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Message |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 37
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - 7:42 pm: | 
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I just came back back from Missinaibi Lake a few days ago (80 km north of Cahpleau). We were canoe camping there for 5 days on interior site located across from Fairy Point Pictographs. News release today says predatory bear killed a 30 year old woman doctor (today) from Cambridge Ontario.... scary to hear about this.
They were also on a site on the lake somewhere.....10 kms away from the car campground there. Husband escaped and is in hospital. He tried to fend the bear off with a knife...Currenly bear on the loose injured.
More news on it to come soon..
We saw some bears there...I took pics of lots of tracks there too...hmm.. No problems with bears for us.... Timing..maybe.. |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 39
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 8:13 am: |
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Here is the report in today's Tornoto Globe and Mail...frightening and sad story.
Husband's heroic efforts couldn't save mauled wife
By OMAR EL AKKAD
Thursday, September 8, 2005 Page A1 GLOBE AND MAIL
With his dying wife beside him, Marc Jordan desperately navigated the desolate waterways of Lake Missinaibi Provincial Park on Tuesday, screaming for help.
Moments earlier, the 30-year-old had tried to fight off a bear attacking his wife, Jacqueline Perry, also 30, stabbing it five or six times with a knife. The attempts to save Ms. Perry left Mr. Jordan with multiple lacerations and several severed nerves, wounds that gushed blood as he carried his gravely injured wife away from their remote campsite in the Northern Ontario park, about 525 kilometres northwest of Sudbury.
What happened next likely saved Mr. Jordan's life, but came too late for Dr. Perry, who died during the journey out of the park.
She became the first person to be killed by a bear in Ontario in 13 years.
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Mr. Jordan had been paddling the boat the couple had used to get to the campsite for almost an hour when a couple of hikers heard his cries. The two men had fought off a black bear less than an hour earlier.
They joined Mr. Jordan and helped him paddle for another 90 minutes before they came across a pontoon.
"Miraculously, the boat they found had an off-duty police officer and a doctor from North Carolina on board," Ontario Provincial Police Constable Karen Farand said.
Three hours after the bear attack, rescuers were able to transport Mr. Jordan to Sudbury Regional Hospital, Constable Farand said. He was in stable condition awaiting surgery.
The couple from Cambridge, Ont., were attacked in the interior, a rugged, remote region within Lake Missinaibi park that officials are scrambling to clear of about 10 to 15 visitors.
The interior has been closed off while police and park workers search for the bear and other campers. But because visitors are not required to tell park officials they're in the area, staff can only guess at how many people they're looking for.
Jolanta Kowalski of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources said that even though the area is being cleared for safety's sake, bears are not necessarily more dangerous after an attack.
"It is wounded, so it may just be holed up somewhere right now," she said. "Obviously, it has already shown how dangerous it is -- it has killed one human being and seriously injured another."
In an interview from Mr. Jordan's bedside in Sudbury, Rosalind Jordan said her son suffered multiple lacerations, puncture wounds and severed nerves. Hospital staff are waiting to minimize the possibility of infection before operating, she said.
Dr. Perry and Mr. Jordan met at McMaster University, where both were studying. They had been married less than four years.
"They loved hiking, they loved the outdoors," Ms. Jordan said. "They were also dedicated to the well-being of their community.
"Marc gave back by being a Scout leader, Jac gave back by helping sick people. She was a bright, dedicated, wonderful person."
Dr. Perry had just accepted a part-time position at Cambridge Memorial Hospital's emergency department. She was set to start her new job in less than a month.
Dr. Perry also worked as a general practitioner at Cambridge's Grandview Medical Centre. Grandview administrator Jeff Poll said the centre's staff is in a state of disbelief.
"The community has lost a wonderful physician," he said, "and Grandview has lost a wonderful colleague and friend."
Tuesday's incident was the latest in a string of recent bear attacks across Canada. A man was killed and another injured in two separate bear attacks in Manitoba over the past two weeks. Alberta has had four incidents since June, including two attacks in a week at Banff National Park. In early June, a female jogger was killed near Canmore.
The last time a bear killed anyone in Ontario was in 1992, when a geologist in the Cochrane area was mauled, Ms. Kowalski said.
