Fatal Bear Attack in NJ

[Frank237]

There are areas in Jersey that are amazingly wild considering it's the densest population of any other state. Or at least they used to be.

Drop someone off in the middle of the Pine Barrens and good luck finding your way out.

FN in MT (formerly Exit 67 off the Parkway)

 

[BigBill]

Y'all run - I'll stand there calmly and watch the bear chase you.

Just like running from a dog --- They chase by instinct....

A bear can run at 35mph on even ground. Down hill they have problems because there front legs are shorter that there back legs. They stumble while trying to run down hill but they can roll down hill very fast. It's very hard to get away from a bear that's chasing you. In most cases your his lunch.

 

[BigBill]

When the 350/400lb bear appeared in my backyard I just lost my rottie. My lab was running up to it as my wife was running to the dog. She was screaming the whole time. She got the dog about 20' feet from the bear.
Luckily this big male just froze probably thinking who is this screaming crazy lady. I was upset and told her she was lucky this big bear didn't attack. I told her the heck with dog if he's that stupid.

This season all my fruit trees are bare, my raspberries are all gone, I have a 100' row of them. He hasn't touched my garden yet.

We know he's around by the way the dog acts. Sometimes he sniffs the air and looks at the raspberry bushes.

We know it's around and share the same area with it. My first thing I found proof wise of it was a track in the freshly tiller corn patch. The second thing was I put out those brick sized feeder berry and corn blocks to feed the deer. In one night all of them were missing. With no tracks I didn't know what took them. Up in the woods I have a moltrie deer feeder with corn going from the first snow storm till the spring thaw. I have a metal garbage pail with feed corn to fill the moltrie feeder. I have the garbage pail strapped to a tree with the lid strapped. I found the garbage pail on its side. Then we had the encounter with the dog and seeing it. I don't feed the deer till the dead of winter now.

 

[weatherby]

If I gave a shout in the backyard.....He would have heard



Mom for a stroll kid was already in my yard

 

[JJEH]

A hiker, one of a group which fled from a bear, was brought down and killed by a large male in the Apshawa Preserve in NE New Jersey. The state has had many close calls with bears but this is believed to be their first fatal attack ever.

Suspected fatal bear attack may be first in N.J. in more than 150 years | NJ.com

That's no fun and politicians need to understand that carrying a firearm only makes sense.

 

[weatherby]

Them not staying together was a fatal mistake IMHO

 

[A10]

BearBios interwebs must be down......

I've seen a few, never been messed with by one. Had a buddy attacked by a mamabear, he got chewed up pretty good and spent about 6 months getting rid of the infection from the bites. I always pack something substantial when I'm walkin' (or even drivin') in the woods.

Never underestimate a bear. That could be bad news......

 

[Maze 686]

There are areas in Jersey that are amazingly wild considering it's the densest population of any other state. Or at least they used to be.

Drop someone off in the middle of the Pine Barrens and good luck finding your way out.

FN in MT (formerly Exit 67 off the Parkway)

Chatsworth has had a couger for a couple of years roaming around town.
Pemberton has a bear around the middle school.
Stafford Twp. had the elementary school shot up by a Air Force jet a few years ago. The pines have a lot of surprises.

 

[JJEH]

Them not staying together was a fatal mistake IMHO

Not necessarily. I watched the show "I was bitten" (look for it on Netflix) and the bear chose the one that did not run.

Here's a preview.

http://youtu.be/dRgdA4Ib5KM

Netflix should have the whole show/episode.

Not funny. Also that his friend just ran away and stayed away.

I thought it was a great show, but somehow it didn't made it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Was_Bitten

 

[cowart]

The state has had many close calls with bears but this is believed to be their first fatal attack ever.

Not quite:
"No one has been killed by a bear in New Jersey since 1852, according to a 2010 report on black bears by the State Department of Environmental Protection."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/n...student-during-a-hike-in-new-jersey.html?_r=0

 

[azlou66]

NEVER, be the slowest in the group.
Blessings

Yep, I don't have to out run the bear I just need to out run YOU

 

[BigBill]

All the predators are making a comeback. There not being hunted plus the over population needs to be culled. I have bears, mountainlions, bobcat, lynx, fishers, coyotes, plus beaver damming up streams. There are no trappers of yesteryear today. How much longer do we wait before these over populations are taken off the endangered lists and were allowed to hunt them again. There to the point there not afraid of man. How many more deaths do we need before changes are made.

