Grizzlies thriving in Montana, study says

From the Associated Press:

Federal scientists have documented the largest population of grizzly bears in Montana, a sign that the threatened species could be at long last on the rebound.

Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey announced Tuesday that there are approximately 765 bears in northwestern Montana. Earlier estimates said there were at least 250-350 bears. The results stemmed from a $4.8-million, five-year study of the grizzly bears' DNA that has been criticized by Republican presidential candidate John McCain on the campaign trail as an example of pork barrel spending.

The study was backed by Montana ranchers, farmers and Republican leaders as a step toward easing restrictions in place since 1975 on oil and gas drilling, logging and other development.

Photo: Associated Press

Animals in the news: today's roundup

• Remember the great white shark that the Monterey Bay Aquarium released after 11 days because it wouldn't eat? She had to be freed again, this time after getting caught in a fishing net.
• A Glendora family came home last night to find a bear playing with a soccer ball in their front yard.
• An Australian animal rights group has launched a national search for a young man who was featured violently beating a kangaroo in an online video.
• A Texas software executive is in court for allegedly allowing hunters to kill 32 of his neighbor's bison because they roamed onto his Fairplay, Colo., ranch.
• Zoologists have captured a photo of a wild okapi, a relative of the giraffe with zebra-like stripes on its legs and rear. Scientist say the photographs are evidence that the creature, well known to zoo visitors, has survived in the wild in its native Democratic Republic of the Congo despite poaching and civil war.

-- Tony Barboza

Photos: Monterey Bay Aquarium; Associated Press/The Zoological Society of London

Bear--seeking munchies?--breaks up marijuana farm

So maybe this is why he's called Smokey the Bear. As the Rocky Mountain News reports, a bear has raided a marijuana farm in Utah:

      On Tuesday, Garfield County Sheriff Danny Perkins, sheriff's deputies and U.S. Forest Service personnel discovered a marijuana plot on the east side of Durfey Creek on Boulder Mountain. But what makes this plantation different is that it had been initially raided by a giant bear.

      Deputies found pipes chewed in half, food containers ripped apart and strewn everywhere, cans with bear teeth marks all over them, claw marks and bear prints across the camp, including giant bear claw scratches where people typically carve their names into a tree.

The story unleashed a flurry of ursine-inspired observations on a Rocky Mountain News comment board. A sampling:

     "That wasn't a bear. It was the ghost of Jerry Garcia."

     "I'm pretty sure the bear wants a Klondike Bar now."

     "Bear found in local 7-11. Bloodshot eyes and twinky filling all over his face. Could it be him?"

     "He was selling to his friends. Look for a bear living well above his means."

     "Tokey the Bear"

-- Steve Padilla

An unbearable problem

Bears who got accustomed to handouts are increasingly breaking into homes in parts of California, Ann M. Simmons reports in today's Times:

In the secluded Kern County enclave of Pine Mountain Club, Susie Kramer used to toss table scraps off the deck. For years, deer, raccoons, foxes and a coyote she nicknamed Wiley feasted on the garbage buffet.

"I thought I was doing the right thing," said Kramer, who moved to Pine Mountain Club with her husband, Brad, from Santa Clarita eight years ago.

Then the bears showed up. And they wouldn't go away.

Kramer no longer chucks her trash. But some people here, knowingly or unwittingly, have been feeding the bears.

This year the mountain community has experienced a surge of "break-ins" -- black bears barging into houses or going through open doors. Up in the Lake Tahoe area, the Bear League, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting bears, reports that it gets between five and 20 calls a day about bears entering homes.

Experts say the increased activity has partly been caused by wildfires that have ravaged bear habitat. But also to blame are humans, who have helped raise generations of trash-addicted bears. In response, wildlife advocates are stepping up efforts to educate people about how to coexist with bears.

Read the full story.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Pine Mountain Club resident April Wilburn

'Grizzly Man Diaries' airs tonight

Animal Planet airs its "The Grizzly Man Diaries" tonight at 9 and 9:30 p.m. The Times' Mary McNamara takes a look at a man who broke the bounds for society:

It isn't often you can say that a show on Animal Planet follows a great literary tradition, but "The Grizzly Man Diaries," which follows the adventures of Timothy Treadwell, echoes voices as disparate as Thoreau, Yeats and even Sam Gribley of "My Side of the Mountain." The desire to forsake the drudgery and pressures of civilization for the noble simplicity of the natural world has always tempted and tormented certain people.