"This is an extremely rare, highly unusual event," she said.
Like Tuesday's attack, the 1992 incident took place in a remote area. Constable Farand said there are inherent dangers in visiting a place where help can be hours away and cellphones are virtually useless. "Even if you have a satellite phone, help can't come soon enough," Constable Farand said. "That's what it's like up here."
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brian
Moderator
Post Number: 445
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 9:50 am: |
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I expect that we will hear a call for renewing the spring bear hunt. |
john_v
Member
Post Number: 41
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 10:45 am: |
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I don't hunt myself. But if you listen to both sides, hunters make some good points. This will be one of them. |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 40
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 11:12 am: |
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I don't think this can be traced specifically to cancellation of the spring bear hunt because
(1) this location is not only in a park where hunting is not allowed anyway; (spring bear hunt or not it could not happen there) , but also it is located in the heart of the Chapleau Crown game preserve ....which has not had hunting for decades......
That said...perhaps some bears have lost their fear of humans in parks. Good to remember though that there have been no other bear attacks on this lake in the past...This was more than likely a predatory bear. Rare,,,,but it happens.
The last bear death in Ontario was 6 years ago in Cochran. Before that ...Bate Island, Opeongo Lake, Algonquin. Similar types or predatory bear attacks.
2) Manitoba has had bear attacks with person killed too this year yet Manitoba has both spring anbd fall bear hunts. |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 41
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 11:16 am: |
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Brian.....good timing for your post
here it is from the hunt groups...
I want to be clear that this is not my position....I'm just posting their news release..
doug
see below.....just published a few minutes ago}
Bear numbers ‘out of control’: No hunt erases animal fears: conservation groups
By Bryan Meadows - The Chronicle-Journal
September 08, 2005
Conservation groups have renewed their call for a return of the spring black bear hunt after a Cambridge, Ont., woman was attacked and killed by a black bear Tuesday in Missinaibi Lake Provincial Park, about 80 kilometres north of Chapleau.
A man, also from the Cambridge, was mauled after trying to fight off the animal, police said. He is in serious but stable condition in Sudbury hospital.
Thunder Bay-based Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen’s Alliance (NOSA) and the Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA) maintain that the spring hunt would be an effective tool in managing the province’s burgeoning number of black bears.
NOSA president John Kaplanis said Wednesday that less hunting pressure means bears are learning that they no longer need fear people.
“These unhunted predators move to the top of the food chain, become more aggressive in search of food and are less fearful of man,” Kaplanis said.
With no threat against them, he said, they are more likely to attack people.
Kaplanis said he is aware of unreported incidents across the North where prospectors, bush workers and others have run into overly-aggressive bears.
COHA chairman Bob McQuay agreed with Kaplanis, stating that “bears no longer fear humans and consider us just part of their wilderness buffet.”
“We've been warning the Ontario government since 1999 that the result of their failure to properly manage the black bear population would result in someone being mauled and killed,” McQuay said, adding black bears “are not cuddly teddy bears. They are large, dangerous, efficient predators that can run faster than a horse and crack bones with their muscular jaws.
“COHA sympathizes with the families of the woman and her companion, but warns this is just a taste of what lies ahead if the government does not move to manage the out-of-control bear population.”
Both groups predict that bear-human conflicts will increase as the bear population continues to grow out of control, and the government refuses to consider proven population management techniques.
Ministry of Natural Resources spokeswoman Jolanta Kowalski was reluctant to talk about the ministry’s bear management policy Wednesday.
“(With one woman dead and a man in hospital) today is not the day to talk about this,” she said, adding, “our main priority is finding the bear and making people safe in the park.”
Having said that, Kowalski said that she doesn’t believe a spring bear hunt would have made a difference in this incident.
“No matter how many hunts you have, it’s not going to help with a predatory bear,” she said.
The tragedy, she said, reinforces the need for more education and awareness of bear behaviour and on prevention of bear-human contacts.
Last month the MNR reminded people to be cautious around food sources for bears after a 69-year-old Selkirk, Man., man was mauled and killed while picking plums near his home.
The ministry has information posted on its Bear Wise website (www.bears.mnr.gov.on.ca) on how to prevent bear-human encounters and what to do with bear food sources and attractants.
