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cubby

Live Long and Prosper
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marathon-runner-bear-attack_us_5769339fe4b015db1bca8735

From the news desk of @Keepalowprofile

Karen Williams estimates she‎ was less than three miles short of the finish line inside the Valles Caldera National Preserve near Los Alamos, New Mexico, on Saturday when she topped a hill, only to find a mother bear “charging” at her, she wrote on Facebook.

“I raised my arms and yelled ‘NO!’ then saw the cub,” she posted on Valles Caldera Runs’ Facebook page on Sunday, along with a photo that showed her bruised and bandaged. “Then I was on my ass and being raked with claws and bitten. I cried out in pain and Mama bear did not like that so she hit me with a left hook and bit my neck and started to try to shake me. I rolled into a ball and played dead.”

Williams said she continued to lie there for several minutes as the mother bear went to check on her cubs — finding one of them 30 feet up in a tree.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, which confirmed Williams’ identity to The Huffington Post on Tuesday, said there were three cubs in all.

“The cub cried a bit while trying to get down the tree. Mama bear kept glancing my way to make sure that I was still ‘dead,’” Williams wrote. “I was at that point afraid I might die. I didn’t know what the wound on my neck was like because I did not move for fear she would come wail on me some more. I waited about 10 minutes until the huffing she was doing was gone and I couldn’t hear the cub anymore.”

Williams said she waited like this for about 30 minutes before fellow runners found her. She credited them with providing immediate help until she could be airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital.

“I had blood in my eyes and a flap hanging over one so I couldn’t really see anybody but I recognized Ken’s calm voice,” Williams wrote, acknowledging a fellow runner she identified as Ken O’Connor.

In the end, Williams suffered severe but non-life-threatening injuries, NMDGF stated.

Williams described her injuries as a fractured right eye socket — from the bear’s “mean left hook.” She’s also missing parts of an eyelid and eyebrow and suffered injuries to her stomach and left bicep and “a lot of punctures and lacerations.”

New Mexico state law required the mother bear to be euthanized and tested for rabies. Officials tracked the bear down and confirmed its identity using a description and a GPS tracker the animal had been wearing as part of a previous study, NMDGF stated in a release.

“It is regrettable when a wildlife encounter results in human injuries and requires we euthanize the animal,” said NMDGF Director Alexandra Sandoval. “We are thankful that the injuries sustained by the victim were not worse and are hopeful that she is able to recover quickly.”

Williams also expressed heartache over the tragic outcome.

“I am really sorry that the mama bear died. She was just being a bear,” she wrote.

I'm sorry the bear had to die, too.
 
Fucking hill climbs are the worst without bears at the top.

I feel bad for the mama bear but shit this lady was lucky & very smart.
wWJ1fiN.jpg
 
Fucking yikes.
[doublepost=1466862235,1466862001][/doublepost]Speaking of....one of my neighbor's shot this pic in their backyard last week!

 
Lucky as shit

Bears are so dumb though. I get that a momma bear instinctually wants to protects its young, but their only natural predator is other bears. How does a bear see a human, a tiny little human and think, "ahhh fuck naw, too close to my cub! i'm gonna have to maul a bitch!"??? Big, powerful, terrifying apex predator animals shouldn't be afraid of shit like that.
 
She was lucky.

The funny thing about playing dead... the bear knows you're still alive.

Its more a submissive pose than a dead one.
 
She's lucky this was a black bear. Playing dead doesn't work with Grizzlys, they give no shits and will fuck you up.
 
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/ne...cle_58c67425-255b-5805-8c0e-c360fff24374.html
Karen Williams wants to change the law that forced the state of New Mexico to kill the bear that almost killed her.

“I’m obligated to do something,” said Williams, a trauma nurse and triathlete from Los Alamos, who became internationally known when New Mexico wildlife officers tracked down and killed the black bear on June 19. A day before, the mother bear had attacked Williams during a marathon in the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

Williams, 53, said it was wrong for the state to kill a bear that acted on its protective instinct. Williams and many others around the country said the bear was defending its two cubs in a wilderness area, not stalking her.

Now Williams wants protections for wild animals caught in similar circumstances.

“I’m probably the only person who can spearhead [a change] because of the momentum, because of the press,” she said.

A 1979 New Mexico law requires the state to kill any wild animal that attacks a human. Then the fallen animal is tested for rabies, a disease that is rare in bears. During more than two decades, the New Mexico Department of Health has not found rabies in a single bear.

Similar mandatory kill policies of wild animals that attack humans are in place in Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
[....]
 

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