Bowsite.com

http://www.wfsb.com/story/29910938/burlington-trails-closed- after-bear-approaches-hiker

That Bear was captured at the fence at Bradley Airport.

LOL, how many people would have let "a bear's mouth make contact with their leg", and not taken some other action? When they show curiosity And no fear of humans, that's a problem. Dead bear walking, I'm afraid.

can't read it. Piece of C website wants me to register to read it. Can you copy and paste?

An appropriate reaction by a large predator is Flight. "Curiosity" (which is probably an accurate description), is entirely inappropriate. If hazing has been tried, and it failed, there isn't any other choice. You can't even relocate it to a less populated area because it has already shown a willingness to seek out and interact with hikers.

When is it OK to let the people with experience in these matters make the decision? A petition to "Spare the Bear" has thousands of signatures, that's ridiculous. This bear is an attack waiting to happen.

HARTFORD — Despite a wave of protests, state wildlife experts Monday were still hunting a "bold and aggressive" black bear they plan to kill in response to a potentially dangerous encounter the animal had with a hiker in Burlington.

The decision to euthanize the 150-pound male bear has angered many animal lovers, but state officials said they have no other option given this particular bear's history of aggressive behavior. The bear has already been tranquilized and relocated once, and its record includes possibly breaking into a house and attempting to follow a woman into a building in Windsor, according to wildlife officials.

The latest incident occurred Friday at Sessions Woods Wildlife Management area in Burlington. State officials have closed the trails at the 700-acre state property and are urging the public to stay away until the bear is found and euthanized.

The hiker involved in Friday's encounter, Stephanie Rivkin, video recorded her encounter with the bear. News reports of the incident and the posting of the video on the Internet has triggered a wave of protests and even angry social media messages and threats to Rivkin.

"They've called me every name in the book," Rivkin said Monday, "even that they want to see me euthanized." Rivkin said she asked state wildlife officials not to kill the bear when she first reported the encounter.

Rivkin, 38, said she realizes now that she did a lot of things wrong when she encountered two bears, including the one that came near her. State officials do not plan to euthanize the other bear. Rivkin said she has been walking in Sessions Woods nearly her whole life without seeing a bear there and didn't know what she should have done when she ran into them Friday.

"I'm just hoping this will be a big lesson for everybody," she said.

State experts recommend people encountering black bears to shout or scream, wave their arms to appear larger, and to back away slowly from the animal. Don't try to escape by climbing a tree, because black bears are excellent climbers, experts warn. Most-Read Stories This Hour Most-Read Stories This Hour

Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said his agency has received about 100 emails and telephone calls protesting the decision to euthanize the bear. There are also online petitions circulating urging that the bear be saved.

"This is not a decision made lightly," Schain said in a prepared statement. DEEP experts routinely tranquilize and relocate bears that get into urban and suburban areas where they or humans could be at risk, he said.

"There are occasions, like this one, however, when stronger action must be taken to protect the safety of the public," Schain said. "Imagine the public outcry that would develop if no effort was made to locate and euthanize this bear and in another future encounter it actually harms someone."

Rivkin's video shows the two bears along the Sessions Woods trail. One of the bears has red DEEP tags in both ears, and repeatedly circles, approaches Rivkin and then retreats, while the second bear keeps its distance. At one point, the tagged bear touched his mouth to Rivkin's leg, but never actually bit her.

Schain said the agency's wildlife experts had "serious concerns" after viewing the video. "Our experts said that, by following the woman for an extended period of time, circling her, and even putting its mouth on her calf, the bear was engaged in ... bold and aggressive behavior."

DEEP wildlife officials said other actions the bear demonstrated, "such as pursuing the woman whenever she turned her back, stomping, posturing, and jaw popping," were characteristic of a bear "that is tracking and testing potential prey."

"To the untrained eye, the bear's interactions with the woman may look fairly innocent and almost playful, but it is clear they were not," Schain said.

The bear, which officials said is about one-and-a-half years old, was initially tagged by DEEP experts in its winter den.

In June, it was found along the Bradley International Airport perimeter fence, tranquilized and then released in Enders State Forest in Granby. Later in June, the same animal tried to follow a woman into a commercial building in Windsor. In July, the tagged bear was identified by a homeowner in Granby, who said the animal was "pounding on the door with its front paws."

Jason Hawley, a DEEP wildlife biologist, said agency officials captured the bear near the Granby house and subjected it to "adverse conditioning" by hitting it with pepper spray and shooting non-lethal bean bags at it. He said the goal in such cases is to "make it as painful as possible without actually injuring the bear" to convince it never to go back to that location again. Hawley said DEEP officials then released the bear, and only found out later that it had also apparently broken into a Granby residence.

