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Sunday, July 06, 2003

By The Associated Press

She was foraging for an early-morning snack, something to satisfy her hulking 230-pound frame, when she came upon the perfect target: a Boy Scout campground.

A female black bear enjoyed a brief romp early June 27 at Wayne County's Goose Pond Boy Scout Reservation, where scouts were sleeping during summer camp. The bear thwacked one boy behind the ear, investigated an empty cooler and feasted on the contents of a footlocker before disappearing into the woods.

The 12-year-old boy who was walloped received 17 stitches in his ear and rejoined members of his troop at the camp later that day. The 14-year-old bear was less lucky. She was tracked down and killed by Pennsylvania Game Commission officials, having "crossed the line" in attacking the boy, authorities said.

Welcome to summertime in Pennsylvania.

With bears awake from hibernation, and droves of people taking advantage of the state's campgrounds and resort areas, the likelihood of encountering bears in Pennsylvania has increased as expected. The attack last week, though minor, has state officials again urging campers and other outdoor buffs to be smart when coming face-to-face with the massive creatures.

"Just running across a bear in the wilderness under normal situations is not a problem," said Tim Conway, the information and education supervisor for the Game Commission's northeast region office. "The problems occur when people do stupid things."

Those "stupid things," he said, include leaving food uncovered or in containers that emit odors, deliberately feeding bears or simply attempting to get near them.

"We do not want people humanizing or habituating bears to the point where they become unafraid of people," Conway said.

There have been between a dozen and 15 bear attacks over the last 25 years or so in Pennsylvania, according to Game Commission statistics. None was fatal. Meanwhile, the number of bears across the state has increased steadily, from 10,000 to 15,000, over the past five years.

Authorities have responded to several bear sightings this week alone.

The same week, the Game Commission tranquilized a 284-pound male black bear found on a Lancaster County farm. And a day later, a 100-pound-bear was removed without incident from a tree in northern Blair County.

Brenda Cope, co-owner of Pioneer Campground in Laporte, Sullivan County, said black bears had occasionally gone "in and out" of her camp's 112 wooded acres, but had never posed a problem.

"What do you do? I don't know what you can do," Cope said. "If it became a problem, we would call the game warden."

Game Commission officials reported that the bear that injured the Boy Scout visited Goose Pond often. They said she entered the tent while the scout was sleeping and became startled when he rolled over, and that candy and food wrappers were strewn about the area.

But Tony Rogers, the scout executive of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Council, said the bear entered the camp after being tempted by the smell of cookies inside a footlocker.

The scout then awoke and confronted the bear outside the tent, he said.

"He startled her, she startled him. It's kind of a mutual, 'Oh, wow, look at this' kind of thing. When she was startled, she kind of pushed him out of the way," Rogers said.

The Game Commission tracked Louise, who had previously been fitted with a collar, through radio-telemetry equipment.

They tried unsuccessfully to tranquilize her before finally using a 12-gauge shotgun to put her down.

"Bears need not be feared, but they should not be dismissed as harmless," Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said. "They simply need to be respected and left to be wild."