August 16, 2010 in Region

Grizzly in maulings was stressed, had parasites

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Montana Fish, Wildlife And Parks photo

This image provided on Friday July 30, 2010, by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department shows a captured grizzly sow believed to be responsible for the mauling death of one camper and injuries to two others near Yellowstone National Park in Montana.
(Full-size photo)

BILLINGS, Mont. — Hunger and internal parasites afflicted a grizzly bear that mauled three campers near Yellowstone National Park, but investigators said today those factors failed to explain such aggressive predatory behavior.

The bear’s late-night rampage through a crowded campground was the most brazen by a Yellowstone grizzly in a quarter-century. It left one man dead and two people with serious injuries.

But after an in-depth investigation, state and federal wildlife officials on today produced a 70-page report that left unanswered a crucial question: Why did the bear attack?

“The reality is grizzly bears are predators,” said Warden Capt. Sam Sheppard with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who helped produce the report. “You never know when they’re going to revert to a predatory response.”

Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was killed and two people were hospitalized after the 216-pound grizzly tore into their tents in a nighttime attack July 28 at the Soda Butte Campground near Cooke City. There was no evidence of food left out by campers that might have attracted the bear.

The grizzly was captured a day later at the same campground, then was euthanized. Its three cubs are now in a Billings zoo.

Deb Freele, 58, of London, Ontario, suffered leg and arm wounds when the bear ripped into her tent and bit her. As she continues physical therapy to regain the use of her arm, Freele said today she had hoped investigators would come up with an explanation for the attack.

“It leaves me unsettled,” she said. “There’s nothing I can think of doing, outside of not going camping there, that would have changed the outcome.”

Wildlife officials have said the animal appeared to be targeting humans and today’s report said “the bear(s) consumed a significant portion of Kammer’s torso.”

“In some cases, the bear apparently reached under the rain fly and bit through the tent or the insect screen of the tent to reach the campers inside,” the report said.

During the investigation, a seven-member team of state and federal officials looked at the bear’s diet, health, past behavior and the condition of her three cubs.

DNA tests on strands of hair found at the campground linked the mother bear to the attacks. And a vegetarian diet was blamed for the mother grizzly’s poor body condition, which the report said was “made worse by a load of parasites found in her small intestine.”

Otherwise, nothing stood out, said Chris Servheen, a grizzly researcher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Tests for rabies and other diseases came back negative following a necropsy.

The grizzly and her cubs had been sighted around the Cooke City area at least twice in the weeks leading up to the attacks. Rumors have since floated around the community that a photographer had been baiting bears in the area with food.

Those rumors remain unsubstantiated, investigators said today. And there was no sign the attacking grizzzly had become habituated to humans, which is often to blame when bears have run-ins with people.

The necropsy suggested the bear had not eaten human food for at least the last two years. That conclusion was based on a carbon isotope analysis of hair, blood and serum from the bear that showed very low levels of types of carbon common in human and pet foods.

Bear specialist Kevin Frey with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the findings underscored that even though bears are omnivores — eating everything from pine nuts to ants to elk — they are still predators that can act as carnivores.

“She obviously was hurting for higher value foods. What caused her mentally to do that, we don’t know,” Frey said. “There are a lot of bears that are nutritionally challenged at times that don’t exhibit that type of behavior.”

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Four comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  Itsgodswill on August 16 at 3:20 p.m.

  The more and more I hear about this story, the more angry it makes me. First off, i’ve read several places that the average weight for the type of bear at this age would have been around 400 pounds..Secondly, they tried saying that the bear wasn’t starving and didn’t kill strictly out of hunger, yet it was almost 200 pounds UNDERweight with three cubs, also underweight..Third, i’ve seen the weight of the bear change several times, and it seems they vary from 200-300 pounds..Still a minimum of 100 pounds underweight, and they’re still trying to say that the bear didn’t attack because of hunger…Also, as i’ve read, the bear not only attacked, but also ate part of the victim, so that pretty strongly suggests that the bear DID attack out of hunger..

  As was in one of the articles regarding this story:

  “It’s a great spot, but you have to realize we’re in their home. We’re part of the food chain,”

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  lewis8457 on August 16 at 4:07 p.m.

  sadly until man figures out the animals are connected to us spiritually and man is NOT in control the killing may stop but i am doubtful that day will ever come.

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  Itsgodswill on August 17 at 9:12 a.m.

  The problem with human beings is that we actually DO put ourselves in control..Of course, man had no say in the initial attack(s), however man makes sure to have “the last say”, which of course ends up in the killing of an animal. Human beings are the most arrogant, self righteous things on this earth, so it’s really no surprise. With brilliant quotes i’ve heard from my own family, such as “animals have no souls, so they have no place in heaven” (and it’s the church that teaches this garbage), it’s no wonder why they’re so cocky to think they can do whatever the hell they want.

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  Correctthinker on August 17 at 1:38 p.m.

  1. A mature grizzly sow weighs 450-600 lbs.
  2. At 216 lbs. this was an immature sow that was probably starving.
  3. A mature sow with 3 cubs has all she can do to eat enough protein to nurse 3 cubs.
  4. This mother was equivalent to a 13 year old girl with triplets on her own.
  5. My take is that her mother was killed by a grizzly boar (as they are wont to do) when she was 2-2-1/2 years old. With the mother dead the boar jumped her and the next spring she found herself with 3 cubs to nurse and loaded with an intestinal parasite.
  6. The parasites robed her of the nourishment of a vegetarian diet and her instinct told her that her cubs were starving.
  7. She was too immature to run down deer or elk or even their baby offspring.
  8.Being deprived of her mother’s care and instruction before her time to be on her own she never learned to fish.
  9. She found the easy prey and in desperation killed to provide milk for her 3 offspring.
  10. Sad, but probably true — these people were in the wrong place at the wrong time through no fault of their own.