We tell people what we're seeing and they are convinced we're wrong. My son,wife,daughter seen a mountainlion in there woods near the condo while walking the dog. It was behind a dead fallen tree busy eating a fresh kill.
My son took the condo powers to be and showed them it's tracks. They said no way your wrong. No one believed them until the mountainlion was browsing through the condo's middle parking lot while people were going to work and the kids were outside waiting for the school bus.
Then it was holy ......We have a mountainlion. Everyone seen it now.

The mountainlion is one of the most elusive animals to try to see. It took me decades to see one after seeing its tracks in the snow in the higher elevations in the mountains. Now decades later as there population has multiplied there wandering into the lower populated areas looking for food.

We also have the construction of new malls and housing cutting into there habitat too. We need to leave them enough free space and forest land for them too. What were doing now isn't working nor do the powers to be have a plan. When a hiker gets killed by an animal someone isn't doing there job to stop the threat.

I often wonder we know these animals are there yet at the entrance to the forest I don't see any warning signs. Why?

The bottom line is some think we are on the top of the food chain and we are not.

 

[Fishinfool]

Funny thing about bears..... In a close encounter, a Grizz is more likely to attack out of aggression, kill you, and leave you lay. But when a male black bear attacks, it is more likely to actually eat you.

I spend a lot of time in black bear country (Maine and PA), photographing wildlife, kayaking, camping; and have encountered a lot of bears. Most run away, some are a little curious. I have been bluff charged a couple times. Had bears pressing against the fabric of a small tent while I sat inside sweating. Even been chased by a female when I got between her and her cubs with a camera. She could have had me if she wanted, but was content to just "push" me away from her cubs. Had a small bear in the water follow me around a pond in my kayak - Don't know what he was thinking.

Only time I ever really felt in danger was years ago, up in Maine. Was walking from a lake I had been kayaking on back to camp for lunch with the wife and step kids. Bear started following me, circling. He would disappear into the woods, then reappear, getting closer each time. he was small, and didn't look right. Seemed he was trying to work up his courage. After about ten minutes of cat and mouse, he ignored my shouts, trying to drive him off, and started making a bee line for me. At about 15 yards, I shot him in the head with a .45 Glock I was carrying.

He was an old bear, with broken teeth, and in a starved condition. The game warden agreed that he was starving, and a threat. I do believe he was about to attempt to eat me, and that was a weird feeling, let me tell you. It made me a firm believer in always carrying a firearm in the woods - always.

Larry

 

[X Ring Ranch]

I was carrying a Glock 26 the one time my wife and I encountered a bear hiking, maybe three years ago.

Now I carry a S&W 1006.

I believe I would take Elmer Keith's advice on caliber and velocity.

"A cast iron camp stove at 2500 fps"

 

[Triathloncoach]

All the predators are making a comeback. There not being hunted plus the over population needs to be culled. I have bears, mountainlions, bobcat, lynx, fishers, coyotes, plus beaver damming up streams. There are no trappers of yesteryear today. How much longer do we wait before these over populations are taken off the endangered lists and were allowed to hunt them again. There to the point there not afraid of man. How many more deaths do we need before changes are made.

We tell people what we're seeing and they are convinced we're wrong. My son,wife,daughter seen a mountainlion in there woods near the condo while walking the dog. It was behind a dead fallen tree busy eating a fresh kill.
My son took the condo powers to be and showed them it's tracks. They said no way your wrong. No one believed them until the mountainlion was browsing through the condo's middle parking lot while people were going to work and the kids were outside waiting for the school bus.
Then it was holy ......We have a mountainlion. Everyone seen it now.

The mountainlion is one of the most elusive animals to try to see. It took me decades to see one after seeing its tracks in the snow in the higher elevations in the mountains. Now decades later as there population has multiplied there wandering into the lower populated areas looking for food.

We also have the construction of new malls and housing cutting into there habitat too. We need to leave them enough free space and forest land for them too. What were doing now isn't working nor do the powers to be have a plan. When a hiker gets killed by an animal someone isn't doing there job to stop the threat.

I often wonder we know these animals are there yet at the entrance to the forest I don't see any warning signs. Why?

The bottom line is some think we are on the top of the food chain and we are not.

You sound like the anti "Assault Rifle" crowd. Considering how over populated and hungry these predators are, they aren't doing much. I believe the average number of deaths in America due bears/mountain lions/wolves combined ranks just behind badminton fatalities

 

[Arik]

All the predators are making a comeback. There not being hunted plus the over population needs to be culled. I have bears, mountainlions, bobcat, lynx, fishers, coyotes, plus beaver damming up streams. There are no trappers of yesteryear today. How much longer do we wait before these over populations are taken off the endangered lists and were allowed to hunt them again. There to the point there not afraid of man. How many more deaths do we need before changes are made.

