every precaution necessary, but basically we just wanted to dig it free enough so it could get out,” Spencer Krohn told TwinCities.com.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Ice fisherman catches odd-looking fish that was considered suspicious

Some “well-meaning folks” started to dig the bear out and tried to feed it before officials from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources arrived and blocked off the area as evening arrived.

Before then, the citizen rescuers had “served him up a smorgasbord of six Pop Tarts, a head of lettuce, a dead sucker minnow, some Fancy Feast cat food, bird seed and a Swedish fish,” DNR stated on its Facebook Page.

“That might work for ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ in Eric Carle’s book, but it’s no good for bears,” DNR wrote. “Luckily, because bears don’t have the desire to eat in the winter, the bear didn’t bite.”

The next morning, the bear was sedated by biologists and relocated to another den at the Thief Lake Wildlife Management Area in Marshall County.

The bear denned up in a culvert that began flowing during a recent warmup and became stuck when it tried relocating.

“He tried to push himself out and kind of got wedged on some frozen water that had frozen and thawed, frozen and thawed, and got stuck in place and tired,” Andy Tri, bear project leader for the DNR, told TwinCities.com.

Using a rope with “paw cuffs,” conservation officers spent 20 minutes to extract the drugged bear from its icy predicament.

Tri examined the bear and pronounced him healthy, estimated its age at 6 years and its weight at 375 to 400 pounds, and said it was a male.

“If you’re ever concerned about a bear’s safety by all means give us a call,” the DNR wrote on Facebook. “But don’t try to move it or feed it! Doing so can result in a bad situation (either for you or for the bear).”

Tri told TwinCities, “I was worried we’d have a sick bear mortally wounded or gravely injured or something like that. This is a happy story all the way around.”

Photos of the stuck bear, drugged bear and relocated bear courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Poacher kills first black bear documented at NY wildlife refuge

A hunter has illegally killed what was described as “likely” the first black bear documented at New York’s Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

A hunter has illegally killed what was “likely” the first black bear documented at New York’s Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

The hunter was located after Department of Environmental Conservation officers responded to a Nov. 18 report that a K-9 unit had tracked a bear that had been shot earlier in the day.

The K-9 unit had been part of a nighttime spotlighting detail involving officers trying to catch hunters illegally using lights to locate and shoot deer.

ALSO: Watch coyote’s ‘animated response’ after detecting trail camera

The DEC reported that after an investigation, officers interviewed the hunter at his home and he confessed to shooting the bear with a compound bow.

The refuge does not allow bear hunting and the hunter failed to turn in a harvest report that helps the state keep track of legal bear kills.

The man was cited and ordered to appear in federal court on charges related to the illegal harvest of a bear on a national wildlife refuge.

–Image showing officers with the poached bear is courtesy of the DEC

Bears decorate tree in a manner befitting the holidays

An image showing brown bears positioned like Christmas decorations in a towering pine was shared last week by a wildlife-viewing facility in Transylvania.

“Pine ornaments for sale,” the company, Bear Watching in Transylvania, joked on Facebook.

The image reveals that bears in the region are prolific climbers. In this instance, their faces peering toward the camera from different spots in the branches make them appear as adorable decorations.

The Facebook post inspired dozens of comments in Hungarian language, such as, “How cute they are! Such a rare moment!”

The image was subsequently uploaded to a Facebook page that features the brown bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park, and inspired more silly and amusing comments, such as “Don’t forget the tinsel” and “Best decorations ever.”

Bear Watching in Transylvania boasts guaranteed sightings from designated sites during “wildlife-watching” programs that last 1-2 hours.

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Watch: Bear smells worst kind of trouble on tree, reacts accordingly

Video footage captured in Canada’s Yukon Territory shows a black bear hightailing it to safety after smelling porcupine scent on a tree.

After a bear has experienced the sting of porcupine quills, it’s understandable that the mere scent of a porcupine would signal a flight response.

The accompanying trail-cam footage, featured Sunday by Yukon Wildlife Cams, shows a black bear exhibiting remarkable speed and agility after sniffing a tree that had presumably been claimed by porcupines.

David Troup, who runs Yukon Wildlife Cams, explained Sunday via Facebook:

“The highly acute sense of smell that bears possess provides them with information to do such things as find food and in this case, avoid potential danger. The tree of interest was scent marked many times by porcupines over the summer, and this wet bear’s fight or flight instinct seemingly kicked into gear.”

One comment reads, “Must’ve had quills before.”

ALSO: Great white sharks now a tourist attraction at San Diego beach

Another: “I wish my dogs would react the same.”

And this: “Always amazes me how fast these large bears can move.”

Troup’s cameras are stationed on remote wilderness trails and he shares footage sporadically, sometimes weeks later. The bear footage was captured in August.

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Oregon launches probe after two bears are found dead in trees

Oregon is seeking help from the public in locating the person(s) responsible for shooting a bear and leaving the animal to waste.

Oregon is seeking help from the public in locating the person(s) responsible for shooting a black bear and leaving the animal to waste.

The Oregon State Police Wildlife Division explained via news release that on Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. Troopers responded to a tip about a dead bear in a tree with an arrow in its flesh.

They found that the bear had also been shot two times with a gun. The Jackson County Fire Department assisted in retrieving the carcass.

Jackson County Fire Department was called to retrieve the bear carcass

The incident occurred near Anderson Creek Road, outside of Talent.

ALSO: In San Diego, a dead great white shark and a plea to anglers

On October 31, a second bear was found dead in a tree in the same area. Its body was decomposed but OSP believes the animal’s death was “human-caused.”

Both incidents are under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Oregon State Police Dispatch at 1-800-452-7888, text *OSP (*677), or email at TIP@osp.oregon.gov. Case number is SP22291483.

–Top image is generic, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service