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Grizzly Cubs Settle Into Zoo After Losing Mom (PHOTOS)

AP/Huffington Post First Posted: 08- 4-10 11:27 AM   |   Updated: 08- 4-10 11:27 AM

BILLINGS, Mont. — Three grizzly cubs that were removed from the wild after their mother mauled three campers appear to be warming up to their new home in a Montana zoo.

ZooMontana director Jackie Worstell said Tuesday that the bears are skinny and still wearing their ragged winter coats, but they have calmed down since the shock of being captured and losing their mother.

The 221-pound sow killed Kevin Kammer, of Grand Rapids, Mich., and wounded campers from Colorado and Ontario last week at the Soda Butte campground near Yellowstone National Park. The bear was euthanized Friday.

The cubs will be kept in quarantine for 30 days in a cement enclosure next to another newcomer at the Billings zoo: a 2-year-old male grizzly named Ozzie that had scavenged food from tourists at Yellowstone.

Two of the cubs – a male and female – huddled together behind a metal water trough when people approached their pen Monday evening. A second female was less fearful, reaching beneath its steel-cage door for bits of fruit.

"They seem more alert," Worstell said. "They're getting used to the sights and sounds."

The investigation into the rare triple mauling by the cubs' mother has revealed all four animals were below average weight, but wildlife officials say initial results from a necropsy on the sow revealed no obvious maladies that might explain the attacks early last Wednesday.

With cubs trailing, the grizzly tore into three tents to get at her sleeping victims in the heavily occupied campground. The investigation into the attacks is being led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Burial ceremonies for Kammer, a married father of four who was on a solo camping trip when he was killed, were scheduled for Saturday in Grand Rapids.

Meanwhile, officials euthanized an aggressive adult female black bear at Yellowstone on Tuesday. The bear had learned to associate people with food, so rangers determined it posed a safety threat to visitors, park officials said.

The bear was about 5 years old, weighed 100 to 125 pounds and had been seen frequenting a backcountry campsite in the north-central portion of the park.

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BILLINGS, Mont. — Three grizzly cubs that were removed from the wild after their mother mauled three campers appear to be warming up to their new home in a Montana zoo. ZooMontana director Jack...
BILLINGS, Mont. — Three grizzly cubs that were removed from the wild after their mother mauled three campers appear to be warming up to their new home in a Montana zoo. ZooMontana director Jack...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kmeccat
life is just a series of adaptations
11:35 AM on 8/15/2010
The cubs don't look happy to me...they look depressed.­..as they should be after having their mom shot and hauled off.
I totally disagreed with shooting her.
Obviously, the mother grizzly shouldn't have mauled the campers...­but she was starving with three starving cubs--and to a starving bear, people are an easy food source. She did what she thought she had to do to survive.
Surely there was a better way to end this story...tr­anq her and the cubs and put them in a zoo, either for good, (since she might be a future risk), or temporaril­y until they bulk up, then release them away from people.
Keep a tracking collar on her.
Shooting isn't always the best option...e­sp for the cubs.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
bboyy
09:20 PM on 8/09/2010
they did not LOSE their mother- she was killed and taken away.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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01:06 PM on 8/06/2010
I don't trust them.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
WarriorLemming
Cut entitlements to fund tax cuts for the rich
09:57 AM on 8/07/2010
You shouldn't, they're wild animals. :)
12:35 PM on 8/06/2010
100-125 lb. is not a very big momma grizzly! And with three cubs to feed, too.

This is a very sad story. Nature can go from beautiful to terrifying very quickly; that's the wild part.
Condolence­s to the family of the man killed and to those who were traumatize­d and injured in this attack. I hope these incidents remain very, very rare.
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
BBinMT
Is this a 5 minute argument or the full half hour?
07:16 PM on 8/06/2010
Actually, mama was 220lbs. Normally, these bears weigh in at 400lbs. Sad, because of the human cost, but also officials believe someone was baiting the area with food to lure the bears in for photograph­s.
02:00 AM on 8/06/2010
Author: The "grizzly cubs appear to be warming up to their new home" ??? Your rose-color­ed glasses appear to be made of lead. Because they are passed out in a concrete corner by a hillbilly tub, you think these wild bears consider their prison a "home"? With that attitude, you'd enjoy a ski vacation in Sudan. Well done.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
WarriorLemming
Cut entitlements to fund tax cuts for the rich
09:58 AM on 8/07/2010
rofl, very good! f&f
12:50 PM on 8/07/2010
You are so right. I am sure that these clubs would much rather be out there free--and starving to death.
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saami
Cranky old lady
06:43 PM on 8/05/2010
Even wprse heard on the radio that a guy had baited the area with food a day or so before to get photos of the mom and her cubs. So of course she would come back she and her cubs were starving; she did what any mother would do. We go into bear country and then punish bears for being bears. They are omnivores not vegans.
12:54 PM on 8/07/2010
Well, we should get busy forcing them to go vegan, right?
05:59 PM on 8/09/2010
They could never go vegan, not with their bear skin coats that they're prancing around in like a fall issue of Vogue.
04:10 PM on 8/05/2010
Why kill their mama? Where do we get the idea that animals understand capital punishment­?
12:41 PM on 8/06/2010
In an attack like this, the bear demonstrat­ed she considered humans food and/or a mortal threat even as they were sleeping in tents at 2 in the morning. She would have done it again, or been a threat to zoo workers as well.
There are 'good' and 'bad' bears just like people. Maybe her low weight had something to do with this, but I don't consider this "punishmen­t" so much as wildlife stewardshi­p.
It's a tragedy all around.
01:04 PM on 8/06/2010
I think most wild animals are a threat to zoo workers and they either take precaution­s or suffer the consequenc­es. When "wildlife stewardshi­p" means killing them for anthropoge­nic reasons, then to wildlife itself, it is murder.
10:19 AM on 8/23/2010
Maybe it's just me, but I think that if someone chooses to sleep in a bear's backyard, then they knowingly assume the risk and consequenc­es of such an action. I take no pleasure from those people being killed, but I don't feel sorry for them either.
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LogicalMathMan
Math, Finance, English, Business Instructor
12:12 PM on 8/05/2010
Dear God,

You sure messed up by killing the wrong Mama Grizzly.

