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Very sad incident. Many hikers especially if alone play music to deter bears in addition to the bear spray or wear bells.
Most hikers listen to music through earbuds, which is the wrong thing to do. Not only will the bear not hear the music, but the hiker likely won't hear the bear. It's a really bad idea, but trying to convince people of that, especially younger generations is a losing battle.
The effectiveness of bear bells is debatable. Bear spray is a no brainer. Nobody should really be outdoors in Western Montana without bear spray. Something like this can happen anywhere in Grizzly bear territory.
Now they are looking for the bear; probably so they can kill it.
Can't imagine they don't. Bear safety (including interpreting relative risks of your surroundings, understanding bear behavior and how to respond to it appropriately, what can trigger an attack, and proper use of bear spray) would be a pretty basic training requirement for an NPS park such as Yellowstone. Unless she was a protection ranger or specifically working with bears she wouldn't be issued an agency firearm. Being "trained" doesn't mean the information has sunk in...especially information that doesn't get used. Chances are she had never gotten close enough to a bear in her day-by-day duties to actually need to think about it. The proper state of mind gets stale if it isn't used and there's this thing called complacency.
She was off the clock in any case, so carrying bear spray/firearm in her private time would be up to her. She chose wrong. However, in this case if the attack really was an instant surprise, whether she had bear spray or a firearm or not, she wouldn't have had time to deploy it unless the bear made an initial lunge/swat then backed off to re-assess what it saw as a threat. Usually, a defensive bear will stop an attack if it feels the threat has been neutralized. What she did or didn't do in response to that first charge or grab could have made all the difference, but we'll never know exactly what happened; if her initial injuries were so severe she ended up dying because of them or whether she would have had a chance to diffuse further attacks or not. There's an old saying: "If its brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back." The bear apparently left the scene without scavenging her. Indication it was a defensive attack, not predatory.
Not a given that NPS would kill the bear as it is a sow with cub. After all, the bear was behaving naturally, not obviously conditioned or habituated. Unless there's inside information not available to the public, I didn't see any indication that sow has been in trouble before. They may opt first to track it in order to establish the most effective area/trails to be temporarily closed to public use. They may track it to see if it's defending a local food source and try to eliminate that attractive nuisance. They might try hazing the pair to encourage them to move to a more remote area. It's probably very difficult to successfully trap both a sow and cub(s) for relocation. As one article stated, trap/relocate/haze tends to become less and less effective for repeat offenders. They learn that being trapped is just an unpleasant interlude but doesn't actually hurt them. The other problem is it puts the relocated bear into direct conflict with others already established in the new area, which can lead to starvation, injuries, or death. A compromised desperate bear is even more likely to get into trouble with people.
Last edited by Parnassia; 07-25-2023 at 02:18 PM..
Definitely move away, if you see bear cubs nearby in the wilderness. Wear bear bells, or have another noise maker as you are moving. If noise is heard nearby, bears tend to go in the opposite direction. Do not run if you see a bear. Bears do sense panic, so stay calm in any situation.
All true, but her biggest mistakes were being out at an hour when bear activity is highest and moving swiftly on what was probably a wooded trail with low visibility.
Very sad incident. Many hikers especially if alone play music to deter bears in addition to the bear spray or wear bells.
One problem with bear bells is that the ringing noise itself doesn't inform the bear of much. Especially a bear that hasn't heard it before or learned its significance. It doesn't automatically associate that ringing noise with humans and has no reason to alter its behavior. It's just a new ambient noise. OTOH, a human who announces their presence with talking, shouting, and/or hand clapping provides a bear with more specifics. But you can see why simply attaching a bear bell to your pack/belt would be attractive. Obviously, it takes more effort for the human to talk, shout, clap hands, etc. especially in addition to whatever else they're doing.
In the bear country I've lived/worked in, no one relies on bear bells. They're sold in tourist trap shops as novelties. When most folks are out in bear country they talk, shout, clap, stamp, thrash vegetation when in low visibility areas instead.
Last edited by Parnassia; 07-25-2023 at 01:52 PM..
Can't imagine they don't. Bear safety (including interpreting risk, bear behavior, and proper use of bear spray) would be a pretty basic training requirement for an NPS park such as Yellowstone. Unless she was a protection ranger or specifically working with bears she wouldn't be issued an agency firearm. Being "trained" doesn't mean the information has sunk in...especially information that doesn't get used. Chances are she had never gotten close enough to a bear in her day-by-day duties to actually need to think about it. The proper state of mind gets stale if it isn't used and there's this thing called complacency.
She was off the clock in any case, so carrying bear spray/firearm in her private time would be up to her. She chose wrong. However, if the attack was a complete and instant surprise, she wouldn't have had time to deploy spray or fire a gun anyway.
Not a given that NPS would kill the bear as it is a sow with cub. After all, the bear was behaving naturally, not obviously conditioned or habituated. Unless there's inside information not available to the public, I didn't see any indication that sow has been in trouble before. They may opt first to track it in order to establish the most effective area/trails to be temporarily closed to public use. They may track it to see if it's defending a local food source and try to eliminate that attractive nuisance. They might try hazing the pair to encourage them to move to a more remote area. It's probably very difficult to successfully trap both a sow and cub(s) for relocation. As one article stated, trap/relocate/haze tends to become less and less effective for repeat offenders. They learn that being trapped is just an unpleasant interlude but doesn't actually hurt them. The other problem is it puts the relocated bear into direct conflict with others already established in the new area, which can lead to starvation, injuries, or death. A compromised desperate bear is even more likely to get into trouble with people.
I think she was an employee of one of the concessionaires in and around Yellowstone rather than a direct NPS employee. But just an awareness that the time of day when she was out there and that moving swiftly in areas of low visibility was a poor idea could have saved her life. Perhaps that had taken place and it didn't sink in, Idk.
Something tells me there was a selfie stick involved.
There wasn’t. She was jogging. Nothing more to it.
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