We tell people what we're seeing and they are convinced we're wrong. My son,wife,daughter seen a mountainlion in there woods near the condo while walking the dog. It was behind a dead fallen tree busy eating a fresh kill.
My son took the condo powers to be and showed them it's tracks. They said no way your wrong. No one believed them until the mountainlion was browsing through the condo's middle parking lot while people were going to work and the kids were outside waiting for the school bus.
Then it was holy ......We have a mountainlion. Everyone seen it now.

The mountainlion is one of the most elusive animals to try to see. It took me decades to see one after seeing its tracks in the snow in the higher elevations in the mountains. Now decades later as there population has multiplied there wandering into the lower populated areas looking for food.

We also have the construction of new malls and housing cutting into there habitat too. We need to leave them enough free space and forest land for them too. What were doing now isn't working nor do the powers to be have a plan. When a hiker gets killed by an animal someone isn't doing there job to stop the threat.

I often wonder we know these animals are there yet at the entrance to the forest I don't see any warning signs. Why?

The bottom line is some think we are on the top of the food chain and we are not.

They should all be in a circus cage or dead ....cause that's what it's coming down to. Oh yea they are over populated, of course. ...if wee keep shrinking their land then there will be more of them on less land...thus over populated. Two bears/goats/gerbils/beavers/lions on the last remaining 2 Sq ft of open space is over population. Around here in SE Pa people keep moving further and further into the wilderness because it's so beautiful but to get there they plow over and concrete everything in sight and then complain that there are too many wild animals. In 6 months you go from forest to 10k people town with subdivisions and strip malls.

Trappers of yesteryear also did some damage. Remember the Buffalo? Linx? Two animals that were almost gone.

When I go camping in the mountains I'm in their house. If I wanted risk free camping I could trow a tent in my house and just look out the window at the 2 trees that my home association left standing and called it "preserved open space"

 

[A10]

I agree with Arik. Let them eat for goodness sake! It's the natural order of things.......

 

[badge]

As many of you know, Black Bears can be easily dealt with and coexisted with as they don't want to eat you, generally. As a previous posted stated, it's the aged or infirmed animals that cannot hunt their natural prey and when that happens be it a Bear, Lion, Mountain Lion, or whatever, they will hunt what is easiest to take down. Living in Pa., I carry a firearm in the woods, around the yard, or pretty much everywhere. Do I fear Bears? No. I respect them.
Funny, I read the NJ Herald and the usual bunch of tree huggers and Bear protectors did everything they could to either blame the hiker of try and convince readers it wither wasn't a Bear attack or the Bear " scared " him to death. They are always consistent,...... sad.

 

[41 fan]

Triathloncoach,

I doubt that a victim would take much solace knowing he or she was the only person consumed by a bear in over 100 years.
Maybe if the victim showed the bear the statistical information, the attack would stop. Dean

 

[Arik]

Triathloncoach,

I doubt that a victim would take much solace knowing he or she was the only person consumed by a bear in over 100 years.
Maybe if the victim showed the bear the statistical information, the attack would stop. Dean

True but then the only other option is to eradicate all predatory animals.....completely. That way there won't be even one bear attack in 500 years

 

[41 fan]

I disagree. I don't think your option would be either appropriate or the only option available. Dean

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I think that it should be illegal for bears to attack people. Problem solved.

 

[A10]

There is a bit of silliness going on here (including me, my apologies). Here is the truth: if you go into the wilderness, be prepared to encounter wildlife, and make a decision how you want to protect yourself. I'm good with any way you want to do it, or even if you decide not to. It's entirely your call.

As far as dangerous animals around populated areas goes, they have to be controlled. Doesn't matter if it is catch and release ( which doesn't work well with big cats) or euthanasia. People gotta be protected.

Also, it is cruel to not manage wildlife. Anyone who has seen an animal starve as a result of overpopulation understands this.

 

[Watchdog]

Every year the loonies protest the bear hunt...

It's all clear to me now. People are obviously loony, i.e. somewhat crazy or off in the head or mentally disturbed, if they protest a bear hunt?

Got it.

 

[A10]

It's all clear to me now. People are obviously loony, i.e. somewhat crazy or off in the head or mentally disturbed, if they protest a bear hunt?

Got it.

Probably...............

 

[rcnixon]

I own a house on the southeast side of Vernon, in Sussex county, NJ. If I walk due east, straight out the back door, I'll be in West Milford in Waywayanda state park. The attack took place about another eight or nine miles east of there. Bears are thick on the ground in the whole area. When you see a sow bear in the spring with triplet cubs, there isn't enough pressure in the environment. It's been that way for twenty-five years.

Russ