Woman Killed by Non Problem Bear in Tennessee
fe...@mscd.edu
Woman Killed by Bear in Tennessee
Updated 1:37 PM ET May 22, 2000
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press Writer
GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) - A woman waiting for her ex-husband on a trail
at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was killed by a black bear.
Glenda Ann Bradley, 50, of Cosby was mauled Sunday, becoming the first
person killed by a black bear in a federal park or reserve in the
Southeast, park officials said.
"This was simply an unprovoked attack," Phil Francis, the park's acting
superintendent, said Monday.
Bradley, an experienced hiker, and Ralph Hill, 52, entered the park
about noon. The couple, who had been reconciling, hiked about 10 miles
from Gatlinburg.
Hill told authorities he left Bradley on the trail to go fishing. He
returned about an hour later to find her backpack on the trail and two
black bears - an adult female and a yearling - at her body about 50
yards away. The 111-pound adult bear apparently killed the woman.
Two rangers shot and killed the animals.
Rangers had tagged the adult bear in 1998 and had placed an orphaned
cub with her. Miller said the animal wasn't known as a problem bear.
The bears were to be tested to determine whether a disease or physical
condition prompted the attack.
About 1,800 bears live in the Smokies. No other attacks have been
reported this year.
Park officials have closed some campsites through Saturday as a
precaution.
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Before you buy.
Ray Daberko
post. A 111# bear stalking and killing someone? Black Bear to boot? Autopsy
would be interesting. Bears feeding on something already dead would be more
like it. Heart attack maybe.
Story in Sunday paper here. Man thought he had killed another golfer with a
drive that went off course. Guy in physical distress down on course. Bruise
on head. Golf ball of the same type near by but no one saw the guy who was
down struck. Turned out to be a heart attack and the guy was never hit.
Sounds close to this. Labeled "unprovoked attack." No witness to any attack.
Guy walks off and leaves her on the trail. Comes back from fishing and two
bears having dinner it appears. No one saw an attack. Just a curiosity? Ray
<fe...@mscd.edu> wrote in message news:8ge911$kga$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
noe...@noemail.com
>
>Something fishy with this story. Anyone getting follow up stories please
>post. A 111# bear stalking and killing someone? Black Bear to boot? Autopsy
>would be interesting. Bears feeding on something already dead would be more
>like it. Heart attack maybe.
I seem to recall a book read a year or so ago (by Dana Stablenow-sp?) where the
plot included a fellow who knocked off his wife and left her for bear bait.
(sick world huh?)
>Sounds close to this. Labeled "unprovoked attack." No witness to any attack.
>Guy walks off and leaves her on the trail. Comes back from fishing and two
>bears having dinner it appears. No one saw an attack. Just a curiosity? Ray
Gotta wonder if the ole gal was hit in the head and left to bleed a bit.
After all... bears are rather opportunistic...
Of course, if all my wondering is due to reading too many murder mysterys and
watching too many b-grade movies, I feel awfully bad for the fellow who had to
walk up and find a loved one that way...
Tom Beno
Ray Daberko <rdab...@flash.net> wrote in message
news:fcAW4.30345$wb7.1...@news.flash.net...
> Something fishy with this story. Anyone getting follow up stories please
> post.
Tennessee mauling fuels bear debate
By JOHN CICHOWSKI and JAN BARRY - Staff Writers/Bergen Record Online
Animal lovers and wildlife officials -- long divided over the effectiveness
of hunts to curb the growing bear population -- expressed dismay Tuesday
over a bear attack that killed a schoolteacher in Tennessee.
Neither side, however, believed that Sunday's mauling death of 50-year-old
Glenda Ann Bradley in Great Smoky Mountains National Park weakened or
strengthened the case for conducting a bear hunt in New Jersey this
September.
The death -- unusual because black bears don't normally attack humans -- is
a reminder that people should learn as much as they can about creatures that
are "wild, powerful, and unpredictable," said Patrick Carr, chief bear
biologist for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.
"But it does not mean that people cannot live in the same neighborhoods with
bears," said Carr.
