Her excursion took her from Logan Pass, roughly eight miles up the popular Highline Trail to the Granite Park Chalet. Friesen located Mitsuing at the hotel the following morning and took an audio statement that was played in court, where Mitsuing asked several times where he was and said he did not throw rocks, but was merely trying to get a photo with the bear. They happen when a black bear or a grizzly bear is taken by surprise. Here, people hiking are typically unaware of the bear until less than 50 m separates them, and attack occurs. If you cannot escape, do not play dead. Glacier National Park’s busiest season came to an abrupt halt in the summer of 1967. “We were all a little spooked by this time,” Gildart says, reflecting on the events of 50 years ago. When both men learned of the Trout Lake mauling later that morning, they were confused and in disbelief. Give a Gift. Continue In a matter of hours, two grizzly bears had acted as they never had before in the park’s 57-year history. There is a high risk of bear encounters on hikes in Jasper National Park so bring bear repellent with you at all times and make sure it’s easy to access in case of an attack. One by one, the campers jumped and climbed up trees. Devin Mitsuing is seen in what witnesses described as a boxing stance while taunting and acting aggressively toward a grizzly bear on June 5, 2015 along the Icefields Parkway. Jenna Dulewich is a national and provincial award-winning multi-media journalist. But then the bear attacked, swatting his backpack and biting his hand before running off. Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. Ducat, his arm badly mangled, ran to wake other campers nearby. A grizzly crashed their campsite at about 8 p.m. as they cooked hotdogs and fresh fish. Littering was common and campsites overflowed with garbage that attracted animals. Male Sheep may not be shy about claims to … Greg Wakeman. The day after the deadly attacks, Gildart and Landa headed to look for the suspect bear at Trout Lake. The routine had become a spectacle for visitors. The attacks are all within 100 km of one another, and thus within the range of a single wolf population. Olsen, a journalist and prolific author of true crime books, investigated the killings for a three-part series published in Sports Illustrated. The park set rules for food storage, installed bear-proof trash cans and devised off-the-ground storage for backcountry campers. It may run onto the road. Updated: June 27, 2017. Ducat would later tell investigators Helgelson had seen the bear and woke Ducat telling him to play dead. Judge Gaschler said it was obvious this was disturbance of a grizzly bear and agreed to the Crown's recommendation of a $4,000 fine, with the monies going toward the Environmental Damages Fund. Bear Attack, Man is trying to run away from attacking Bear: GoPromore information https://www.facebook.com/yevhenvasyltsov Alberta Wilderness Area Closes After Grizzly Bear Attack. Both were spending a summer working in one of the park’s lodges, Helgeson in East Glacier Lodge, Koons in West Glacier’s Lake McDonald Lodge. Soon, they heard a noise and spotted Helgeson facedown, not far below. Three friends on a leisurely Sunday hike in Banff National Park found themselves on … After finding Mitsuing and his friends at the hot springs too intoxicated to drive, RCMP impounded the vehicle and dropped the group off at a local hotel. Large Grizzly Bear in Jasper, Digging for Nutrients (HD) Male Bighorn Sheep are a little more aggressive between late October and January. The dog in … Or, the bear attacks you at night. The park quickly overhauled its practices and implemented precautions that are still in use today. By 1970, Yellowstone, the other park in the lower 48 where people were most likely to encounter a grizzly, had enacted many of the same policies. The photographer watched Mitsuing, shirtless, yell and taunt the young grizzly for approximately five to 10 minutes before the man started running toward the bear, startling it to run back into the bush. With a little luck, a lot of guts, and the help of a friend, a Scottish mountain climber managed to narrowly escape a grizzly attack in the Rockies earlier this week. The party stayed in the trees for about an hour-and-a-half before running down the trail to the nearest ranger station. The group carried her back to the chalet, where a helicopter would arrive to take her to a hospital. If a bear stalks you and then attacks, or attacks at night: * Try to