Editor's note: Yellowstone National Park officials on Monday corrected the story concerning a young bear that died in a trapping accident to reflect that it was a grizzly, not a black, bear.
A young Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear that biologists were trying to capture because it looked unhealthy was accidentally killed when it tried to escape a trap that it had been lured into, park officials said Saturday.
The yearling had been wandering around the Old Faithful area for a few weeks, and appeared to be unusually small, blind in one eye, and malnourished, they said in a release. A decision was made to capture the bear to give it a checkup to see if it could survive if it was relocated to another part of Yellowstone. Other options under consideration were to send the animal to a captive facility to be nursed back to health or to euthanize the bear if it was determined it was unlikely to survive.
"On Friday, the yearling bear was successfully lured into an aluminum culvert trap. However, the bear made a dash for the door as it was coming down to close. The trap’s door came down on the back of the neck of the animal, killing it instantly," park officials said in a release.
"An examination of the bear after the accident showed the animal weighed just 21 pounds, compared to the 45-70 pounds it should weigh at this time of year. The animal had severely infected canine wounds to the head, some of which appeared to have penetrated the bear’s brain," the release continued. "It had lost one eye, and had a large hole in one cheek. Park staff members believe if left in the wild the animal would have slowly starved to death, and if the accident had not claimed the bear’s life, the decision would have been made to euthanize the animal."
Yellowstone’s current bear traps are designed for adult grizzly bears, park officials said, adding that "In light of this accident, a decision has already been made design a trap specifically to capture bear cubs and yearlings."
This is the second, documented accidental death of a bear in Yellowstone. Earlier this month a young grizzly was struck and killed in a hit-and-run incident along US-191 in the northwest corner of the park.
Comments
And another one - this is really sad - both for the bear and the wife of the man killed. Sounds like the bear was tranquilized for research, and the man was hiking by when it awoke. Thus its probable adrenaline rush.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/19/grizzly-suspected-killing-man-track...
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/06/18/grizzly-bear-kills-man-outside...