"It's a terrible tragedy, but since they hunt bears in Tennessee, it doesn't
make the case for hunting the answer to bear problems," said Jeff Tittel,
who heads the New Jersey Sierra Club, which opposes a bear hunt.
Park rangers say Bradley, an elementary school teacher in Cove, Tenn., was
mauled to death in the park's back country by two females -- a 112-pound
adult and a 40-pound yearling. The bears were "highly aggressive and
territorial" and attempted to protect their kill, prompting park rangers to
shoot them, said park spokeswoman Nancy Gray.
A verbal report on the findings of the necropsy -- the animal version of an
autopsy -- confirmed that the bears "preyed on the victim," Gray said.
"Because of their aggressive nature at the scene, we're almost 100 percent
certain that the bears caused her death," she said. "Our animal biologists
say black bears don't behave that way when they scavenge on the remains of a
victim who died of something else like a heart attack."
Definitive results of the Bradley autopsy will not be known until today at
the earliest. Detailed results of the necropsy -- to determine whether the
bears were suffering from parasites, rabies, or some other disease -- will
not be known for weeks, she said.
The killing, the first by a black bear in a federal park or reserve in the
Southeast, came two weeks before the New Jersey Fish and Game Council is to
conduct public hearings on a proposed hunt designed to reduce the growing
bear population. Animal rights advocates oppose the hunt, saying bears are
shy, docile creatures that pose little threat.
Only 37 deaths have been attributed to black bears in North America,
national park officials said. Bear advocates say people are more dangerous.
"We are far more concerned about people getting killed by hunters," said
Stuart Chaifetz, an animal rights advocate. "This is just one case in a
far-off place. A little over a year ago a hunter killed a boy in Morris
County. It's hunting that's the real danger."
The Great Smoky park is home to 1,800 bears; hunting is permitted in
Tennessee, but not in the federal park. Rangers said bear-inhabited sections
of Tennessee, one of 27 states that authorize bear hunting, average two
bears per square mile. In northwestern sections of New Jersey where nearly
all of the state's 1,000 bears live, the density ranges from one to three
bears per square mile.
Tuesday night in Vernon, bear lovers participated in a debate on the
proposed hunt with Fish and Wildlife officials.
More than 60 people attended -- largely from Vernon, West Milford, and
neighboring towns -- and most said they opposed hunting bears. But one man
called a bear hunt a solution.
"If something is not done, somebody is going to get hurt. Something has to
be done to thin them out," said Scott Anderson of Vernon, who identified
himself as a hunter.
As for the reported mauling death, one speaker Tuesday night said a
Tennessee news reporter phoned her and said the media are becoming skeptical
of the bear attack story.
"She could have had a heart attack," Sue D'Agostino, of West Milford, said
of the Tennessee victim.
The bear supporters favor non-lethal solutions, such as using pepper spray
and rubber bullets, to discourage bears from human contact. Both sides also
recommend municipal ordinances banning the feeding of bears.
Both the New Jersey Fish and Game Division and the rangers at the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park routinely employ such methods, particularly
with nuisance bears, those which often get in trouble.
"When we capture a nuisance bear, we'll pull a tooth [to determine age],
tattoo it, draw blood, measure it, and make sure the experience is so
negative that he won't want to go near another human," Gray said.
These protocols, coupled with the use of bear-proof food receptacles and a
general cleanliness education program, reduced the frequency of human-bear
contact at one popular Smoky Mountains picnic grove from 17 a decade ago to
zero last year, she said.
In New Jersey, as in Tennessee, nuisance bears are given one chance to shape
up, said Carr, the bear biologist.
"If they break into a house, threaten people, or kill livestock, we tag
them," he said, noting that the tags are used to identify the bear if a
second incident occurs. "If we catch them again, we euthanize them."
There were four such cases in Sussex County last year, including one bear
that killed a goat.
Tom Beno
Monday, May 29, 2000
By MORGAN SIMMONS
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
The leading scientific authority on bear attacks said the fatal mauling of a
woman last week in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park may be the rarest
on record.
