kluane bear attack-info please!
Ron Bruch
Has any one heard any thing about the recent grizzly attack on the hiker
in Kluane National Park ( Yukon, Canada)? Radio and newspaper news
reports on Saturday July 6th were very brief and gave no details. This
area is about 100 km drive from Whitehorse - popular destination for
those seeking to retrace route of 'Klondike' Trail and gold rush of
1890's. We are concerned as we are planning to hike this park this
summer. News reports state that the hikers took all possible precautions.
What trail did this happen on? Any info would be most appreciated.
Tim Rogers
>> recent grizzly attack on the hiker
in Kluane National Park ( Yukon, Canada) <<
Yes...a couple were day hiking in that area and a grizzly
attacked....the women was killed in the attack...her husband hiked to a
local ranger station....the rangers came back to the area and recovered
the body....found the bear near by and killed it....AP wire
service....as far as what trail...really doesn't matter...bears have a
wide range....best source would be the main ranger station at the main
Kluane National Park office
!^NavFont02F01AF000BNGJHG42HHB0D14E
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Cyberpost from: Tim Rogers on 07/10/96 @ 21:46 MST
Like to find "F" Hiking Partner (platonic) 40-50 (or so) Ctr Az !
Reasonably experienced - reasonably fit - flexible schedule
Tonto - Coconino - Kaibab - Chiricahuas - Apache-Sitgreaves.....?
Joseph Gromelski
Having hiked (last September) the trail on which the attack occurred, I
took a special interest in this story. The following is reprinted from
Wednesday's edition of the Yukon News in Whitehorse.
By the way, I found the Kluane people to be especially safety-conscious.
When we got there, the Slims West trail had just been reopened after
being closed for a few days because a bear had acted in a menacing manner.
Also, they made us watch a movie on bear safety, and the use of bear
canisters was mandatory. In all, I'd say there's a good reason why thre's
been only one fatality there since 1972.
--Joe G.
Bear numbers dangerously high, coroner says
By Fiona Marshall
Yukon News Reporter
Something has to be done about the number of bears in the territory, says
the Haines Junction coroner who retrieved the mauled body of a hiker from
Kluane National Park.
Bear numbers are at dangerous levels, says Doug Makkonen, a helicopter
pilot who has been flying in the park for 14 years.
"You can't turn a blind eye to this because, if you do, it's going to
happen again," he says.
Friday, Makkonen was called in to the Slims River Valley to find
Christine Courtney, of New Westminster B.C. The woman had been attacked
by a bear while hiking with her husband Paul. Makkonen and the parks
officials with him found a 130-lb male grizzly on top of Courtney. It had
killed and half buried her.
The young woman, in her early thirties, was badly mauled by the small
bear, which was no more than 1.6 metres tall when standing.
Makkonen will not soon forget what he saw. And he had no qualms about
seeing the bear killed. "If that had been a member of my family, I doubt
there's be a bear alive in this country right now," he says. "Yes, I feel
strongly about this. The worst part is, I feel so sorry for the husband.
"
Part of his job as coroner is to make recommendations which may help
avoid another incident, he says. He's aware his suggestions won't be
popular with a lot of people, but he says unless he speaks out strongly,
it's unlikely anything will get done.
"This is rare, but it's not the first time humans have been attacked.
There have been a number of other incidents of aggressive acts of bears
(in the Yukon). Any one of those situations could have been fatal.
"We always make excuses for the bear. We say we're on their land."
People feel we have encroached on the bear's habitat, and that's a fair
assessment, he said. "But you have to deal with the outcome."
This was the first fatal bear mauling in the 22,015-square-kilometre
Kluane National Park. There have been two serious attacks there since it
opened in 1972, says warden Terry Skjonsberg. The last time a bear killed
a person in the Yukon was 1976. The grizzly mauled a trapper to death on
Nansen Creek near Stewart Crossing.
Friday's attack was very rare, says one of North America's top bear
experts Stephen Herrero. "There are two ways to classify attacks --
offensive and defensive. This was a very, very unusual incident of
potential predation. I know of two other incidents of the entire history
of North American data that look like they might be potential predation
of grizzly bears. There are 30 or so from black bears, which really makes
them proportionate, considering there are roughly half a million black
bears and 50,000 grizzly bears."
