Spokane7
50°
August 3, 2010 in Region
Killer grizzly’s cubs settling into Montana zoo
Grizzly bear cubs whose mother killed one man and wounded two others are seen in a holding pen at their new home at ZooMontana in Billings, Mont., Monday, Aug. 2, 2010. The cubs will be kept for at least 30 days in quarantine and could be exhibited this fall.
(Full-size photo)
BILLINGS, Mont. — Three grizzly cubs that were removed from the wild after their mother mauled three campers appear to be warming up to their new home in a Montana zoo.
ZooMontana director Jackie Worstell said today that the bears are skinny and still wearing their ragged winter coats, but they have calmed down since the shock of being captured and losing their mother.
The 221-pound sow killed Kevin Kammer, of Grand Rapids, Mich., and wounded campers from Colorado and Ontario last week at the Soda Butte campground near Yellowstone National Park. The bear was euthanized Friday.
The cubs will be kept in quarantine for 30 days in a cement enclosure next to another newcomer at the Billings zoo: a 2-year-old male grizzly named Ozzie that had scavenged food from tourists at Yellowstone.
Two of the cubs — a male and female — huddled together behind a metal water trough when people approached their pen Monday evening. A second female was less fearful, reaching beneath its steel-cage door for bits of fruit.
“They seem more alert,” Worstell said. “They’re getting used to the sights and sounds.”
The investigation into the rare triple mauling by the cubs’ mother has revealed all four animals were below average weight, but wildlife officials say initial results from a necropsy on the sow revealed no obvious maladies that might explain the attacks early last Wednesday.
With cubs trailing, the grizzly tore into three tents to get at her sleeping victims in the heavily occupied campground. The investigation into the attacks is being led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Burial ceremonies for Kammer, a married father of four who was on a solo camping trip when he was killed, were scheduled for Saturday in Grand Rapids.
© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Children permitted at Washington prison powwows 
Itsgodswill on August 03 at 2:51 p.m.
So, they’re saying that the bear was almost 100 to 200 pounds light of a normal weight..and theres no other explanation for the attack..But the bear was not starving? Give me a break..Like I already said on this topic, the bear did whats its instrincts told it to do, which was do whatever it had to do to survive with it’s cubs. I see no other explanation needed, so what’s the point of an investigation? And why euthanize a threatened species instead of just putting it in a zoo, which is essentially a prison.. That’s what we’d do with a human who killed another person, so I don’t get why we immediately kill animals in the same position.
Condolences to the family of the man killed, of course..But i’d be way more satisfied with being killed by a bear then if it were some other more likely ways of dying (heart attack, stroke, killed by another person). If I were killed in this way, the only thing i’d be pissed about is that I was no longer alive to see the headlines. “Death by bear”..
monkeyman on August 03 at 4:37 p.m.
Did the mom grizzly sacrifice herself to keep the ZooMontana’s Grizzly exhibit going to keep us entertained…? Just thinking…
http://zoomontana.org/?page_id=248
I wonder if the department that euthanized the mother got a “bonus” as well, perhaps job security if nothing else.