spectr17
08-15-2003, 01:53 PM
August 13, 2003
Bear Did Not Try to Eat a Hiker, an Official Says
By ROBERT HANLEY, NY Times
ERNON TOWNSHIP, N.J., Aug. 12 — New Jersey's environmental commissioner today disputed his department's report on Monday that a black bear had tried to eat a teenage hiker whom the animal knocked down on Sunday afternoon in Wawayanda State Park here.
The commissioner, Bradley M. Campbell, said the characterization was erroneous and not supported by the account given by the hiker, an 18-year-old woman. A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection, Elaine Makatura, said a colleague, Jack Kaskey, released the incorrect information after misinterpreting the reports of department wildlife biologists who had interviewed the young woman.
Mr. Kaskey was quoted in news articles today as saying the bear had exhibited "classic predatory behavior" and was "out to eat" the young hiker.
Mr. Campbell said today that the bear did not try to bite the hiker after chasing her from behind on a wooded trail and knocking her to the ground. Mr. Campbell called the animal's actions very aggressive and seemingly predatory. "This is quite extraordinary atypical behavior for black bears," he said.
The young woman told state biologists that she elbowed the bear in the nose and then ran a short distance from it and hid near a tree, Mr. Campbell said. The bear did not pursue her and wandered away into the woods, Mr. Campbell said.
The only injuries the woman suffered were welts on her right side, apparently inflicted by the abrasive pad on one of the bear's feet. The young woman managed to run about three-quarters of a mile from the park to her home in Highland Lakes, a hamlet in Vernon Township, Mr. Campbell said.
No one else witnessed the incident, Mr. Campbell said. He added that department officials had no reason to doubt the young woman's account.
Mr. Campbell and his aides have declined to identify the teenager at her request, they said.
Encounters between humans and bears are a politically fraught topic in New Jersey because the state has scheduled its first bear hunt since 1970 for next December. Animal rights activists often accuse advocates of the hunt of exaggerating the details of such encounters to create support for the hunt.
The trail where the encounter occurred, called Wingdam Trail, has been closed since Sunday. A bear trap was placed in the woods near it then. But no animals have been caught.
An employee in the heavily wooded, 16,000-acre park who insisted on remaining anonymous said bears were seen in it by park workers and visitors almost daily. The animals, the employee said, have never attacked anyone.
Visitors questioned today said they had not heard of Sunday's incident but were not concerned about their safety.
"We see bears here all the time," John Foley, of West Milford, said as he, his wife, Dianne, and their children — Marie, 11, and James, 5 — arrived to fish. "We try to give them wide berth." Mr. Foley said the bears always ran off at the sound of clapping or other loud noise.
Bear Did Not Try to Eat a Hiker, an Official Says
By ROBERT HANLEY, NY Times
ERNON TOWNSHIP, N.J., Aug. 12 — New Jersey's environmental commissioner today disputed his department's report on Monday that a black bear had tried to eat a teenage hiker whom the animal knocked down on Sunday afternoon in Wawayanda State Park here.
The commissioner, Bradley M. Campbell, said the characterization was erroneous and not supported by the account given by the hiker, an 18-year-old woman. A spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection, Elaine Makatura, said a colleague, Jack Kaskey, released the incorrect information after misinterpreting the reports of department wildlife biologists who had interviewed the young woman.
Mr. Kaskey was quoted in news articles today as saying the bear had exhibited "classic predatory behavior" and was "out to eat" the young hiker.
Mr. Campbell said today that the bear did not try to bite the hiker after chasing her from behind on a wooded trail and knocking her to the ground. Mr. Campbell called the animal's actions very aggressive and seemingly predatory. "This is quite extraordinary atypical behavior for black bears," he said.
The young woman told state biologists that she elbowed the bear in the nose and then ran a short distance from it and hid near a tree, Mr. Campbell said. The bear did not pursue her and wandered away into the woods, Mr. Campbell said.
The only injuries the woman suffered were welts on her right side, apparently inflicted by the abrasive pad on one of the bear's feet. The young woman managed to run about three-quarters of a mile from the park to her home in Highland Lakes, a hamlet in Vernon Township, Mr. Campbell said.
No one else witnessed the incident, Mr. Campbell said. He added that department officials had no reason to doubt the young woman's account.
Mr. Campbell and his aides have declined to identify the teenager at her request, they said.
Encounters between humans and bears are a politically fraught topic in New Jersey because the state has scheduled its first bear hunt since 1970 for next December. Animal rights activists often accuse advocates of the hunt of exaggerating the details of such encounters to create support for the hunt.
The trail where the encounter occurred, called Wingdam Trail, has been closed since Sunday. A bear trap was placed in the woods near it then. But no animals have been caught.
An employee in the heavily wooded, 16,000-acre park who insisted on remaining anonymous said bears were seen in it by park workers and visitors almost daily. The animals, the employee said, have never attacked anyone.
Visitors questioned today said they had not heard of Sunday's incident but were not concerned about their safety.
"We see bears here all the time," John Foley, of West Milford, said as he, his wife, Dianne, and their children — Marie, 11, and James, 5 — arrived to fish. "We try to give them wide berth." Mr. Foley said the bears always ran off at the sound of clapping or other loud noise.