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Sep 16, 2002 —

Topics: Environment

Annie Feidt

Officials are using bait and liquid smoke to trap a black bear that injured a man in a wildlife management area north of Milaca. Wildlife researcher Miles Becker is recovering from a broken leg and puncture wounds. He was attacked yesterday afternoon while tracking woodcocks that he and his colleagues had fitted with radio transmitters for a study. Dave Garshelis is a bear expert with the Department of Natural Resources. He spoke with Becker this morning. Garshelis says Becker was working with a receiver that suddenly made a loud static noise just before the bear attacked.

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By Associated Press

September 16, 2002, 10:32 AM EDT

ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- A wildlife researcher was in fair condition Monday after

a rare attack by a black bear, normally a timid species that runs from

people.

Miles Becker was tracking woodcocks fitted with radio transmitters when the

bear attacked him Sunday in the Four Brooks Wildlife Management Area 10

miles north of Milaca in central Minnesota.

Becker, 24, was taken to St. Cloud Hospital for treatment of broken facial

bones, puncture wounds to his head and left leg, lacerations and a broken

leg.

Wildlife officials set a trap for the bear, one of an estimated 30,000 in

the state.

Dick Tuszynski, manager of the Mille Lacs Wildlife Management Area,

speculated that Becker might have been wearing earphones to listen to the

birds' transmitters and might not have heard potential bear warning signs

such as growls.

"I've bumped into bears when I was out jogging early in the morning or when

hunting, but bears are almost always wary and will leave," he said. "It's

usually them that run away."

The only other black bear attack recorded in Minnesota happened in 1987,

when a bear attacked campers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of extreme

northern Minnesota, said Dave Garshelis, a bear biologist with the state

Department of Natural Resources.

That bear might have been seeking food, Garshelis said. This year, however,

berries, nuts and other foods are so abundant in Minnesota's forests that

hunters have been having trouble luring bears with bait, he said.

In August, a black bear dragged away and killed a 5-month-old girl in New

York state's Catskills.

Black bears have killed only about 50 or fewer people in North America in

the past century, according to the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minn.

In most cases, the bears "are just big chickens," Lynn Rogers, director of

the center and of the Wildlife Research Institute, said after the New York

attack. "They've survived by running without question. The littlest hound

can chase the biggest bear up a tree."

More about the baby...

Bear Kills Baby In Upstate N.Y.

AP/ February 11, 2009, 9:02 PM

A bear killed a 5-month-old girl Monday after knocking her out of a stroller and dragging the infant into the woods, police said.

The baby had been near the porch of a vacation bungalow with family members when the black bear approached, said Fallsburg Police Chief Brent Lawrence.

The mother shuttled her 4- and 2-year-old children inside, Lawrence said. When she returned outside, the infant was gone.

Witnesses told police the young bear had little Ester Schwimmer in its mouth as it ambled into dense woods 20 feet from the bungalow.

"It may be the first season that it may have been on its own, and it may very well have perceived this infant as a food source," Lawrence said. "I wouldn't categorize it as an attack - as far as a running, snarling attack."

Isaac Abraham said people desperately tried to save the girl.

"People started chasing the bear, throwing rocks at it," he said.

The bear dropped the infant, but she had severe injuries to her head and neck, and was pronounced dead at a hospital, Lawrence said.

Officers with the Department of Environmental Conservation and local police tracked the bear into the woods and shot it.

Ward Stone, the state's chief wildlife pathologist, said it was the first time he could remember a black bear killing a human.

"In all my many years, 34 summers, we've had them eat birdseed, get into trouble eating dog food in people's yards but black bears are just not noted for attacking humans," Stone said.

The girl's family was from the New York City borough of Brooklyn, officials said.

The attack happened in the Catskills region about 70 miles northwest of New York City, in the heart of what is known as the Borscht Belt. Big hotels and bungalows attracted thousands of visitors each summer, many of them Jewish families from New York City.

© 2009 The Associated Press.