Black Bear Shot in Utah County

[ilanimaka]

SPRINGVILLE, Utah -- The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says a campground attendant shot and killed a 2-year-old black bear after it had an encounter with campers in Utah County.

Officials say the bear was inside the Balsam campground up Hobble Creek Canyon on Saturday when it approached some families that were camping with their children.

A campground attendant threw rocks at the bear, yelled at it and fired a shot into the air to try to scare it away. But officials say the bear showed no fear of human contact and that it started moving toward the attendant, who felt forced to shoot it.

[shlingdawg]

Black Bears are quite prolific up in my neck of the world. If the bear wasn't scared off - it was in need of some rehabilitation. Problem solved. Too bad that we all just can't get along.

[ilanimaka]

Oh I don't know about that. It sounds like everybody there is getting along now. ;)

[asdf]

Sucks for the Bear but it sounded a bit too comfortable walking around the campground.

Sad to see you go yogi.

[MY T PIMP]

Utah bears are an interesting situation. It seems the Utah DWR seeks to become the big game Meca of North America. They wanted world class elk here, and they got them. But didn't take into consideration the impact massive elk populations would have on the Mule Deer (which in my eyes given it's geographical and habitat restrictions should be a more valuable comodity, even though it's hard to think of anything more intoxicating than a 6 point elk.) I think they are doing the same with the Black Bear, Utah is allready producing record size bears here. But as we've seen with the recent altercations with humans it may come with a price.

[shlingdawg]

Did someone say record size bear? Here is one that was harvested (what are we picking corn here?) last fall about 15 miles from my house:

Weighed in at 570 pounds and stood about 8 feet tall.

[live2ride]

Holy Shit that is one big bear! Scary if it is coming at you, beautiful if it is just cruising around in the woods being a bear! I would love to see a bear like that alive and not bothering people! WOW!

[shlingdawg]

I was fishing some still water in my float tube last fall in Montana. Right off the edge of the lake was a smallish black bear eating berries. I quit fishing and watched him do his thing for about an hour. It was really cool seeing a bear in the wild that was doing his bear thing. Didn't bother me at all - but the river otters sure gave the bear hell for being by their water.

[live2ride]

I have never seen a bear in the wild??? Been to yellowstone 8 million times, camping all over, been all over northern idaho and never seen one so all my bear experiences are in the zoo!