Boy killed by bear near Timpanogos Cave

[Wayne Harrison]

AMERICAN FORK, Utah -- An 11-year-old boy was attacked and killed by a black bear as he slept in a tent with his family Sunday night, police said.

The family was camping near a campground up American Fork Canyon about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County Sheriff's office.

The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent with several sections and the 11-year-old was in a section of the tent by himself, he said.


At about 11 p.m. the boy's stepfather heard a scream and the boy and his sleeping bag were gone from the tent.

A host from the nearby campground contacted police.

"When we got up there we realized, hey, this looks like a bear. The sleeping bag was pulled out of the tent," Harris said.

He said the boy's body was found about 400 yards from the tent in the direction of another campsite where a bear sighting had been reported earlier in the weekend.

Officials from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Forest Service are hunting for the bear Monday morning using dogs.

"In 28 years of law enforcement this is the first bear attack that I know of in Utah County," Harris said.

The canyon is a popular camping destination and also home to Timpanogos Cave National Monument. The attack occurred near the Timpanooke campground, which is about 12 miles up the canyon. Harris said the family was camping about two miles up a dirt road from that campground.

<a href="http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1363845">Link to story with video report</a>

[Ralph E. Powers]

Tragic. My heart and prayers go out to the family.
Utah isn't well known for bear country but they're out there. In wilderness areas one must always be careful. Sad that this episode took place.

[KENTO]

I am familiar with a statistic that , you are a hundred times more likely to struck by lightning than to be killed by a bear. I wonder what unusual factors were involved in this bear preying on a camper. It sounds more like Mountain lion behavior to me.

[Wayne Harrison]

You learn a lot of bear protection rules when you backpack into the back country at Yellowstone.... the rangers give you a long list of stuff not to do in the back country...

The first thing I thought of was fishing, handling fish, and then rubbing your hands on your pants and then sleeping in the same clothes. There was clearly something associated with the victim that attracted the bear to him. Some kids sleep with chocolate or granola bars in their pockets. I've see them.

Among the other things, no toothpaste, no deodorant, no sex (after #1 & #2, #3 would probably come naturally. Don't sleep in the clothes you cook your meals in. Keep a knife in the tent in case you need to cut an emergency opening on the other side to escape..

I'll keep an eye on this story for updates. I know the found and killed the bear that was yesterday.

[Squirrel Girl]

Huh? If I were ever so lucky enough to get to have sex in the woods, I'm not supposed to to prevent bear attack? And then the one time someone get killed it's an 11 year old boy.

I think I'd have the sex and take my chances.

OK, if there's reports of a dangerous bear nearby, I might not. But then I'd probably choose a different place to camp anyway.

[Teresa]

Tragedy about the boy. Nature isn't nice, though, and you play on her terms in her back yard.


I was never warned by the NPS about sex in the backcountry. Wayne, did they explain why to you? Sex per se, or the fact that one might bring soap or other scented toiletries?

I cannot imagine why bears would find this attractive. (Or maybe I'm doing something wrong.)

[Dwight Livingston]

Bears love film, too, or at least they go for that smell of an open film cartridge. I learned that at Philmont Scout Camp, where they take their bears pretty seriously. All film went in the bear bag.

So no film - probably no sex on film, either.

Dwight

[Ralph E. Powers]

I didn't know about the film thing. I do know about all the other anti-bear precautions, including that women should not be out hiking in bear country especially during their monthly "aunt flo" visits.
I am very familiar with the American Fork Canyon and the campgrounds (if they really deserve that name) set aside for the tourists. If these folk were where I think they were then they were indeed deep inside the canyon and at a good elevation above the rest of the valley floor (via car of course).
This animal probably wandered down more out of curiosity or even thirst more than looking for something to eat... but then bears are always eating.
I'll bet that the boy had food in his pockets/sleeping bag, immediate proximity and the bear really wanted it.
In that particular canyon you'd have to look hard to see a bear, really hard.

[Caverdale]

This story is making the headlines in all Utah papers and the is first topic on local news of TV and radio stations. A few things are mentioned that are relevant: The grandfather is insistent that the boy had no food in the tent or on his person. The family quite was familiar with things that attract bears. The same bear attacked another person in the very same small campground the night before this fatality but retreated without any physical harm except for a ripped tent. The wildlife people tried to hunt the bear down after that attack but couldn't find it. Neither the Forest Service nor the wildlife people informed people later camping the next day in that camp of the previous attack. Signs are posted throughout the canyon warning people of bears and giving advice on how to deal with the problem, but no sign was at this particular campground. A lot of blame is being given to government workers for not closing the camp or at least informing campers, but they are denying that they did anything wrong. The last point is now being hotly debated and contested.

Although the incident happened in the same canyon as Timpanogos Cave National Monument, there is no connection between the two.

[Wayne Harrison]

I was never warned by the NPS about sex in the backcountry. Wayne, did they explain why to you?
I cannot imagine why bears would find this attractive. (Or maybe I'm doing something wrong.)

Teresa, the park rangers didn't go into graphic detail other than to say the scent of sexual intercourse can attract bears. They also mentioned the "aunt flo" thing, as Ralph delicately put it, but I left that out of my previous post.

[Squirrel Girl]

They also mentioned the "aunt flo" thing, as Ralph delicately put it, but I left that out of my previous post.

They should have told *that* to the 11 year old boy!

[Scott McCrea]

Terrible tragedy and I feel for the family. But, it does bring up some humor...

On the Colbert Report, in the "Threat-Down", Colbert lists the top five threats to American security in an effort to keep America on its toes. Bears are often high on the list, usually making the #1 spot.



There was also a Simpson's episode where everyone freaked out about the threat of bears. They created a Dept of Homeland Defense Against Bears (or something like that).

[Squirrel Girl]

Manbearpig.

[Wayne Harrison]

Manbearpig.

[Tlaloc]

Teresa, the park rangers didn't go into graphic detail other than to say the scent of sexual intercourse can attract bears. They also mentioned the "aunt flo" thing, as Ralph delicately put it, but I left that out of my previous post.

This is absolute, total BS, all of it, even if a park ranger told you this. The story about bears wanting to eat women at certain times of the month came from the numerous bizarre theories put forth to explain the events that took place in the late 1960s in Glacier Park when bears ate two women on the same night. If you want to know what really happened you can read Night of the Grizzlies. The Park Service was eager to find some explanation for this other than the fact that it was their fault: a concessionaire was allowed to feed a grizzly bear sow with cubs slabs of bacon in a campground so it would hang around and their clients could see it in one case and in the second case an old starving bear was eating backpackers food all summer and getting more and more bold. A ranger was supposed to destroy it and didn't bother until it finally ate someone. Compared to the truth the story that bears like to eat women seemed pretty good. The reaction by the NPS was swift and severe: many of the grizzly bears in both Yellowstone and Glacier were killed to make it safe for tourists. Since scientific research on grizzly bears was showing that the NPSs theory that there were bad bears that had to be killed near the park roads and good bears in the backcountry the research was ended. This is described by the Craigheads in their book - Track of the Grizzly. The Craigheads also debunk the stories about how menstruation, etc. attracts bears at great length. How is it that native Americans lived with grizzly bears for thousands of years and never found this to be true?

Stories about bears eating women must stir up some deep feelings about man and predators and our own sexuality because people love stories like this and they never go away.