This morning’s top story in the Missoulian, our local daily newspaper;
“Grizzly, cub killed in Glacier Park“.
By Michael Jamison of the Missoulian: WEST GLACIER – “The old grizzly sow was rumbling straight toward a campground full of hikers, chubby cubs laboring along behind, when two rangers simultaneously pulled their triggers. It wasn’t the way they’d planned to kill the bear, but there she was heading for camp, a big wild bear as unpredictable as the campers she was about to surprise…”
…”When a grizzly bear begins approaching people on purpose, that bear must go.”
…”And although the Bronx Zoo finally agreed to take the cubs, no zoos wanted a 17-year-old adult.”
…”cubs”…”tranquilizer”…
“But the male cub didn’t look so good. It’s tough to gauge a dosage when you don’t know an animal’s weight, temperature, vital signs, underlying health condition…”
“…First one ranger tried CPR, then another, going mouth to snout while coaxing the 100-pound yearling back to life. It did not work.”
“But what’s really sad is loosing three bears from this ecosystem.”–Jack Potter, chief of science and natural resources at Glacier National Park
“The outcome while arguably unavoidable, was tragic, Potter admitted, particularly for those wildlife lovers who had rallied around the three bears.”
“We need to make a positive out of a negative,” Witulski (a retired forester from Idaho) “We need to tell the story better, so the public pays more attention.”
“…perhaps all those who followed the story with such interest can donate to grizzly bear habitat protection, or to the parks bear management team…” which is currently trying to get two other grizzly groups away from the park’s backcountry chalets.
When we get back to New York I’m going to take My Kid to see the surviving grizzly bear cub at the Bronx Zoo.