Bear #567

8/1/2012

Park biologist, Rick Varner, did the work up on bear #567.
It turned out to be a 75-80 lb male. Rick was estimating him to be about two years old. Judging by the speed, the bear ran out of camp hoping to never see us again. He awoke with two new earrings, a tattoo, and a tooth that was missing. It sounds like a bad morning after a night on the town. I am guessing, by the fact we have not seen him anymore, that he is done with this place. He is on to find a patch of blackberries or some little critter that he can out run. I hope we never see #567 again. That means it was a lesson learned and life saved.

Today is turning out to be a beautiful day up top. We received 1.3" of rain yesterday. The sun is out and the sky is blue today. I think it is time to do some laundry so it might actually dry.

Jessica

8/1/2012 05:58:59 am

Glad for a happy ending. I always long to see bears but understand the need for this action. Hope he is not a return visitor and, instead, I get see him or some of his kinfolk out on a trail somewhere...from a proper distance...with my telephoto lens handy.

Deb

8/1/2012 06:08:36 am

Glad this was a happy ending and this bear has moved on.

Linda

8/1/2012 06:48:39 am

Good job! Glad all went well.

Debi link

8/1/2012 02:13:21 pm

Wow! The guest got to see a bear today, and the ranger doing a great job.

jennifer

8/1/2012 02:21:15 pm

We will never know if the bear has a happy ending. His mouth may become infected and he will be unable to eat. Or the holes in his pierced ears become infected. And what 's with the tattoo? Aren't the ear piercing enough? The bears get more grief from the rangers than from curious people.

IN Tony

8/2/2012 01:00:56 am

@Jennifer:
The chances that the bear develops an infection after the extraction is very small. That goes for his ear tags as well.
The tattoo is for identification, I would guess, if the bears loses the ear tags. Any one else have a thought on that one?
I think that history has shown us that "curious people" are the cause of more bear deaths than Rangers. There is a saying, "A fed bear is a dead bear". When bears are fed they forget to forage on their own, they associate people with food. Then they tend to become more aggressive. Aggressive bears are put down by the Rangers (as a result of the actions of "curious people").
The actions of the Park Rangers will serve to help the bear live a long life.

High On LeConte

8/2/2012 01:29:58 am

Tony is right. I will also add that the biologist does put antibiotic ointment on the ear before he inserts the ear tags. These biologists care for the safety of these animals. They want to do everything necessary to insure a long, happy, wild life for the bears.

Devin R

8/2/2012 01:31:26 am

I'm glad to see that the last post was mostly tongue-in-cheek. I assumed it was, but I didn't know exactly how strongly you guys felt about bears being around the Lodge! ;)
I understand the need to educate people to not feed the bears and proper storage and desposal of food/trash when they're in the Park, but I'm not sure that I agree with chasing them away and making the Lodge a "Bear-Free Zone." Afterall, the Lodge is in the middle of a National Park and a huge wildlife area...bears come with the territory, and they were there first anyway. :)

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Bear #567

LeConte Lodge

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