Bear Euthanized Due to Mauling Proved by DNA Evidence
This is an interesting story that I found on the CBS News website. A month after a California hiker was killed by a bear in Yellowstone National Park; the bear responsible was identified through DNA evidence from the scene of the mauling.
But even with the bear dead, the investigation remains open as investigators are still unsure that they got the right bear. There was evidence showing that multiple bears were around the scene. In fact, there wasn’t any evidence showing that the bear even touched the hiker.
It was a female grizzly who left behind two cubs; that have since been re-located to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Centre. The park officials say that the female was likely acting to defend her two cubs.
I think that this would be an interesting story to cover by getting PETA’s point of view on it. I would like to hear what the animal activists have to say about this story and whether or not they think the authorities were right in euthanizing the grizzly.
As a hiker myself, I know how to deal with bears and from my experience it is very unlikely that a bear would ever attack a human unless it had just cause. Often the reason why bears attack humans is because there are provoked, or because humans get too close to a females’ cub.
There are always exceptions of course, but I find that bears get a bad reputation in the media, and are often portrayed as monsters. In fact, they are just animals who just want to be left alone.
