Scout, It’s What’s For Dinner
Or that appears to be what a black bear thought anyway. A Boy Scout sleeping in a tent at a Utah camp woke up to find a bear grazing. Unfortunately, the bear was grazing on the Scout's upper arm. Needless to say, the Scout wasn't particularly fond of the idea of being an entrée, and he succeeded in scaring the bear away. The bear, having found what she thought was the happy hunting ground returned later looking for another taste, only to be met with a game warden with a gun.
Colton Stewart, 14, woke up early Wednesday to a burning sensation in his upper arm, then realized it was a bear biting his arm through the tent, state wildlife officials said. He pulled away and heard the bear run off through the brush.
"It wasn't biting viciously. They put their mouth on things to see what they taste like," said Anis Aoude, regional wildlife manager for the state Division of Wildlife Resources. "In this case, there just happened to be a kid's arm on the other side of the tent."
The bite wasn't serious, but camp officials notified the state, which sent a game warden to the Adventure Park Scout Camp in central Utah.
That evening, as barbecued ribs were being prepared for the 90 Scouts, the 2- to 3-year-old female bear wandered back into the area, DWR Central Region Supervisor John Fairchild said.
"It wasn't afraid of anybody," Fairchild said. "It paralleled the camp, and the conservation officer waited for the bear to get away from the people in a safe area before he shot it."
The bear had apparently become habituated to eating human food and had lost its fear of people, making it dangerous so close to the camp.
See how blithely the fish and game people treat this? The bear had become "habituated to eating HUMAN food". As in humans! And you all think we're nuts talking about this animal uprising. How many scouts have to become the bearish equivalent of a blue plate special before people wake up to the real danger?
UPDATE: Meanwhile, Jim at bRight and Early is waiting for the ACLU to weigh in. And they will.
By bRight & Early, Friday, 21 July , 2006 @ 6:43 pm
I saw this bear story and had a slightly different take on it. My post is titled Waiting For The Followup Story.
It’s either been a long week, or my naturally skewed sense of humor is showing again.
Jim