But unlike Yeats, who never did arise and go to Innisfree, Treadwell did actually break the bounds of society and for 13 summers lived virtually alone among the grizzlies in Alaska's Katmai National Park -- that is, until he and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were killed in 2003 by a grizzly attack.

Treadwell's death got a lot of attention, partly because he had been a vocal, self-pronounced protector of the bears (despite the fact that the land he camped on was a federal reserve) and partly because his final minutes were recorded on the audio portion of a videotape. Although, mercifully, the tape was never released publicly -- it cannot be found on YouTube, thank heavens -- the sheer awfulness of its existence provided such a coda to Treadwell's life that many who never heard of him suddenly began praising or condemning his actions....

Filmmaker Werner Herzog was moved to document Treadwell's life; his award-winning documentary "Grizzly Man" portrayed a self-aggrandizing, troubled man who, unable to find a place for himself in society, created an alternative existence for himself among the bears.

While "Grizzly Man" is a conscious attempt by Herzog to unravel Treadwell's psyche, "The Grizzly Man Diaries" simply presents excerpts of the 100 hours of videotape Treadwell shot of the bears and himself during his 13 summers in Alaska. The footage is oftentimes astonishing, the bears ferociously beautiful, but still the show is less a treatise on grizzly habit than it is an exploration of a man trying to find a solid center for himself.

Photo: Timothy Treadwell

Dead bear's gallbladder removed in possible Tahoe poaching case

State wildlife officials are investigating a possible poaching case in which someone removed the gallbladder of a black bear -- which can sell for thousands of dollars in Asia -- after the animal was struck and killed this week by a car in the Lake Tahoe area. The Times' Jia-Rui Chong reports:

The animal was found with its groin area shaved and gallbladder missing early Tuesday, less than 10 hours after a motorist reported striking the bear and California Highway Patrol officers moved it off the roadway. A surgical glove was discovered next to the bear's mutilated carcass.

"It appears that someone knew what they were doing," said Capt. Mark Lucero of the Department of Fish and Game's Northern Enforcement District.

It is illegal to take parts of dead wildlife left on the side of the road, Lucero said.

"A second violation would be if the gall was marketed on the black market," he added.

The penalty for trafficking in bear parts, a felony, is a $10,000 fine and a minimum six months to one year in prison.

The discovery of the missing organ was at least the third instance since May involving bear parts in the state, Chong reports.

On July 28, Fish and Game officials found a bear paw with some claws removed in an illegal marijuana grove in Tulare County. In May, a bag of severed black bear paws turned up on the doorstep of a home in Riverside.

Officials were not sure if they were intended to be sold, eaten or kept as trophies. An investigation determined the bears had been hunted legally, and there was no proof that anyone had tried to sell the parts.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: BEAR League

Starving Kamchatka brown bears eat two men, leave Russians in fear

Hundreds of terrified workers at an isolated mining compound in Russia are refusing to return to work after a pack of hungry bears killed and ate two guards.

A pack of up to 30 Kamchatka brown bears has been prowling the area around two mines in Russia's Pacific Kamchatka region, searching for food. Now, a team of snipers is being dispatched to hunt the bears after receiving authorization from the government.

"These predators have to be destroyed," Village leader Viktor Leushkin told the ITAR-Tass news agency. "Once they kill a human, they will do it again and again."

But experts told the (London) Times that a "mass slaugher is unnecessary" and that they could instead focus on the few bears that killed the workers and try to frighten the rest of the group back to forest areas.

Kamchatka brown bears, similar to grizzlies, can stand 10 feet tall on their hind legs and weigh up to 1,500 pounds. Bears are revered and honored in Russian culture -- the equivalent of bald eagles in the United States -- an irony that has made the attacks even more disturbing.

The bears usually feed on salmon, but environmentalists say widespread fish poaching in the scarcely populated region, home to 16,000 bears, has forced them closer to human settlements to root through garbage and, at times, attack humans.

--Tony Barboza

Photo: Vitaly Nikolayenko/For The Times

Bear attacks woman near Bakersfield

A bear attacked and seriously injured a woman hiking in the Walker basin area east of Bakersfield today, the Times' Andrew Blankstein reports.

The woman suffered facial lacerations and was being airlifted to a medical center. Her condition was not immediately available, said Kern County Sheriff's Department deputy Michael Whors.