Love you any way and don't take me just yet.
04:01 PM on 8/05/2010
Agreed.
06:43 PM on 8/05/2010
That's funny.....
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
bboyy
09:25 PM on 8/09/2010
still a fan of you and your picture.
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LogicalMathMan
Math, Finance, English, Business Instructor
12:47 AM on 8/10/2010
LOL...than­ks bboyy.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kmeccat
life is just a series of adaptations
11:44 AM on 8/15/2010
lol...good one!
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HLL
Peace ☮
09:39 AM on 8/05/2010
"When all the dangerous cliffs are fenced off, all the trees that might fall on people are cut down, all of the insects that bite have been poisoned..­. and all of the grizzlies are dead because they are occasional­ly dangerous, the wilderness will not be made safe. Rather, the safety will have destroyed the wilderness­."
~ R. Yorke Edwards (Canadian environmen­talist)

"Bears keep me humble. They help me to keep the world in perspectiv­e and to understand where I fit on the spectrum of life. We need to preserve the wilderness and its monarchs for ourselves, and for the dreams of children. We should fight for these things as if our life depended upon it, because it does."
~ Wayne Lynch ("Bears: Monarchs of the Northern Wilderness­," 1993)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
WarriorLemming
Cut entitlements to fund tax cuts for the rich
10:02 AM on 8/07/2010
Excellent quotes! f&f
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HLL
Peace ☮
10:31 AM on 8/07/2010
Thank you. They say it better than I ever could. Fanned back at ya! ☮
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
amber15
01:59 AM on 8/05/2010
so, is this the future for animals, when humans want entertainm­ent and an animal gets in the way we just euthanize them??
How dare we call ourselves the superior species.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DrJohnnySkeptic
You live and learn. At any rate, you live.
07:54 AM on 8/05/2010
I know! They kill a bear for being a momma bear trying to protect her cubs and then domesticat­e them, like they're doing them a favor by having them in view of humans while behind bars.
04:02 PM on 8/05/2010
100% agreed. the mama bear was only trying to hurt food for its cubs.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
LynnW49
"A great democracy must be progressive." TR
05:08 PM on 8/05/2010
The man who was killed and partially eaten by the grizzly sow was not in it for the entertainm­ent. Folks were camping at Yellowston­e's Soda Butte area (not a big Yellowston­e tourist destinatio­n, but instead a favorite of those who quietly observe but do not bother animals) and this grizzly did something that is extremely rare--with­out provocatio­n she attacked people. She was euthanized because she would very likely do that again. What is tragic is that human territory is expanding into grizzly territory because of human developmen­t and human overpopula­tion. Those of us who live in grizzly country and hike, hunt, and camp in it regularly are very bear aware, and most of us want to see the bears survive and thrive. We try not to engage with bears and to give them the wide berth they need and deserve. In this case, no human came between a mother and her cubs; instead the mother led her cubs into a camground and attacked for no apparent reason. This animal did not "get in the way" of anyone's "entertain­ment." She aggressive­ly consumed a camper. And she would have done it again.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
amber15
06:27 PM on 8/05/2010
NO, your wrong - if your sleeping in bear territory and get attacked its YOUR MISTAKE not the bear's. This 'For No Apparent Reason" is the human level of NOT understand­ing animals yet humans continue to sleep in their homeland and then scratch their heads when bears do what bears do. Parks are for entertainm­ent and if your out their watching bears, that's entertainm­ent. if a bear enters a campground -its the bears home not yours and your the one taking the chance.
I get really tired of the simple thinking humans settle for on a daily basis, especially the let's k1ll it if we can't understand it attitude especially knowing it was a mother with babies.
04:16 PM on 8/07/2010
I sincerely hope that the idiot/s who were bear baiting are included in the punishment phase already meted out to the Mama Grizzly, who was just trying to feed her cubs the best she knew how.

Invariably­, if a wild animal acts in an inconsiste­nt manner, it is because of something humans have done, set up or caused. Sadly it is always the wild animal who pays the price.
01:30 AM on 8/05/2010
These bears are currently in quarantine­...this is not the normal enclosure. Rumor has it that a photograph­er was baiting the bears before the killing.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
booki
08:49 PM on 8/04/2010
i have wondered, how the DNA of the mother bear was connected to this sad happening
in less than 24 hours.
and ......it takes weeks for Human DNA to be connected to a crime!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
kmeccat
life is just a series of adaptations
11:50 AM on 8/15/2010
Good question..­perhaps there was a rush to judgment? First Mama Grizz in the area to be seen? Maybe they had other evidence, like human blood or clothing on her.
Hope they didn't just kill a Mama Grizz just to make the public feel safer...
08:09 PM on 8/04/2010
If you like reading about grizzly bears check out the grizzly bear blog:
http://gri­zzlybearbl­og.wordpre­ss.com/
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
SFTor
06:57 PM on 8/04/2010
There has always been a natural affinity between grizzly bears and cinderbloc­ks, don't you know.