Almost all grizzly attacks come about when the bear feels threatened, he
says. "But that was not the case here."
The couple first encountered the bear at about 11:30 a.m. They had spent
the night up in the Slims River area and were heading down to their car.
According to an interview parks officials did with Paul Courtney, the
bear was walking towards them up the wooded trail with its head down.
"The bear did not appear to be aware of them," said Skjonsberg. "So they
moved off the trail 20 to 30 yards, and were hoping the bear would walk
right by them and walk up the trail."
But the bear followed them into the woods. The couple retreated more and
dropped their packs. But the bear wasn't interested. They had their food
in the bear-proof canisters that are mandatory for all overnight hikers
in that area.
The bear kept moving towards them and so the couple ran into a clearing.
"They got to the small clearing and realized they could not escape," says
Skjonsberg. "So they lay down in the fetal position -- called playing
dead -- which sometimes deters a bear's aggression."
In most grizzly bear attacks this would have worked, says Herrero. But
because it was an offensive predatory attack, it was not the right
approach to take.
"Only people who had really spent a lot of time studying bear behaviour
and bear incidents really would have been able to read it correctly,"
says Herrero, author of Bear Attacks-- Their Causes and Avoidance. The
couple should have treated this like it was a black bear attack, and made
a lot of noise and tried to scare it away, he says.
The bear came over to the couple, who were lying only a few feet apart.
It sniffed Paul first and then moved over to his wife.
"It began pawing at her shoulder and biting at her neck," says Skjonsberg.
"At that point she tried to scramble away and went downhill a few yards.
But the bear continued to be interested in her."
There have been questions about whether Courtney was menstruating at the
time, because that has been said to attract bears. It has not been
confirmed yet.
Paul then got up and tried to beat the bear off of his wife with a stick.
It turned and attacked him. He fell over and the bear bit him in the leg.
He managed to drag himself away and hide behind a tree and the bear lost
interest.
"The bear then went back to the wife," says Skjonsberg. "It continued to
paw at her and chew at her a bit more."
Paul came back and tried to drive off the bear with the stick, but it
ignored him. So he decided to run and get help. He was about four
kilometers from the trial head. On the way back, he ran into some other
hikers who helped him get to the Sheep Mountain Visitor Centre.
The Park wardens initially had some trouble finding Courtney, because the
bear had partially buried her and was on top of her in a semi-wooded area.
When they spotted the bear, they shot it from the helicopter. When they
reached Courtney, she was dead.
A necropsy of the bear showed it was about three years old and in good
condition. Wardens estimate it was just kicked out of its litter.
"That age class of bears is a little more unpredictable," says Skjonsberg.
The bear wasn't likely hungry. It had a full stomach of grasses and
flowers and wardens found some fresh scats in the area of natural
vegetation.
The vet doing the necropsy also found pieces of Courtney's clothing in
the bear's stomach, although it hadn't eaten any of her.
That is very rare, says Herrero. Even in a predatory attack, the bear is
usually searching for food.
People have been searching for an explanation for the attack. But so far,
no one can come up with any.
The bear had not been recently collared, as rumor had it. That
illustrates the point Makkonen wants to make, he says.
"Bears are unpredictable. You just don't know."
Makkonen says one way to decrease the bear population is to hand out free
bear tags to any hunter who purchases a moose tag. "典hat gives a little
bit of encouragement to kill a bear."
That would bring moose numbers up and decrease the hazards of human
contact, he says.
He knows it's not going to be a very popular idea. "People in this
country love the bears. But the problem is, there's an overpopulation of
them.
"They had the same situation in Alaska in an area. The encounters were
too frequent."
The government wouldn't make a decision either way and so people took the
matter into their own hands and started killing bears, says Makkonen.
That's something he doesn't want to see happen here. "That happened
because people weren't listening."
Hunting bears is not the answer says Herrero. "In my general experience
it's not the density that necessarily leads to attacks. And there's no
way that hunting would necessarily get this type of bear. In order to
prevent these type of incidents, the number of bears that would have to
be killed would be horrifying."
Makkonen says he's prepared to take the chance.
"In my opinion, every single bear in the world is not worth one human
life.
的 know it's not very popular, but we have to look after ourselves first.
"