escape, use bear spray if you have it. Bighorn sheep hunter attacked by a grizzly bear near Jasper Back to video. The Bear Population in Banff National Park There are between 20-40 black bears and approximately 65 grizzly bears that call Banff National Park home. I want to be comfortable wearing it all the time even though there have not been any grizzly sightings locally. Park Warden Paul Friesen testified he was working in Kootenay National Park when he was contacted by dispatch about a man harassing a grizzly bear in Banff National Park. "Mr. Mitsuing wasn't just putting himself in danger, he putting every other person who comes across this bear in danger in the future, so a large fine is a strong message to other individuals who, for whatever reason, would think to engage in this kind of behaviour you would hope they wouldn't but it should be even more obvious now. The party moved their gear, bringing some cookies and Cheez-Its, to the beach. ", Local producers talk Community Supported Agriculture growth, Active cases of COVID-19 in Cochrane jump to 30, Bow Valley High School reports outbreak. He isn't here," Judge Gaschler asked after the ruling. Advertising Notice “We got up there and we were absolutely astounded that people were standing around throwing food out to the bears,” Gildart recalls. Federal Crown prosecutor Jeremy Newton said Mitsuing was incredibly lucky he was not maimed or killed in the incident and noted that grizzly bears are a protected species. “The tragedy of [that night],” Landa says, “is that two lives were lost.” But Shea adds that the “common sense” precautions that hikers follow today are the good that came of the horror. In a ring around a campfire, they settled into their sleeping bags. At about 4:30 a.m., the grizzly reappeared at Koons’ camp. A grizzly bear bit off more than it could chew near Jasper, Alta. She reached the chalet by 3:45 a.m. but died soon thereafter, minutes before the aircraft landed. For the smaller bear, they like to make their homes in dense forests. Two 19-year-olds, Julie Helgeson, from Minnesota, and Michele Koons, from California, were both asleep under the big sky of northwest Montana, when grizzly bears found them and carried them off. The Black Bear, and the Infamous Grizzly Bear. A doctor staying at the chalet attended to her. Shea also was on the hunt for the suspect bear at Granite Park Chalet. While Mitsuing was at the courthouse before the doors officially opened, he left to run errands and grab some food, resulting in his absence from the morning trial. After a quick chat with officials, the Warden discovered the vehicle in question had been impounded after RCMP officers were called to Radium Hot Springs with reports of a disturbance. The problem is the increasing encroachment of humans in bear country. One of the most common circumstances associated with a grizzly bear attack is the "sudden encounter," especially with a grizzly bear female and her young. Nearly two hours passed before the group departed on its mission to rescue Helgeson. Helgeson and Ducat tucked into their sleeping bags outside, near the chalet, packed with guests during the busy summer season. British Columbia photographer Thomas Murray O'Neill said they had been taking pictures of the bear on the Icefields Parkway near Peyto Lake for approximately an hour on June 5, 2015, when the red truck with a Saskatchewan licence plate pulled up. on Saturday when it attacked a mountain biker and bit his backpack, puncturing a can of pepper spray inside. It was decided Mitsuing would have until Oct. 16 to pay the fine, or face 33 days in jail. What kind of a creature is this?”. The result has been increased safety for people and bears, he said. After two previous missed court dates, the case finally came to trial in the Canmore Provincial Courthouse Friday (Sept. 13) morning with Judge George Gaschler finding the Saskatchewan man guilty and imposing a $4,000 fine. It sniffed around, biting into one of the young men’s sleeping bags and clawing his sweatshirt. The rangers were stunned by the night’s parallel events but not by the problem bears. A wildlife officer, accompanied by one of the women, returned to the site of the attack, where the officer killed the bear with a single shot. The Park service in Banff is excited and proud to announce that no grizzly bears have died at the hands of humans in … This type of attack is very RARE. or The garbage problem wasn’t isolated to Granite Park. “Night of the Grizzlies,” as the events came to be known, “was really the wake up call,” he says. California Do Not Sell My Info The number of bear attacks has risen astronomically in the last decade, especially in the last five years. His reporting was republished as Night of the Grizzlies. By The Canadian Press, CP. But it appears that is what happened in Banff National Park in 2015 when Devin Mitsuing, 35, got out of his truck shirtless and began shouting at the young grizzly while in a "boxing stance" before charging at it, according to an eyewitness to the incident. Dumps were eliminated. Several miles apart, each bear had mauled a young woman on the same day, in the dark, early hours of August 13. 