“We’ve always maintained that reinstatement of the (spring) hunt is not going to curb the problem,” Kowalski said, adding that Manitoba, where the bear attack took place, has a spring and fall bear hunt and its bear population is lower than Ontario’s.
“How do (the spring bear hunt advocates) explain what happened in Manitoba where they have a spring and fall hunt?” she asked.
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doug_2
Member
Post Number: 42
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 11:22 am: |
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Missinaibi Lake bear prints last week |
nature_freak
Member
Post Number: 9
Registered: 08-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 1:34 pm: |
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 So very sad to hear about the fatal attack on the young woman. Must have been terrifying for her husband to go through that.
I don't know wether or not the cancelation of the Spring bear hunt has been to blame for this attack, but I do know that since it was cancled there have been more and more bears around.
I live in the Temagami North Townsite and for the past four years we have been dealing with a record amount of bear activity in this small area.
I had a visit from one last night. I guess my husband put out a small bag of garbage in the pail he forgot to put out for pick up, and low and behold it was all tron apart on the back yard this morning.Bear tracks all around. Spooky, and this has become the norm. The kids run into them on the street in the early evening and people are afraid to walk. I can't beleive a child has not been killed yet, but I fear that will be the future outlook.Someone is going to eventually get hurt.
I get nervous when I have to get up for water in the night as I'm scared one will be staring in the windows. I keep all my windows closed at night for fear one might try to come in the house.
As I have said, I have lived here 21 years now and for the first 15 years I never saw or even heard of a bear being around here, but not anymore. Every spring the town is full and every fall they come back to den around here now.
I love wildlife and I know we choose to live in an area that is inhabited by black bears, but I fear that if something is not done to help control the population in this area, that Temagami will be on the news next reporting a fatality.
I'd say that the increase in the population of bears in Temagami now opposed to the previous years is a direct result of the loss of the spring bear hunt, but this is only my opinion. } |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 43
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 2:29 pm: |
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Interesting; I suppose it makes sense that the lack of hunters near town each spring would cause some bears to be less afraid of approaching, since they have less worry about getting themselves killed. What does seem different though about these bears that actually stalk and eat people (predatory bears) is that they seem not to be garbage bears and seem not to be the ones around town. In fact, the last 2 bear attacks resulting in death in Ontario (results not in on this one yet) were solitary predatory male bears who had not been habituated to people, garbage and people food. In other words..wild bears. Little doubt they saw the person in each case as food though....
Whistler BC has the highest concentration of Black bears in the world yet so far....they too have never had an attack..let alone a death. They have had to make really tough rules about garbage, bird feeders etc. But again, so far these bears around their town don't seem to be the predatory type that would target people for food..... I guess we'll all be curious to hear whether this bear that killed (he is still at large and injured by the husband's Swiss army knife last I heard) has ever been in the car campground part of the park looking for people food there (the woman killed was in a remote part of the park....sort of like being in Lady Ev Smoothwater park...way up river somewhere in the wilderness zone). I imagine the staff in the park at Missinaibi recognize each bear they've had in the car campground. I know they removed several last year because they became habituated to coolers that were not locked up properly at night. Once that happens the bears just keep coming back for more and get persistent. The behaviour often gets habitual and impoosible to control. So that bear often does wind up dead.
Of course I agree that any bear around any town is potentially dangerous since they are so big and strong that even a gentle "cuff" might hurt a child in a big way.... Also some kids might approach out of curiosity....But so far those bears don;t seem to be the Predatory type. I stand to be corrected though as I'm trying to make sense of it all myself...
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john_v
Member
Post Number: 42
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 4:31 pm: |
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I'm trying to make sense of it too. Hunt or no hunt, very rarely a bear does go nuts or something and acts out of character. Individuals who know exactly how to respond give themselves a better chance, but that is certainly no guarantee. This won't stop me from entering the wilderness, ie. bear territory. (I do try and keep these stories from my wife so that she worries about me less) But we are all forewarned and thus should be forearmed with knowledge of the creatures whose territory we are in.
