was it right or wrong to kill this bear?

[WitchofScots]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33942095

A nurse who worked at Yellowstone National Park went hiking alone and without bear spray. He was attacked by a female grizzly bear and killed. The bear partially ate him, as did her two cubs. The bear has been killed and the cubs are being put into a zoo because it is park policy to kill bears who kill people.

Is it right or wrong?

nooka is right. Once a bear associates people with food they are extremely dangerous. If you relocate them, they will find their way back to the 'food source' even traveling miles and miles to do so.

The bear in this case actually 'cached' the remains, indicating that she equated humans with food. Very unusual, but meant that the bear would continue to attack and kill humans. Such a bear must be destroyed.

This bear was not killed as 'punishment' for eating a human. It was killed to prevent it from further hunting and killing humans.

I live in the US where there are plenty of bears, cougars, and wolves.

There's two problems with keeping a bear like this alive:

1. Humans are ridiculously easy prey if it is just us vs. an animal with feral instincts and sharp teeth. The only thing we really have going for us physically is that we have terrifying endurance that has allowed us to stalk our prey to death and evolve to the top of the food chain as we are today.

1. Once a bear has figured out that humans are easy food, they're going to do what any animal has done and take the lazy way to survive. Even humans do this, if given a choice all of us would rather drive to the grocery store for dinner than to go out and hunt an actual deer for two weeks living on root and berries in the mean time.

Unfortunately how well he knew the risks are irrelevant (and personally I've been to Yellowstone, it's not like there's bears just wandering all over the visitor center). It doesn't matter if he threw a rock at the bear first and she ate him. You cannot have a bear running loose in a park full of children, elderly, and otherwise unarmed people picking them off as food.

Frankly, we should just be thankful they kept the cubs alive instead of euthanizing them as well. They (for the above reasons) could never be raised on a preserve and let back into the wild either, nor can they ever be around humans for any reason other than a zoo.

That's why people around camp grounds here are so super strict about leaving your trash out or littering of any kind. Once you attract a bear to your trash, and they decide it's a good source of food you've basically sentenced it to death.

Yep it was the right thing to do. And frankly bear spray isn't really that useful, the grizzly would still kill and eat you. They are huge bears, frankly if you had a gun with you you would be lucky to make it out alive

I don't understand the notion that it's the man's fault so the bear should live. Presumably the bear was considered dangerous and to be likely to attack again (or have a taste for humans as it were) and was killed for that reason

Although I'm now quite fascinated by bears

I saw a beautiful black bear eating berries by the side of the road the other day, he was jumping around, he looked pretty happy

Bears are fascinating, aren't they? Yellowstone is one of my favourite places on earth and we've spent hours with a spotting scope observing them from a safe distance.

Have you heard the one about how you can tell black bear scat from grizzly? Black bear scat has bits of seeds & nuts and smells of berries. Grizzly scat has little bells and smells like hot pepper.

Lol. We were told by our new friends and neighbours when we moved to Canada that we should always travel in a group in bear country so that at least one other person would run slower than us!

Ha! That's true, DH always teases me that he can run faster than I can.

Seriously, it's all about respect, isn't it? I respect the bear's space and they'll respect mine!

DH had a friend who in the back country and was stupid enough to sleep with food in his tent instead of hanging it or having a bear canister. Woke up with a black bear ripping a hole in his tent. He (friend) ran like a gazelle in the middle of the night clad only in thermals and a jacket. Luckily Mr/Ms Bear was more interested in his food. When he reported to the ranger station, they told him he damned well was going to go back to the campsite (about 3 miles in) and pick up every single scrap of his gear and any garbage because if they had to do it, he'd face a huge fine and a campsite that had bars on it!!! They are dead serious about being 'bear safe'!!

I live in Canada and here is the drill we were taught tin school regarding bears:
Polar bear: v dangerous, always carry a gun if you are likely to meet them. You are considered prey.

Blackbear & Grizzly: Make noises while trekking so they can hear you and avoid you, if you meet them back slowly and don't look them in the eye. The real danger comes if you are standing between a bear and it's cubs, it will attack to protect them. We are not considered food. No food in tents (as stated above).

I have friends that go regulary camping in grizzly territory and their only fear is having the right bear canister (bear learn fast how to open them, new designs must be made regularly).
A man eating bear is not natural and can't be left in the wild.