5. Detailed in National Park Service reports and Jack Olsen’s 1969 book Night of the Grizzlies, these incidents marked Glacier’s first fatal bear maulings. Mother Bear Injures Quad, Motocross Riders In Alberta Attack. “Someone help us!” she screamed as the bear dragged her off. Rangers ticketed visitors who fed bears and kicked out campers with messy campsites. Valerie Domaine and Christina Timms spent Friday morning patrolling Jasper National Park, keeping an eye out for wildlife. The rangers were sent to search for Koons. If you are hiking in Jasper National Park in the summer, you should be hiking with others people and not alone. by RCMP and a Park Warden and charged under the National Parks Act, for disturbing wildlife in a national park. Bear activity in the Jasper area has been high this year, with grizzlies causing headaches for motorists and bluff charging cars on Pyramid Lake Road. A "very aggressive" female grizzly bear has been shot and killed after it mauled a hunter and charged at two wildlife officers near Jasper National Park this weekend. Seasonal rangers Leonard Landa and Bert Gildart had gone to sleep with knowledge of the Granite Park Chalet mauling. (This kind of predatory attack is very rare.) The shocking attacks ushered in a new era for the National Park Service’s management of bears. "What is the next step? Gildart, filled with adrenaline, hurried up the trail to join them. The bear is stalking (hunting) you along a trail and then attacks. And Gildart and seasonal wildlife biologist David Shea had four days prior hiked to Granite Park Chalet to confirm another rumor they’d heard: Bears were feeding nightly on table scraps from boarders at the chalet. A new permit system limited the number of campers in the backcountry and required them to sleep in designated campsites, a distance away from cooking areas. O'Neill said he couldn't hear what Mitsuing was shouting, but was confident in identifying the bear as a grizzly, as he has been taking pictures of wildlife, especially grizzlies, for the past 40 years. Before this attack, the bear can seem nervous and he may growl. On August 12, 1967, Helgelson and Koons—both 19 at the time—embarked on respective overnight backpacking trips. At about 11 a.m., they got a radio call notifying them of a large bear jam. FIGHT BACK! After Ducat was taken to a hospital, and a ranger armed with a rifle had arrived, the group followed a blood trail downhill from the campsite. “It was basically an incident waiting to happen,” says Shea, who spent 36 seasons working in the park. O'Neill said they were concerned, as the men in the truck seemed inebriated, so he called the RCMP. Can You Spread Covid-19 After Getting Vaccinated? The campers ran and waited as the bear gobbled up their dinner and scrambled away with one of their backpacks. But it wasn’t until after the summer of 1967 that the agency recognized a need for dramatic changes in official park policy. In fact, every year a dozen or two people get mauled and/or killed by bears in alberta. And in the summer of 1967, as forest fires drove bears further into populated areas, it was clear to some rangers that bears were living dangerously close to people. In total, the park’s staff shot three bears, including the one believed to have killed Helgeson. "When I queried the licence plate, I realized Columbia Valley had queried the licence plate too," Friesen said during the trial. Gildart had heard the calls for help over the radio and helped dispatch emergency responders. BANFF, ALTA.—One of the most popular hiking and biking trails in Banff National Park is bringing in restrictions at the height of the summer tourist season due to fears of bear attacks. Smithsonian Institution. It's not every day a man tries to fight a grizzly bear. Gildart later collected 17 bags of garbage from the Trout Lake site. Cookie Policy “Here’s a bear that’s pulled a girl out of a sleeping bag. It focused on Helgeson, dragging her about 100 yards away. Vote Now! Privacy Statement Joining the Rocky Mountain Outlook in 2019, she covers Stoney Nakoda, MD of Bighorn, Canmore and court. Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. Two witnesses were called to the stand, one of the photographers who captured the incident and the Parks warden who charged Mitsuing. “They slit the stomach of this bear, and a big ball of blonde hair came out.”. ... he has maintained that a black bear attack cannot be ruled out. But before she could, the bear tore into her sleeping bag and began dragging her away. Mitsuing did return to the courthouse an hour after the trial concluded and turned himself into Canmore RCMP. I was trying to go golfing.". Campsites all around Glacier were not well-maintained. A forensic investigator came to collect the bear. Bears actually go into a deep sleep called a torpor and can be roused if disturbed. In his book, Jack Olsen indicted the park service for its irresponsible treatment of bears. Fatal bear attacks in North America have occurred in a variety of settings. There was a black bear sighting within a … A dog-owner has risked his life by jumping on a wild black bear after it had attacked his pet. September 30, 2008 at 12:27 pm. The best-seller was reprinted in 1996, and visitors will still spot people reading the book in the lobbies of Glacier Park's lodges. It's extremely important to be educated, in order to protect both bears and yourselves. The Black Bear: Black Bears are the smaller of the two species of bears found in Banff National Park. In the aftermath of the attacks, the park initiated a strict “pack in, pack out” policy. FWIW, and this is NOT in Banff/Jasper, but N. Idaho, I carry bear spray whenever I walk on the local paved trail here in N. Idaho. 1 comment to Avoiding Bear Attacks in Jasper National Park. “Oh God, I’m dead,” she said. Gildart spotted it at 4 a.m. when he stepped outside of the patrol cabin where the men were spending the night. Try to escape into a building, car or up a tree. Within minutes, the bear charged at them and both men fired, killing it. The bear can see you as a threat. Article content. Shortly after midnight, a grizzly bear meandered toward the campers. An adult male black bear can weigh 150 lbs to 300 lbs. Visitors, sloppy with their trash, frequently abandoned it. The new practices soon spread to other national parks in which bears lived. Helgeson’s path was surrounded by vistas of glacial valleys and mountain peaks. Defensive attacks are the most common types of attack. Many times these attacks happen when a bear is taken by surprise while taking care of their cubs or when a bear is feeding. “It was a lightning bolt right to the core of the whole National Park Service nationwide,” says Waller, the current staffer at Glacier. Caught on camera by a couple of nearby photographers, who were taking pictures of the lone grazing grizzly on Highway 93 and called RCMP after the incident, Mitsuing was later located in Radium, B.C. "We were on the other side of the highway when a truck pulled up and two gentlemen got out, started yelling at the bear and throwing rocks ... then he took off his shirt and got in a boxing stance," O'Neill explained. Black Bears are curious and shy. FIGHT BACK, let it know that you are not easy prey. Weekly bear report. John Waller, a current supervisory wildlife biologist for the park, says the park service had known for a long time that feeding bears was unsafe. Before then, the park service neglected to close trails where bear sightings were frequent. The hiker was able to discharge bear spray, which initially deterred the grizzly. Use your bear spray and FIGHT BACK. In Glacier Park and in other parks nationwide, the lessons of that summer live on in warning signs, rules and policies created to avoid repeating the mistakes that led to tragedy 50 years ago. "I think the judge said it best, when an individuals creates this kind of dangerous situation with a bear, when they charge at him, when they throw rocks at him when they cause him to run into the bush, you are going to create an aggressive animal that obviously has the ability to do a lot of harm to humans and the public in general," Newton said after the trial. Bear relocated in May . 