Sat 18 Aug 2007
The National Post
Cubs Still Not Found
Man injured fighting off mother grizzly in Alberta
Accidentally Walked Between Bear And Her Cubs
Elise Stolte
CanWest News Service
Saturday, August 18, 2007
GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA. - A man armed with a machete-style hunting knife suffered serious injuries as he fought off and killed an angry mother grizzly bear.
Wildlife officers are now looking for several orphaned bear cubs after the encounter near a creek in a farm field near the agricultural hamlet of Grovedale, 20 kilometres south of Grande Prairie.
“It’s been reported the grizzly bear had three cubs,” said Alberta Sustainable Resource Development spokesman Darcy Whiteside. “What we’re hoping is we can relocate them out of the area and release them back into the wild.”
On Wednesday night, a man surveying an area near Grovedale, 480 km northwest of Edmonton, accidentally walked between a mother bear and her cubs. The mother bear attacked, and the man suffered serious injuries to his arms and a leg.
He managed to stab the animal and escape. Wildlife officers had to call off a search for the bear on Wednesday night, but found the body about 27 metres from the attack on Thursday morning.
RCMP Constable Leanne Beattie said the man stabbed the bear three times with a large hunting knife.
The man had bite marks and scratches and appeared to have at least one broken limb.
“That’s good condition, considering,” Const. Beattie said. “He ended up unintentionally cutting between the mom and the cubs, and as a result mom got a little upset and went after him.”
A man working outside heard cries for help and called the Grovedale Fire Department around 9:30 p.m.
Grovedale volunteer fire Captain Troy Smith described him as a man in his 30s, about six feet tall with an average build.
After the attack, the man walked almost a kilometre back to the road. Despite his injuries, “he seemed all right,” Capt. Smith said.
Traps have been set out for the bear cubs, but so far investigators have not tracked them down. The bear’s carcass has since been sent to Edmonton for a full autopsy.
© National Post 2007
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:28 am
A female cub has been caught from the trio of orphan cubs (Edmonton Journal) “She is going to be released into a wilderness area near Grande Prairie because there are no zoos willing to take her.” The is a quote from Darcy Whiteside, spokesman for Resource Development in Grande Prairie. Has anyone asked the government how big the cub is and can it survive on its own?