State Fish and Game wardens and county animal control officers were dispatched to the area, known as a hiking spot, to find the bear.

The area was hit by a major wildfire earlier this month, burning 30,000 acres.

Grizzly attacks teen bike rider

A teenage girl riding in an all-night bicycle race in Alaska suffered severe wounds early Sunday morning when a grizzly bear attacked her on a trail in Far North Bicentennial Park, authorities said. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Police officers with shotguns escorted medics into dark woods to retrieve the girl, who was to undergo surgery at Providence Alaska Medical Center. The hospital reported she was still in surgery at 6:30 a.m. Sunday. "She was cut up and bit pretty good," said Anchorage Police Officer Jean Mills. Police declined to identify the victim. ..

Police were called at 1:35 a.m. after another bicyclist found the mauled girl down and dazed on the ground. She was among about 60 participants in a 24-hour race sponsored by the Arctic Bicycle Club. The team event began at noon Saturday and was to end at noon Sunday. Organizers canceled it after the attack and were trying to account for all the other riders.

Most likely the grizzly, which has a pair of cubs, was fishing for salmon in the creek and might not have heard the cyclist coming due to stream noise and strong winds roaring through the forest, he said.

A spokesman said this afternoon that the girl was expected to survive.

At least it's not like a heat wave in Woodland Hills

A Himalayan black bear named Dyno cools off from the heat today in the Sofia (Bulgaria) city zoo.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Valentina Petrova/Associated Press

Big black bear pawing around Twentynine Palms

Who says the Southern California desert heat is un-bear-able?

It was 108 degrees in Twentynine Palms on Tuesday and likely will reach 106 today. But that hasn't slowed down a big black bear that has been roaming the high desert town of Twentynine Palms, the Associated Press reports:

San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Philip Bushline said the bear weighs as much as 400 pounds. While keeping tabs on it Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, deputies say it crisscrossed State Route 62 several times. It was last seen near the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center.

Deputies still have no idea where the bear came from. Animal control officers have been notified.

The animal has not been aggressive, but residents should keep their distance and call deputies if they see it, officials said.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

They're cute until they become teenagers

Just in time for the weekend, photos of some baby animals (and, in some cases, their parents) have been assembled into a gallery. Here's a preview:

These black bear cubs are playing in a zoological park in India....

...while a male trumpeter swan tends to his newly hatched offspring at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Bear photo: EPA

Swan photo: Greg Neise/AFP/Getty Images

State investigating severed bear paws in Riverside

State wildlife investigators want to know whether a legitimate hunter or a poacher dealing in illegal animal parts left a pair of severed black bear paws in front of a Riverside home recently, The Times' David Kelly reports.

The paws, which were in a plastic bag, appeared on the doorstep of a home on Clifton Boulevard on May 4. But who dropped them off is a mystery, Kelly reports:

"The hunter was a friend of a friend of a friend who nobody seems to know," said Riverside police spokesman Steven Frasher. "We don't know if the paws were discarded or what. The homeowner threw them out, but then a neighbor called the police.

"There is speculation that this was a trophy, but leaving meat products on the doorstep in Southern California is not a good preservation strategy."

The paws were put into storage, and the case was turned over to the California Department of Fish and Game. The Humane Society of the United States has offered a $2,500 reward for the arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible if, in fact, they were poachers.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Polar bear ruling may send tourists to Canadian town

The Bush administration's decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act likely means more tourists will flock to a tiny Canadian town on Hudson Bay where bears are the star attraction every fall. Read all about the polar bears on the home page of the L.A. Times travel section.

Photo:Subhankar Banerjee/Associated Press

Severed bear paws found in Riverside

Officials want to know how a pair of severed bear paws wound up in a Riverside neighborhood last weekend, the Press-Enterprise reports:

Police were called Saturday afternoon to a home off Clifton Boulevard, north of the Riverside Municipal Airport, where residents found the paws wrapped in a bag, according to a Riverside police report.

Bear poaching, in which bears are usually killed and sold for parts, is a statewide problem, officials said. Bears are sought for their paws and gallbladder, which are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine, said Patrick Foy, a California game warden. The parts are often used in healing potions or as an aphrodisiac.

While hunting of California black bears is legal with a valid hunting license and bear tag, any sale of bear meat or bear parts for profit is considered a felony.

The state Department of Fish and Game is investigating.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta