PA bear attack

I just read a very brief report regarding an attack by a black bear on
a 21 year old female camper at Hickory Run campground yesterday. She
survived the attack, apparently when the bear was driven off by other
campers. From what I read, this bear seemed to have no fear of
humans.
I don't have a direct link, but I'm sure this event will be showing up
n the media today.

You boys at the Penn's clave watch your sixes.


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On 5/4/05 8:49 AM, in article , "George Adams"
wrote:

I don't have a direct link, but I'm sure this event will be showing up
n the media today.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...,5519938.story

And

http://tinyurl.com/8ebno


Bill

I just read a very brief report regarding an attack by a black bear on
a 21 year old female camper at Hickory Run campground yesterday. She
survived the attack, apparently when the bear was driven off by other
campers. From what I read, this bear seemed to have no fear of
humans.
I don't have a direct link, but I'm sure this event will be showing up
n the media today.

You boys at the Penn's clave watch your sixes.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...,7684973.story


--
Frank Reid
Euthenize to respond

Not that my proximity to the events described in the paper give me any
credibility, but I've fished right around there, have spent time in
that park, and live in the Lehigh Valley.

My friends, who all backpack and flyfish, who have all have had many
bear encounters in PA (the bears, even big bears, just stand up, look,
and then run) and I have been talking about that story - and it just
screams bull****. A 150lb bear chasing 3 adults through woods and
streams? The scene with the guy and the girl playing peeakaboo behind
a big tree . . . every time they made a noise, the bear made a swipe
with his paw? When the girl gets dragged away the guy just sits tight
and says "play dead?" The bear covered her with leaves and then took a
nap next to her?

Do you folks think I'm off-base to be suspicious of this story?

It is a nice reminder to use a bear bag, even in PA.

In article , says...
wrote:

a big tree . . . every time they made a noise, the bear made a swipe
with his paw? When the girl gets dragged away the guy just sits tight
and says "play dead?" The bear covered her with leaves and then took a
nap next to her?

I didn't read the stories, but if that's what they say, it sounds fishy
to me.

BTW, everything I've heard says that with black bears you fight back --
if you play dead they're inclined to start eating :-)

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but every
black bear I've ever encountered in Oregon has been far more interested
in getting the hell away from the human than playing peekaboo. I've
never seen more than a black furry rump running away as fast as it
could.
- Ken

I've seen two versions of the Morning Call (Allentown, PA) story - a
condensed version and this more lurid version. This is the version
that was in print Tuesday morning.

I realize that this isn't necessarily supposed to read like a police
statement, or anything, but it's hard to make sense of this, especially
starting at the point where the reporter writes that they "managed to
elude the bear for more than an hour." The "cat and mouse game" around
the "massive tree?"

----------

Bear mauls woman camper at Hickory Run State Park

By Ron Devlin
and Pervaiz Shallwani Of The Morning Call

May 3, 2005

Running for their lives, Kathleen Feeney and Brian Scollon could hear
the 150-pound bear crashing through the thick Pocono underbrush behind
them.

A misty darkness hung over Mud Run, a trout stream on the eastern edge
of Hickory Run State Park, as the young Philadelphia couple made a
stand Saturday night against the raging black bear.

''I tried to stab him,'' recalled 19-year-old Scollon, who recounted
the harrowing tale at Feeney's home Monday night.

The bear would have none of it. Infuriated, it stood on its muscular
hind legs and growled in defiance.

Then, in what remains a frightful experience etched in the 21-year-old
Feeney's memory, the bear seized her.

In the ensuing attack, the animal stripped Feeney of most of her
clothes - poncho, sweatshirt, pants and socks - and dragged her
into the darkness.

''Play dead, Kathleen,'' shouted Scollon, ''play dead.''

Feeney survived the attack, but she bears the marks of the animal's
fury on her back. She also has bite marks on the back of her head and a
puncture wound on a leg. She was treated at Lehigh Valley Hospital,
Salisbury Township, and discharged Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said.


In her Philadelphia home, where she recounted the ordeal that took
place over four hours, Feeney wore a jumper put on backward to avoid
the painful wounds on her back. The scratches were not deep enough to
require stitches, but she is not able to lie on her back.

The emotional wounds, while not visible, might be the most lasting
effects of what park officials said was the first attack by a bear in
Hickory Run's history.

''She really can't talk about it,'' said Scollon. ''She gets into it
for a couple minutes and then goes hysterical.''

The incident began as a routine camping trip for Feeney, Scollon and a
friend, Robert Brennan, also of Philadelphia. They arrived at Hickory
Run about 2 p.m. Saturday and set up camp in a no-camping area near
Hawk Falls, a popular spot off Route 534 near Albrightsville, Carbon
County.

The trio bought food at a nearby store, stored it in a tent and went
fishing. About 7:30 p.m., park officials said, Feeney returned to the
camp and found a bear rummaging through the tent.

She ran back to the others, with the bear in hot pursuit.

The trio splashed through Mud Run, a trout stream that flows beneath an
overpass of the Turnpike's Northeast Extension, and headed for the
opposite shore. Their waders filled with water and they were washed
downstream, but the bear followed.