Stephen Herrero, researcher at the University of Calgary in Alberta and
author of "Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance," said the incident
broke a number of behavioral patterns associated with fatal black-bear
attacks, beginning with where it occurred.
"This was the first instance of a person being killed by a black bear in a
national park in the United States," Herrero said. "The fact that this bear
was a female is another anomaly. The ratio of male black bears involved in
fatal attacks is 9-to-1 over females -- maybe even higher."
Glenda Ann Bradley, 50, of Cosby, Tenn., was found dead in the park last
Sunday. Two bears involved in the attack were shot and killed by park
rangers. Rangers are still looking for a third bear that possibly was
involved in the attack. Autopsy results on Bradley will not be ready for two
to three months, according to park officials.
In researching hundreds of bear attacks over the years, Herrero has
identified some key differences in deaths inflicted by grizzlies and black
bears. For example, unlike fatal grizzly attacks, which frequently involve
food-conditioned bears in national parks, fatal black-bear attacks almost
always involve wild bears that treat the victim as prey.
Herrero said the attack in the Smokies was typical in that it occurred
during the day -- grizzlies are more likely to attack at night -- and the
112-pound black bear clearly acted as a predator.
"This stalking behavior is very different from the normal aggressive display
of a bear when it wants space," Herrero said. "When people get too close to
a bear, it draws attention to itself by swatting the ground or maybe
snorting. The bear is trying to draw attention to itself. Anyone can
recognize this. But a predacious animal stalking usually does not give
itself away."
Herrero said there have been a total of 43 fatalities caused by black bears
in North America in recorded history and that over the last decade, the
fatality rate from black bear attacks has averaged about one per year.
"There are a lot of black bears in U.S. national parks, and yet nothing like
this has ever happened," Herrero said. "It's a hard thing to put a finger on
because it's such a rare thing."
<http://www.seattlep-i.com/national/bear29.shtml>
=================================
Fatal Bear Attack In Smokies Leaves Experts Stumped
Source: The Commercial Appeal Memphis, TN
Publication date: 2000-05-29
The killing of a backpacker by black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park is so unusual that experts have yet to come up with any
satisfactory explanation.
The body of 50-year-old schoolteacher and experienced outdoorswoman Glenda
Ann Bradley was found May 21 in the park, with a bear and cub hovering. Park
rangers shot and killed the bears when they wouldn't leave the body, and an
examination of their stomach contents revealed they had fed on the victim.
Rangers are searching for a third bear that may have been involved in the
attack.
"To attack with a yearling and have it immediately participate in the
feeding - I don't know of another instance like that," said Stephen Herrero,
a researcher at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and author of
"Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance.
Herrero said the attack marked the first time a person has been killed by a
black bear in a national park in the United States. In North America, there
is about one such fatality each year.
The black bear population in North America is estimated between 500,000 and
700,000. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has 1,800 over 800 square
miles, the highest concentration in the Southeast.
"There are a lot of black bears in U.S. national parks, and yet nothing like
this has ever happened," Herrero said. "It's a hard thing to put a finger on
because it's such a rare thing."
When attacks do occur, it's nine times more likely the attacking bear will
be a male than female. "The fact that this bear was a female is another
anomaly," he said.
Dave Smith, of Bisbee, Ariz., author of "Backcountry Bear Basics: The
Definitive Guide To Avoiding Unpleasant Encounters," said a lack of
witnesses to the attack means some basic questions will likely never be
answered.
For instance, one key is whether the victim attempted to fight off the
attack.
"When a bear preys on a person, biologists and reporters ask a standard list
of questions," Smith said.
"Was the bear injured or ill? Was it aged or infirm? Did it weigh less than
it should for a bear of its age and sex?
"We want something to be wrong with the bear, some explanation for its
behavior other than the fact that it was hungry and chose to prey on a
human."
Although the adult bear weighed only 112 pounds, Smokies officials said it
was not emaciated.
One clue to the incident may come when autopsy results are available to park
officials, which could take up to three months.
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&scategory=National+Parks