The state and researchers from UConn are now conducting a survey to get an accurate count of this state's growing black bear population. Some experts estimate there may be more than 700 bears in Connecticut, and there are now sightings all over the state.

I will take the chance of being caught, I have had too many encounters with Bears in NW corner walking in the woods.

I spooked a Bear this past weekend when checking trail cameras. They were laying under the apple tree.. probably drunk and napping. (the Bear not me)

The bear that exhibited bold and aggressive behavior toward a hiker at Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area, Burlington, last Friday was euthanized today.

The male bear was shot and killed on the grounds of Sessions Woods at around 1:45 p.m. The bear was taken in the same area where it interacted with the hiker last week. It was also again accompanied by a second, larger bear – which is unusual.

A positive identification was made from the number on red ear tags – 065 – which had been placed on the bear when DEEP had previous contact with it and which were visible on video footage taken by the hiker last week.

DEEP Wildlife Division staff setting traps at Sessions Woods this afternoon were alerted to the presence of two bears nearby. They were able to locate the bears and dispatch the one matching the description of the animal that had been encountered by the hiker. The second bear remained at a distance.

This male bear had a history of aggressive behavior toward humans. It was captured, tranquilized and relocated from the perimeter fence at Bradley International Airport in June of this year. Later that month, it attempted to follow a woman into a building in Windsor. In July, it was suspected of entering a home in Granby.

In the course of the search for the bear involved in Friday’s incident, a second bear was euthanized at Sessions Woods shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday. That took place after DEEP staff responded to reports of a bear in the area where the encounter with the hiker took place and matching its description. This female bear also had two red ear tags and was travelling with a larger bear. It was about the same size as the male bear being sought and exhibited similar aggressive behavior. It charged one of the two DEEP Wildlife Division staff people that were on the scene, The numbers on that bear’s ear tags were 035. It had been tagged this winter in the Bristol area during DEEP research at bear dens.

Necropsies will be conducted on both bears to determine their condition to see if any abnormalities could have contributed to their unusual aggressive behavior.

DEEP took action to euthanize bear involved in Friday’s incident because of the threat it presented to public safety. Given the incident on Friday and the previous behavior of the bear there was serious concern that it could have injured a person in any future encounter.

Due to ongoing levels of unusually high bear activity in the area, the trails at Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area will remain closed until further notice.

Thanks for the update ace.

What happened was: they are setting bear traps. They see a smaller bear running with a bigger bear. Smaller bear has two red ear tags. Number in the tag is 35. "Bear charged them and got shot".

IMHO, they shot it by mistake. I have no prove and frankly, I don't care. I would've probably shot it myself because he fitted the description of the aggressive bear and anybody could make that mistake easily so I don't blame the DEEP if that's what happened.

Did they cover it up if that's what happened? I don't care either. Stupid animal rights people will get all over their face for this and I'll take DEEP officers over animal rights people any day of the week.

NOW,

I saw the video of the of aggressive bear with the hiker. I think the hiker should've been euthanized for stupidity. The bear was doing what bears do. The lady got really close to get the bears in her video for her status update in facebook page for the world to see because every one in the world wants to know what she is up to. Her stupidity got two bears killed.

Now, get me my bear season.

Any bear messing with people should be killed right now. And I support their efforts to do just that. It just adds fuel to the fire that the bear population is growing and human encounters are going to be more frequent.

"Crow" you make a very valid point about the lady filming the bears for a facebook or social media post. Very good point indeed.

There are numerous DEEP Employees who work right there on sight. No problem finding bears who are wandering around and not running from people.

I think you are giving game wardens a little to much credit for advanced woodsmanship skills.

These folks aren't Jeremiah Johnson, they are cops.

I've had lots of run ins with them and it does make you feel very small and insignificant..

They did the right thing. Now they should look for the bear and destroy it.

Another step closer to a bear season. It will happen.

Sooner or later that nice fuzzy black bear is going to start killing someone's dog or cat....or attack the lady in her garden or kids on the playscape. Then what?? You kill it.

Let's not be reactive here....let's be proactive. Take care of the problem in the best way possible for humans.

The state will have no choice but to effectively manage the bears by controlled hunting in the future.

For those that want other methods for handling these bears....I wonder if they are the same guys killing all the does and fawns too. Kinda seems silly to me that the perceived over abundance of bears wouldn't have the support of the hunting community to do what they need to in order to handle the issue.

So, yes, I'm in favor of growing our deer herd.