Kris,

We frequently have bear in our yard. This area is loaded with them. I think we must be near a travel path for them. We have had big males, momma's with newborns, momma's with yearlings. During the spring, we have to scout out the yard everytime we let the dogs out. Three years ago there was a big male that would sleep in a bed of tiger lillies in our yard. They are actually pretty easy to scare away, thank God.

Life in the country!!

Lynn K

nm

part of the problem is the BUILDING all over the place..the bear as well as the deer are being displaced

Police kill bear that hit boy, 2

Frightened Sparta mom says 'swat' seemed more curiosity than anger


Wednesday, May 21, 2003


BY JIM LOCKWOOD AND BRIAN MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff

A 2-year-old boy escaped with a bump on the head yesterday after a 150-pound female black bear swatted him with its paw as the youngster sat on the front stoop of his home in Sparta, authorities said.

Sparta police responded quickly to the Deerfield Road home at 1:19 p.m. and killed the bear with three shots from a 12-gauge rifle.


The toddler, Mark Tregidgo, didn't require medical assistance. His mother, still visibly shaken 90 minutes after the incident, said the bear didn't seem to hit the boy out of anger, but she was still thankful that police responded so quickly.

"Thank God the police came when they did, because it (the bear) was coming back," said Amy Tregidgo.

Yesterday's encounter was only the third contact between a bear and a human in New Jersey in the past three years, said Pat Carr, a wildlife biologist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.

When bears do come within 10 feet of humans -- not to mention batting someone with a paw, which is considered an attack -- under the state's bear management policies it can be killed, authorities said.

The encounter occurred a short time after Amy Tregidgo and her son came inside after cleaning a gas barbecue grill near the front stoop. Tregidgo said that when she went to the bathroom, her son unlatched the front screen door, went back outside and sat on the front step.

Tregidgo said she was in an enclosed front porch when she saw the bear walk up to her son and swat his head with a front paw, knocking the blond, 35-pound boy onto his side.

It didn't seem to be an angry attack, but more of a swat made out of curiosity or playfulness, she said. "It hit him as if it was saying, 'What are you?' Tregidgo said.

Both mother and son started screaming. The family dog, which was tied up on the side of the house, came running and barking, she said.

"My son screamed, 'Bear hit me, bear hit me,' Tregidgo said, noting that she also yelled at the bear to get away as she frantically scooped up her son and moved inside the enclosed porch.

The bear ran about 15 yards to the side of the yard, where it stopped, then came back toward the house, Tregidgo said. By that time, she had called police, who were arriving at the house.

Sgt. Joseph Schetting, Cpl. Lou Takacs and Patrolman Terrance Mulligan, who had been trained by the state to euthanize problem bears, were in the area and arrived quickly, authorities said. Schetting followed the bear a short distance to a spot where he could safely shoot it.

Lynn Rogers of Minnesota, who heads the North American Bear Center of Wildlife Research Institute, said the mother's description of the bear exhibiting a curious type of behavior is consistent with his 30 years of bear behavioral studies.

However, when asked whether the child was in any danger, Rogers said it is difficult to assess. Noting an incident last year in which a 4-month-old New York girl was pulled from her stroller and killed by a male bear, Rogers said attacks by black bears are extremely rare. The fatal attack in Fallsburg, N.Y., was only the second to occur in the eastern United States in 100 years, officials have said.

"You never can say never. But I've been in so many situations where bears had slapped me and never followed up with any attack. Chances are slim," he explained.

New Jersey officials had previously tagged the black bear and fitted it with a radio collar for tracking and study purposes, but it had not been considered a "problem bear" before this incident, Carr said.

The bear had a den nearby at Ryker Lake and had a yearling cub in the winter, which by now is probably 18 months old and off on its own.

Previously, the bear also had been caught and tagged at the site of a rabbit attack, but it wasn't the bear that did the attacking, according to an official from the Department of Environmental Protection.

There have been two other encounters between bears and humans in New Jersey over the past three years: A hiker eating trail mix in Stokes State Forest in Sussex County was knocked down last year by a bear that wanted the food, and in 2001, at Worthington State Forest in Warren County, a boy was scratched on his shoulder by a bear that had been enticed with a bagel thrown by the boy's father, who was then prosecuted for bear feeding.

The incident in Sparta comes two days before the state Fish and Game Council, an autonomous 11-member agency, will hold a public hearing in Trenton on its plan to hold a restricted bear hunt for the first time in more than 30 years.

The council sets policies on what creatures can be hunted or fished, based on recommendations from state biologists from the Division of Fish and Wildlife, an arm of the DEP. The Fish and Game Council will vote by fall on whether to approve the hunt.

State biologists estimate that as many as 3,200 black bears may be roaming the northwest section of the state. Sportsmen would be permitted to use only slug guns and muzzleloaders during a one-week hunt in December, when most female bears and cubs are already hibernating for the winter.

However, opponents of the hunt, particularly animal rights organizations, contend that the population could be as low as 1,350 bears. They also insist that educating the public on how to live with bears is a better long-term solution.

all the woods down to build those unsightly mcmansions??? I have a visitor bear in the yard all the time as we have berrie bushes...Darla has not seen her but I think Darla knows when she is there. Did you read about the one that was killed in sparta as it smacked a toddler sitting on the porch..WHERE WAS MOMMY??

the bear is also one of my journey totems...
guess I'll have to move closer...smile..what a gift to see up close...smile...ce

This was in sussex county NJ! Its not really that rural anymore. This road had lots of traffic!!!! Poor things have no place to go....

Kris

nm

That would be really cool and a little scary at the same time!!


David, Holly, Dozer and Angel

i'm glad you and the bear are both ok though... what a shocker that must have been!

- Cristina (& Leeloo)
"the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."