Oklahoma man dies from bear mauling in Alaska

This is a sad article but it is a good reminder to always be aware. One of the workers said,
“Bears are frequent visitors to properties and worksites,” Satre said. “We’ve worked around them for decades, but there’s never been an encounter that’s resulted in an injury.”

Bears, especially Mama Bears are unpredictable.

Greens Creek contracted employee dead after bear mauling
Greens Creek contracted employee dead after bear mauling | Juneau Empire
A contracted employee of Greens Creek Mine is dead after being mauled by a brown bear near the mine Monday, according to a statement from the mine.

Greens Creek identified the victim as 18-year-old Anthony David Montoya of Hollis, Oklahoma in a statement Monday afternoon. Montoya was an employee of Timberline Drilling, a company based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho that provides core drilling services for the surface exploration program at Greens Creek.

At about 8:44 a.m. Monday, Troopers received the report of a mauling near the mine on Admiralty Island, according to an Alaska State Troopers dispatch. The dispatch was updated later in the day to say that when Troopers arrived on scene, they learned that a sow and two cubs had mauled Montoya and the three bears were killed prior to Troopers arriving.

Mike Satre, the manager of government and community relations for the mine, said in a phone interview that this is the first bear-related injury since the mine opened in 1989.
Follow link for the rest of the story: Greens Creek contracted employee dead after bear mauling | Juneau Empire

** will be moved to headlines tomorrow.

 

That's sad for the victim and the Bears .

 

So they killed the moma and cubs , why didn't they use bear spray I thought that stuff turned them into good bears ??
I am truly saddened the loss of the boy, but preventive measures might have been taken ,and may be they were but had gotten lulled by apathy . 18 year olds are not known for taking warnings seriously.
This is why, though I may never fire a round, I don't go in the woods unarmed.

 

Wonder if he was taunting it, or attempted to approach one of the cubs. An 18 year old would be tempted to do such an unwise thing. The mine hadn't had any incidents since it opened in 1989, despite the fact that there were plenty of humans working in the proximity of bears.

 

I agree that the company probably had minimal training on encountering wildlife. The quote I posted with the guy saying they normally saw bears on the worksite and worked around them. To me that says the workers may have had a relaxed attitude regarding the dangers.

Just a sad story.

 

Once you step out side your front door, YOU are not the Apex predator in this world! As man continues to expand his reach into the wild places, this kind of thing will continue to be the result, and it's Man's fault every time! The natural order of all the wild things will always win, and man isn't even on the list!

 

This will be the 3rd or 4th bear mauling I've heard of in the past couple of weeks.

 

bear spray is not a sure bet for deterring bear.

A 12GA shotgun loaded with 00 buck, on the other hand, has proven to be very good at deterring bears - brown or black.

I don't bother with the spray, and I don't mind humping the weight of a pump shotty. YNNV

 

Is that the place where you shoot a deer and if you don't hurry and get out of there the bear gets the deer?

 

...

 

So, an 18 years old young man, obviously ignorant, not realizing he should approach a bear, much less a mama bear with cubs, does so, gets his ignorant ass mauled to death, and all three bears have to pay for acting as nature intended?

If bears are overly populated in that area, there should be a hunt scheduled to thin the numbers of adult bears in the area.

I'm no animal rights activist, but the employee and the company should be held responsible for this, not the bears.

F*cking stupidity at its best.

 

The bears are killed because they have a taste for human flesh now, which stands a good chance of repeat kills since humans are now on the menu as a prey species. They do the same with lions and other predators.

 

Several years ago, as black bear numbers spiked and they were becoming a serious problem, the state held a bear hunt. First one in ages, as the bears are on the protected list. Only a few hunters qualified and got licenses to hunt. There was a limit on how many bears could be taken. That limit was reached quickly, and the bear hunt ended early.
The usual fuzzy-feel good animal rightists screamed and pitched a fit. All those poor teddy bears butchered by evil hunters! So, we haven't had a bear hunt since. They are still causing trouble.

 

Send some Millennials there on a camping excursion. Kill two birds with one stone. Fill the bear's appetites, and stop the thinning of the gene pool.

 

The article is not clear if the boy approached the bear. But BT says that place is full of bears so IMO it was just a matter of time before this happened. Sadly the human and the bears lost their lives. But that is nature.

 

True. However, I can't see the bears pursuing him, if he were far enough away to start, and was possibly attempting to leave the area. But, unless someone witnessed it, we may never know the truth.