Condolences to the husband and family of Dr. Perry. |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 44
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2005 - 5:15 pm: |
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I guess one way to look at it is there are supposed to be around 80,000 to 100,000 bears (give or take 10,000) in Ontario. There have been 7 deaths by predatory bears in the last century in Ontario. I think there have been 3 deaths in the last 13 years. So the odds are on our side for wilderness camping. Lightning, tornadoes, bee stings, airplane crashes, dogs, appendix attacks, heart attacks (the list goes on) are more likely to kill you;let alone the chance of a car accident just getting there or back. Bear attacks in the wild are not common. Some People worry about bears in car campgrounds in the north but there has never been a death from bears in a car campground in Ontario (that I'm aware of) even though historically those campgrounds had loads of nuisance garbage bear problems and probably over the years millions of people have stayed there. So that is the bright side. That offers little to Dr. Perry and family though....very sad. |
mdprus
Member
Post Number: 24
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, September 9, 2005 - 10:00 am: |
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From what I have seen, hunters are always looking for an excuse to kill more animals. Speaking of being afraid to go outside in the evening, I am afraid to go up to my cottage in the Temagami area anytime during the fall hunting season. All I see is hunters loading up cases of beer in the town and all I hear are gunshots all around. To me, this is much more frightening than the 1 in 10,000 chance of a predatory bear attack. |
paul_hammersten
Member
Post Number: 217
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Friday, September 9, 2005 - 5:46 pm: |
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In the September issue of ALASKA MAGAZINE - http://www.alaskamagazine.com/ - There is a well written timely article titled " The Bear Facts ". It is not online yet.
Best
Paul |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 45
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, September 9, 2005 - 8:56 pm: |
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I'd be curious to know if any of the historic youth canoe camps in Temagami have ever had a serious injury from a bear attack in the region...over the past 100 years?
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hillbilly
Member
Post Number: 149
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Friday, September 9, 2005 - 9:52 pm: |
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The last fatal bear attack was in 1992 in Algonquin Park, the one before that was in 1978. Give me bears over lightning. Many people are killed by lightning every year and fatal bear attacks 10 in the last 100 years and 2 attacks within 26 years and 3 deaths in those two attack, a couple died in Algonquin in '92. I like those odds.
Spring bear hunts were stopped because the MNR found out that many hunters were killing female bears with cubs and the cubs were starving to death. Killing a female bear with a cub is against the law.
Bill
Bill |
brian
Moderator
Post Number: 448
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, September 10, 2005 - 10:59 am: |
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I have never heard of any incident of bear mauling among the camps. Certainly a couple (Wabikon and Keewaydin) bumped into the Hobart bear back in the 1970s. |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 46
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, September 10, 2005 - 1:36 pm: |
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Yes I've run into the Hobart bear too Brian; quite a few years ago, and he (or she?) was aggressive for sure; to get at the food packs. Not much would stop him (rocks, frying pans, smooth-talking, yelling, large gorups of people etc..he didn;t care...extremely bold when it came to stealing food packs. The conservation officers were called in when this persisted for weeks and months on Hobart but they never did find that bear and eventually the reports eased off. The bear must have died , went away, got himself killed by a hunter in spring or fall, or changed his behaviour. Certainly there were lots of rumours about the Hobart bear being a predatory bear, but I don't think he ever actually attacked, let alone killed any living person. I recall that bear (or some bear) followed a group of young women campers to the top of Maple Mountain where they were going to spend one night camping below the tower. They did camp up top and that night the bear got their small food stash as they attempted to chase it away. When they got back to their "main packs" (the next day) that they had hung between two trees on ropes at the BASE of Maple Mt; he had also ravaged those packs and took all their canoeing food. But....he never attacked them. They did see him though... Naturally...when we met these girls by chance, at the trailhead on their return down the mountain, they were terrified about the experience.
I recall some stories on Ottertooth last year or the year before about an "attack' on kayakers on Diamaond Lake. Do we know if that was a real attack or just fear that a bear was on the site for garbage or camp food ?
How dangerous was he in terms of actually attacking (or not) people ? They claimed to have been attacked as I recall. Sure, that same bear broke into some cottages; I know that. But I'm assuming that bear was a garbage bear not a predatory bear.