Scollon yelled to Brennan, who had reached the other side first, to go
for help. Brennan, 21, managed to climb a steep mountainside to the
Turnpike. Frantically, he attempted to flag down motorists. No one
would stop, but someone called the state police.

Meanwhile, Feeney and Scollon managed to elude the bear for more than
an hour.

Shivering from bitterly cold stream water, they crawled through a
thicket of laurel bushes. They sought refuge behind a massive tree,
playing a game of cat and mouse with the bear.

''You couldn't see him,'' said Scollon, ''but he was close enough so
you could hear him.''

When the campers would make a sound, the bear would take a swipe with
its 6-inch paws. After four or five swipes, Scollon drew his hunting
knife and went after the animal.

''For the first five minutes you are scared,'' said Scollon. ''Then,
the only thing you can think of is that you're going to die.''

Taking her boyfriend's advice, Feeney survived by playing dead.

The bear pulled her from the tree and dragged her off to a point where
she could no longer see Scollon. She lay, face down, as the bear began
covering her with brush and tree branches.

Too frightened to move, thinking she was about to die, Feeney endured
the animal's puzzling antics. The minutes seemed like hours. When will
it stop? she wondered.

''At one point,'' Feeney recalled, ''the bear lay down beside me.''

She's not certain exactly when, but the bear quietly left Feeney lying
beneath the brush.

Out of the pitch blackness came Scollon's voice.

''Kathleen, Kathleen, can you hear me?'' he yelled, his voice echoing
across the cavernous, gorge-like terrain. ''Run to my voice, run to my
voice.''

It was nearly midnight when Scollon, following in Brennan's footsteps,
climbed the mountainside to the Turnpike. State police were waiting at
the top.

About 15 minutes later, half-naked Feeney, her wounds bleeding, climbed
to safety.

''I don't know how she managed to get out of there,'' Eileen Feeney
said of her daughter. ''She had to climb that rocky cliff all by
herself.''

Brennan had been picked up by state police and treated for exposure at
Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital, Lehighton. State police alerted park
rangers, who began searching for Feeney and Scollon in the vast Pocono
wilderness.

Rachel Warrick, Hickory Run's assistant manager, was surprised at the
intensity of the attack. She was confident, however, that the bear was
more interested in food than in attacking the campers.

''We're treating it as more of an encounter than an attack,'' she said.


The campers were in an area designated ''no camping'' about five miles
from the park office, Warrick said. That area is not posted with
warnings about bears. The designated camping area is posted with
warning signs instructing campers how to avoid bears and how to act
when they encounter them.

Warrick said the park plans no action against Brennan, Scollon and
Feeney.

wrote in message
...

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but every
black bear I've ever encountered in Oregon has been far more interested
in getting the hell away from the human than playing peekaboo. I've
never seen more than a black furry rump running away as fast as it
could.

People do occasionally run afoul of black bears. If I'm not mistaken,
evidence of that fact has cropped up somewhere in this thread. It would
appear that your experience in these matters isn't an absolutely reliable
benchmark.

Wolfgang
so, what else is new?

In article , says...

wrote in message
...

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but every
black bear I've ever encountered in Oregon has been far more interested
in getting the hell away from the human than playing peekaboo. I've
never seen more than a black furry rump running away as fast as it
could.

People do occasionally run afoul of black bears. If I'm not mistaken,
evidence of that fact has cropped up somewhere in this thread. It would
appear that your experience in these matters isn't an absolutely reliable
benchmark.

Oh oh oh, reading comprehension pop quiz time:
Find anything in my post which suggests that I believed my experiences
are in any way shape or form "an absolutely reliable benchmark". [D.A.]
- Ken

"Jonathan Cook" wrote in message
...
Wolfgang wrote:

People do occasionally run afoul of black bears. If I'm not mistaken,

I personally have had a bear hold its ground against my approach,
over a backpack it stole from the campsite next to us.

BS (that is to say, bull****)........ask kennie.

It was
smallish, I could've taken it, but I'm a nice guy ;-)

Jon (well, the first sentence is true)

Personally, I have more faith in the second.........and the third is highly
suspect.

Wolfgang
who knows that MS is more of the same.........and will gladly owe a shiny
new nickel to whomsoever can tell us what PhD. signifies.

wrote in message
...
In article , says...

wrote in message
...

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the country, but every
black bear I've ever encountered in Oregon has been far more interested
in getting the hell away from the human than playing peekaboo. I've
never seen more than a black furry rump running away as fast as it
could.

People do occasionally run afoul of black bears. If I'm not mistaken,
evidence of that fact has cropped up somewhere in this thread. It would
appear that your experience in these matters isn't an absolutely reliable
benchmark.

Oh oh oh, reading comprehension pop quiz time:
Find anything in my post which suggests that I believed my experiences
are in any way shape or form "an absolutely reliable benchmark". [D.A.]

Someone suggested that you believe your experiences are in any way shape or
form an absolutely reliable benchmark?

[Idiot]

Wolfgang