Bear Story – Who Was Stalking Who?
black bear just off High Point trail, Norvin Green State Park, NJ (7/2/10)
What’s this whole world coming to, things just ain’t the same.
Any time the hunter, gets captured by the game ~~~ The Marvelettes (1967) (Jerry Garcia version)
[Update below]
I just read the witness statements that were released yesterday by DEP about the fatal bear incident a few weeks ago (see Star Ledger story).
I’ve been vaguely following this story, and for whatever reason, the story just didn’t sit right with me. It did not seem to fit together. I am no bear expert, so if anyone out there is, please weigh in.
I realize this seems harsh, but, frankly, I did not believe that the bear was acting as a predator on the hikers. I somehow sympathized with the bear and just felt that we weren’t getting the full story. That perhaps something provoked the bear.
The story presented by DEP and media say the bear stalked 2 hikers – for no apparent reason – who then warned the victim’s hiker party to stay away. The victim’s hiker group ignored those warnings because they wanted to see (and photo) the bear.
The first hikers to encounter the bear statements paint a very different picture with respect to how aggressively the bear was stalking them.
Hiker #1 (male) seems to downplay the bear encounter, while Hiker #2‘s (female, girlfriend of #1) more detailed statement seems to portray an aggressive and stalking bear and an almost frenzied or hysterical response on her part. Same holds for how emphatically they warned the victim’s group about the bear.
But both statements note that the hikers went off the trail – and it is not clear why they were off the trail – prior to encountering the bear.
Did they lose the trail? Or were they off the trail to stalk the bear to get photos? What do their cell phone photos tell us?
The DEP investigation did not even ask these key questions.
Those hikers statements reminded me that a few years back, I wrote the following text to accompany the photo above:
I rambled off the trail to take this shot, and noted that I was in prime bear habitat.
About 15 seconds later, a friendly black bear moseyed on by! This was shot from less than 30 feet away – we were both foraging for the same wild blueberries! At no time did I feel any fear, nor did the bear.
I went off the trail to get landscape photos. I was not looking to photograph a bear.
But, when I saw the bear, I took photos of him. I wanted to get even closer to get better shots. I may have been foolish. The bear could have perceived me as a competitor for his food.
So, did the first group of hikers wander off the trail to photograph the bear? Why were they off the trail?
Could that have aggravated the bear and been perceived by the bear as competition for food/forage?
Did the victim’s group of hikers then also go off the trail to photograph th bear, again encroaching on prime forage habitat?
Could the attack have been prompted by the bear’s defense of his forage habitat instead of a predatory response?
Again, while the DEP investigation concluded that the hikers did nothing to provoke the bear, it does note that cell phone cameras included photos of the bear.
But, the DEP investigation does not tell us why the photos were takes, where the photos were taken from, and whether anyone in the victim’s party inadvertently initiated the confrontation by seeking to photograph the bear.
Could the bear have felt that he was being stalked? Our that the hikers are competitors for his food?
I am no bear expert, so if anyone out there is, please weigh in.
[Update: 11/2/14 – I’ve seen black bears many times while hiking or camping.
But only twice when I had a camera – see above and below photos I shot.
The point is, when I see a bear and I don’t have a camera, I just stop and glance, enjoy the moment, and then continue on my way.
But when I have a camera, my behavior is totally different: I almost instinctively approach the bear and get closer in hopes of getting a good shot.
In the photo below, a black bear cub wandered through my campsite in Sequoia NP – I didn’t want to harass the fellow, but I quietly followed him for 1/2 mile or so, hoping to get a good shot. Had the cub’s mother been nearby, something I didn’t even consider in my focus on getting a good shot, she might have thought I was stalking her cub and acted to defend him.
If she had killed me, I’d have deserved it.
Sequoia National Park – Mineral King (8/17/14)
I have been studying this case very closely; since the day it happened to the present. There are too many inconsistencies. I feel the West Milford Police and the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife did and are withholding details about the tragedy to support their push for a longer bear hunting season. At first the West Milford Police Chief released the statement that the hikers did nothing to provoke the bear.
Some of the unredacted reports have been made public, which includes the written statements by two of the hikers who warned the five other hikers not to go towards the bear. After their warning to them, the two hikers stayed in the Preserve for another couple of hours.
Excerpt from newspaper article: “””The newly released information included the names of the four hikers who were with Patel, but not their ages and residences. It also included statements from a boyfriend and girlfriend, not named in the reports, who encountered the group just before the attack and sought to warn them about the bear.
“”“They reacted much the way I would have, ‘Oh, cool, I want to see it,’ ” the boyfriend told police.”””
Dave Chanda, in a letter written to West Milford’s Chief Storbeck, wrote: “the investigation did not disclose any sign of intimidation or provocation of the bear by either group of hikers.” But I highly disagree. Five men going in the woods looking for the bear, then taking pictures of it, would unnerve any black bear.
@Susan Kehoe
I still think Patel died from an asthma attack or he tripped and fell into the ravine and died from hitting his head. Then, the bear found a dead body to taste.