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", Sign in or register for your free account, "I think the judge said it best, when an individuals creates this kind of dangerous situation with a bear, when they charge at him, when they throw rocks at him when they cause him to run into the bush, you are going to create an aggressive animal that obviously has the ability to do a lot of harm to humans and the public in general. “He’s got my arm off,” the others heard her say. Several miles apart, each bear had mauled a young woman on the same day, in the dark, early hours of August 13. Although bear sightings and activities slow down during the winter, they are not true hibernators. “They had a big knife,” Gildart recalls. BEAR NECESSITIES IN JASPER If you see a bear beside the road, keep the following bear facts in mind: 1. K. BOLIN PHOTO. “It is pure coincidence indeed that two grizzlies chose a few hours of a single night to take two victims who had much in common,” he wrote, “but it is no coincidence at all that the year in which this happened was 1967, and place Glacier Park.”. Make a stop at the Parks Canada Information Centres in Banff, Lake Louise, Field, BC or Jasper and ask all the questions you can think of about bears and bear safety. This is a fact that they try to hide, but it's true. I thought it was a brown bear," Mitsuing can be heard saying in the audio statement. Bear attacks involving dogs also occurred in June, ... and in June 2018, when a man wrestled a black bear after it lunged at his dog at Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. As Helgelson departed on her fateful hike, Koons was joining four fellow park employees on a steep eight-mile journey to Trout Lake. From their perches, they yelled at Koons to join them. Landa knew that a bear had been harassing campers at Trout Lake and another nearby camp. Help arrived for Ducat in the form of a helicopter with medical supplies, but an overly cautious ranger held up the search party, fearful of putting more visitors at risk. "It is abundantly clear this is a disturbance of a grizzly bear and I find [Mr. Mitsuing] guilty," Judge Gaschler said. When grizzlies frequented trails, the areas were closed until the bears moved on. Two 19-year-olds, Julie Helgeson, from … Landa stayed awake listening to the radio traffic. She and a friend, Roy Ducat, arrived at about 7 p.m., ate their sack dinners and watched the sunset before retiring for the night. British Columbia photographer Thomas Murray O'Neill said they had been taking pictures of the bear on the Icefields Parkway near Peyto Lake for approximately an hour on June 5, 2015, when the red truck with a Saskatchewan licence plate pulled up. The grizzly knocked the pair out of their sleeping bags and within minutes, the bear had sunk its teeth into each of them. The events of August 13 were a pivotal moment, Waller says, giving rise to a “leave no trace” ethic in the outdoors. Whether it’s returning the grizzly bear population in Alberta to 1,000, 1,500 or more, she wants an updated plan to provide a set number that can show the province’s progress. Weekly bear reports have ended for the 2020 season and will start again in the spring of 2021. Terms of Use He called for Landa to bring a gun. A 2014 photo of Bear 148 in Banff National Park. My wife and I (from New Jersey) just spent 2 weeks visiting and hiking in Banff and Jasper and only saw one black bear, about 100 yards away in a field about a mile outside of the town of Jasper. Landa left first with some of Koons’ fellow hikers. Minutes after they reached the campsite and fanned out, Gildart recalls Landa whispering, “Bert, here she is.” The young woman’s mutilated body was lifted out of the backcountry by helicopter. Warnings and tips on bear safety were posted throughout the park. A severely injured man is now recovering in hospital. Long-Lost Babbler Bird Documented in Borneo for the First Time in Over 170 Years, Most People Don't Know When to Stop Talking, According to Science, Scientists Find Blue-Green Algae Chemical with Cancer Fighting Potential, The Site of the Salem Witch Trial Hangings Finally Has a Memorial, Fourteen Fun Facts About Love and Sex in the Animal Kingdom, The World’s Oldest Forest Has 385-Million-Year-Old Tree Roots, Polar Bears Live on the Edge of the Climate Change Crisis, Inside Naples' World-Famous Pizza Culture, How Navajo Physicians Are Battling the Covid-19 Pandemic. 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. Greg Boswell and fellow climber Nick Bullock were on a route along Alberta’s famous Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff when the bear attacked.