spectr17
07-25-2001, 05:00 PM
By Steve Lipsher, Denver Post Mountain Bureau
Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - Troop leader Vicki Mynhier earned a new Boy Scouts merit badge - the one for being a cool mom - when a bear bit her early Tuesday at a camp near Poncha Springs Colorado.
Attacked while dozing in her sleeping bag inside a wall tent at the Packard High Adventure Base about 1:35 a.m., Mynhier made an early-morning trip to the emergency room for a puncture wound in her left hand and was back in time to share the tale at breakfast with dozens of wide-eyed Scouts.
"They're all like, "Oh, my gosh!' They think I'm a cool mom now," said the 44-year-old from Richardson, Texas.
Second attack this month
It was the second bear attack in Colorado this month and gave wildlife officials great concern over its particularly aggressive nature: The bear actually dragged Mynhier and her cot outside the tent before being scared off by her screams and the approach of other campers.
"We'll never know for sure, but this bear appeared to be treating this woman as prey," said Todd Malmsbury, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "That bothers us."
DOW officers immediately began efforts to capture the bear, which will be killed because it poses a threat to humans, but lamented that it apparently associated people with meals, despite efforts at the camp to store food and garbage safely.
"The bear was probably visiting the camp because it had found food there in the past. It had learned there was food in the area," Malmsbury said. "We have had a problem with nearby residents ... who have been throwing food off their back decks to wildlife, including bears. We have been working with these local residents to show them why it's inappropriate and even dangerous to continue to throw food out."
Biologists believe modest forage this summer, unprotected food and garbage, and encroaching human development are the biggest reasons for the increased encounters with bears, which normally are reclusive.
Earlier this month, an adolescent black bear bit a sleeping 16-year-old boy at a campsite near Gardner, northwest of Walsenburg, charged twice more and was shot by the boy's uncle. Another bear attacked two teenage boys at the famed Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, N.M.
Bite jolted woman awake
Mynhier, who had no food in her open tent, was jolted awake when the bear bit her hand. She screamed and attempted to burrow inside her sleeping bag, becoming a sort of human burrito that the bear dragged outside.
"I just felt like he was going to take me away," she said. "The attack for me ... was like forever and ever, but I would say it probably took five seconds, 10 seconds."
Immediately, first-aid kits and people with medical training came out of the woodwork, and within minutes she was whisked away to the hospital in Salida.
Mynhier, a leader of Troop 570 attending the week-long camp with her two sons, was grateful that none of the boys was attacked. She has handled the ordeal with humor, although she was forced to miss the camp's whitewater rafting trip Tuesday.
"We've got a horseshoe tournament going on," she said. "My right hand is fine."
Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - Troop leader Vicki Mynhier earned a new Boy Scouts merit badge - the one for being a cool mom - when a bear bit her early Tuesday at a camp near Poncha Springs Colorado.
Attacked while dozing in her sleeping bag inside a wall tent at the Packard High Adventure Base about 1:35 a.m., Mynhier made an early-morning trip to the emergency room for a puncture wound in her left hand and was back in time to share the tale at breakfast with dozens of wide-eyed Scouts.
"They're all like, "Oh, my gosh!' They think I'm a cool mom now," said the 44-year-old from Richardson, Texas.
Second attack this month
It was the second bear attack in Colorado this month and gave wildlife officials great concern over its particularly aggressive nature: The bear actually dragged Mynhier and her cot outside the tent before being scared off by her screams and the approach of other campers.
"We'll never know for sure, but this bear appeared to be treating this woman as prey," said Todd Malmsbury, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "That bothers us."
DOW officers immediately began efforts to capture the bear, which will be killed because it poses a threat to humans, but lamented that it apparently associated people with meals, despite efforts at the camp to store food and garbage safely.
"The bear was probably visiting the camp because it had found food there in the past. It had learned there was food in the area," Malmsbury said. "We have had a problem with nearby residents ... who have been throwing food off their back decks to wildlife, including bears. We have been working with these local residents to show them why it's inappropriate and even dangerous to continue to throw food out."
Biologists believe modest forage this summer, unprotected food and garbage, and encroaching human development are the biggest reasons for the increased encounters with bears, which normally are reclusive.
Earlier this month, an adolescent black bear bit a sleeping 16-year-old boy at a campsite near Gardner, northwest of Walsenburg, charged twice more and was shot by the boy's uncle. Another bear attacked two teenage boys at the famed Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, N.M.
Bite jolted woman awake
Mynhier, who had no food in her open tent, was jolted awake when the bear bit her hand. She screamed and attempted to burrow inside her sleeping bag, becoming a sort of human burrito that the bear dragged outside.
"I just felt like he was going to take me away," she said. "The attack for me ... was like forever and ever, but I would say it probably took five seconds, 10 seconds."
Immediately, first-aid kits and people with medical training came out of the woodwork, and within minutes she was whisked away to the hospital in Salida.
Mynhier, a leader of Troop 570 attending the week-long camp with her two sons, was grateful that none of the boys was attacked. She has handled the ordeal with humor, although she was forced to miss the camp's whitewater rafting trip Tuesday.
"We've got a horseshoe tournament going on," she said. "My right hand is fine."