Every few years a "problem" bear comes along at one location or another, and Temagami is no exception. Usually we caused the problem for the bear by habituating the bear to our food or garbage and then he returns over and over again for more of the same. But with 100 years of recreational cacnoeing in Temagami and no bear deaths and maybe no attacks at all there, the bear situation does not seem threatening to life and limb ..in Temagami anyway. Possibly Temagami has never had a predatory bear. |
canoebear
Member
Post Number: 285
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - 4:57 pm: |
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"Who's Really (Out-of Control)"
'Twas on a Sunday eve in October tha 5 of 2003
that Tim Treadwell & friend Amie Huguenard wer
brought down by a young Male half ton Grizz in Katmai National Park of Kodiak Alaska.
Ill Bear 'twas considerably underweight with a poor set of bad teeth.
Silver salmon + pink salmon #s wer down in that autumn fall of 2003.
Much too much of Great Bears food source 'twas
slaughtered & butchered-up by tha increasen compitition of baten + netten fer trophies,
by tha so-called
"Great Sportsmen Predator Poachers of tha North".
Tha tragic loss be, tha (deprive-of-life), of tha
"broken-chain-linked-food-source" that never
floated down steam, to tha empty-stomack of that Grizzly Bear.
'Tis here Byran Meadows of tha fixed Journal
be out-of-wack & much off-course.
May-be 'tis here bottom-lander should stay-away from smoken sell-out ill-furnished bluegrass &
get his mind right.
#'s of human intruders R way OUT Of Control, Who's really do-en tha killen?
Tell Meadows file-that, Heya!
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canoebear
Member
Post Number: 286
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, October 6, 2005 - 7:17 pm: |
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"1 & tha same"
Man & his spirit. He is tha Bear,
tha Bear is him - They be 1.
In tha Bear Clan of tha Mohawks,
"Tha Black Bear" over-see's
a strong healen cure culture fer Natives,
as well as, tha land of lakes with-in.
Fer 'tis season of reason,
Be a must that 'tis "Guardian of Nature"
hav = rights tooo!
Bear in mind,
that unannounced trespassen carrier moven
night stop-overs must share in tha
responsibility to keep-out-of-tha-way-of,
tha Black Bears inborn behavior habits of
"Mother Nature", in which, He watches-over, Heya!
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bush_pilot
Member
Post Number: 78
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - 9:07 pm: |
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MNR got the bear. The story I heard is that they set a trap, after the first night the bear got the bait but escaped capture. The second day when the MNR went to the trap the bear was waiting for them, it was quickly shot. |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 60
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - 9:23 pm: |
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Any other news about that bear Bush_pilot?
(campsite location, age of bear, whether it had been seen before in car campsite location etc.?)
I was there a week before on another (or maybe the same ? don;t know?) interior campsite; so I'm real curious. |
bush_pilot
Member
Post Number: 79
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 1:41 pm: |
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Doug
I don't know anymore details about the bear other than what has already been posted. I know the husband is very lucky to be alive and that his actions were brave and heroic. My condolences to him and the family of Dr. Perry. |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 61
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005 - 7:46 pm: |
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Thanks bush pilot for repsonding.
All I know is that the bear was a male.
The husband was brave beyond words.
Bad luck...that's about it I guess; from what we know so far. (and I expect there is no more to tell of consequence)
If there is mnore to tell though, I hope it will soon be made public by MNR.
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samsman
Member
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 7:03 pm: |
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Doug,
Given the reported distance from the main campground of 12 Km and the proximity of other campsites I'm guessing it occurred around Whitefish Falls.
Our local paper had an interview with the husband in which he describes the events.
It doesn't answer all my questions but is still informative.
When I get some time I'll post a condensed version of the article if you'd like.
(Message edited by samsman on October 15, 2005) |
doug_2
Member
Post Number: 63
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 7:39 pm: |
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Whitefish Falls makes sense, since
the other party that encountered same bear earlier, said they were "hiking." The only hiking I can think of in that part of the lake would be the portage trail around Whitefish Falls. The falls and rapids there might drown out the sound of an approaching bear (even though I also know that a bear can be both fast and quiet in this type of rare attack). As I recall, there is only the one campsite at Whitefish Falls. |
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Canoeing and camping