I was swatted by a bear last Thursday, but it was just another day at work. Now after an intro like that you are all probably hoping for some crazy graphic photo to back it up. Well I do not have one of my arm but I would like to share a tiny bit of in sight into my work and a few neat pics I took.
If you live anywhere in Utah, odds are you already heard about the bear that was "terrorizing" a neighborhood in Park City. The bear made his way into one man's garage before being chased out. He later came back and climbed through a window to get to his cookie jar inside. No joke, the only reported property damage was the man's cookie jar! Imagine the photo op he could have taken of a bear munching on his cookies, holding a cookie jar. Okay, okay, but in all seriousness the bear was again chased out. The Utah Division of Wildlife responded to the bear calls. A few of our biologists and specialists went out and set traps. After a couple weeks we were able to safely trap the bear with no injuries.
Here's where I come in! I had the opportunity to help process and release the bear. We tranquilized him while he was in the trap. After waiting a few minutes we opened the trap. He appeared to be out. What I mean by this is giving him a properly dosed medication per say to essentially make it possible to work on him. Similar to how hospitals "knock people out" before a big surgery. Although we do no such procedure, the only safe way to handle a bear is while they are tranquilized. Back to the story. We pull him out. By we I mean 4 people. He was only a yearling, so not very big, but we do our best to be as gentle as possible. As we lifted him to our table the bear partially became conscious. He lifted his head and adrenaline began pumping through my body. He pulled his front paw free from one of our employees. It swung and his paw scraped across my arm. As the first sentence says, I was swatted by a bear. Immediately following that the tranquilizer really set in. It left but a mere scratch because the bear wasnt fully aware. I can only imagine the true force he could have used. Ouch!
We drew blood,did a health assessment, gave him an ear tag and fitted him with a GPS collar. Once we were done processing him, we put him back in the trap and woke him up.
Now my favorite part! The release. We took him to a remote location, opened up the trap, and let him run free. It's such an exciting experience to watch such a beautiful animal get a second chance.
By second chance, I mean this bear, although in somebody's home, was not euthanized on site. Many bears in similar situations are euthanized because of the risk they pose to humans. This often times isn't the fault of the bears, it's a result of poor decisions by people.
We can reduce this problem by learning to live with bears! The biggest thing we can do is reduce and eliminate attractants. Do not leave food or garbage out around your camp or around your home if you live in an urban area. This seems like a pretty simple task that people fail to do time and time again... Once a bear finds and consumes human food, he will continue coming back to where he found it. Usually black bears are not aggressive and will try to avoid humans as much as possible. Once exposed to human food he can become very aggressive and he likely to be euthanized because he will continue coming back for more. Hence the need to relocate the Park City bear
So please, keep things such as food, garbage, deodorants, bird feeders, anything with fragrant odors securely put away if you're in black bear habitat so they won't be tempted.
As always, thanks for reading!
Wow. That's quite an interesting job you have. Hope its not very dangerous
@molokwu
Thank you! We are very cautious in our work to keep all of us safe.
Interesting job must keep you on your toes! Following for more adventures
It's definitely a lot of fun. Thank you!
I love these kinds of stories.
Im following you, please tell us more about the great work you're doing helping wildlife.
Thanks for sharing your story and advice. I am resteeming in the hope that more people will be aware of the reasons why we should not feed the wildlife.
Thabks for resharing! :) I am always tempted to feed wildlife, but I know I shouldn't! Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for reading the post! I am often tempted to feed animals too, but now knowing how it can endanger both humans and wildlife to feed them, I will save feeding animals to pets and petting zoos.
I agree. I use to live in Texas and they had a safari zoo where you could feed animals out of the car! really enjoyed that experience :) Zebras, emus, moose, etc would run up to say hi!
That's exactly what we need to get that animal-feeding energy expressed!
I know how tempting it is. When I was a child my grandparents use to take all the grandkids to feed the ducks at a nearby pond.. if only I would have known then how bad it was to feed ducks bread!
Oh man... I did that tooo :( I use to pick the ducks up too! I was a wild child! lol
Education is key. I'd like to think most have good intentions, they just don't know some of their actions are harmful... Ha! I was a wild child too.
Thanks for the resteem! I do my best to help inform others about topics related to wildlife. I care about wildlife , and I believe knowledge is such a powerful tool we can use to help protect it
You're doing a great job! Keep spreading the knowledge! 👍
Its nice that you think about the wild animals. They are like little babies - curious for the things around them and hungry. Its not there fault that they are in some people garden. I hope to have more people like you.
Awesome work
Thank you! It is an incredible job. I love it
Nice post on an important topic love the work you do. Hoping to read more about it and nature preservation in general
Also id like to nominate it in curation group im in
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Thank you. Hopefully I'm not too late, been out of service for a couple days, but I'd love to have my post shared in your group.
The next post is after you payout happend so it wont make it sorry about that
Ill keep an eye out for new posts from you really intrested in what else your doing for the wildlife
And can I just assume that your allright with me nominating future posts of you? In case I see another one I like
Yeah! Any time.
nice story! I grew up in a town in Alaska that bears are everywhere..... Dog food, everyone always screwed up and left their dog food on the porch. They are smart determined creatures and sometimes I think they are just looking for a good time.... like the time a bear drank a whole giant bottle of hand sanitizer. He must of had a hangover tho cause he did not come back!
Pet food really is so easy to forget and leave out. Oh I would love to visit Alaska and see the bears up there. That would be terrific...Aw man the handsanitizer was probably really rough on that bear, but hopefully the hangover I'm sure he had taught him a lesson.
Great story! Here in NC we have quite a few bears around. Unfortunately we are encroaching more and more on their territory. It's great that this one was able to return to the wild. Thanks for sharing!
Sadly, as the human population grows human-bear encounters will continue to increase. Hopefully we can reduce conflict by educating people on how to live with bears
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