FRANKFORD — Remember that bear we wrote about in today’s paper? The one that went on such a rampage in Stokes State Forest that it swiped and scarred two youngsters while they were sleeping in their tents?
Well, 24 hours later, the story's changed a little.
Turns out, wildlife authorities revealed today, that upon further review, the two boys were not injured by the animal at all. The marks on their foot and shoulder were scars from an old scrape and a blister. Startled camp counselors made the wrong assumption during all the ruckus.
"It appears that the injuries were not from the attack," said Larry Herrighty, assistant director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife. "The scratches and the abrasions were not caused by a bear — they were not fresh wounds."
The bear invaded the camp where a group of nine inner city boys and two counselors were sleeping at about 4:30 in the morning Wednesday. It pulled at a sleeping bag and swiped at a tent and knocked it down, Herrighty said. The counselors and their charges clapped, blew a whistle and sang and shouted, and finally an conservation officer shot the animal in the neck, driving it away.
Shortly after the encounter, counselors spotted marks on the foot and shoulder of the two campers — ages 11 and 12 — and told officials they had been scrapped during the incident.
Later, when the youngsters were examined at a local hospital, doctors alerted wildlife officials something was amiss with the injuries. DEP officials magnified images of the wounds on a computer screen and determined they were not fresh and not made by the bear.
Herrighty said that, in fact, the two boys never said they were struck by the bear.
And what of the bear? No mercy, apparently. Wildlife officials continued searching for the animal today, saying they still planned to shoot it because it was aggressive — a "Category One Bear," they called it.
"If we did encounter the bear, we would shoot and kill it," said Larry Ragonese, a DEP spokesman.
Department officials set snares and traps baited with bacon and a boysenberry-scented liquid spray near the Gren Anderson section of the forest where the boys had been camping, Herrighty said.
He said officials plan to search for seven days and if there’s no activity within that time, they’ll call off the effort and assume the bear has moved on another area.
At one point during the search, Herrighty said, a wildlife officer spotted a bear in the area, but it wasn’t the same one — it hadn’t been wounded and it wasn’t the right size.
Authorities followed a blood trail from the campsite yesterday, Herrighty said, but it ended after 100 yards into a thicket. A blood sniffing dog was unable to pick up the trail after several hours, he said, because of the rainy weather conditions and the many bears in the area.
Although an officer shot the bear — thought to be a yearling about 2 years old — wildlife officials do not believe the shot was fatal, Ragonese said.
Although DEP officials do not know what precipitated the attack, Ragonese said yearlings can be cantankerous because they’re out on their own for the first time.
A biologist with DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife said yearlings are usually forced from their dens in June and by mid-summer, many are fanning out across the state in search of new places to live.
Wednesday’s incident was the first reported black bear encounter with humans in New Jersey this year, the DEP said. Aggressive attacks by black bears are infrequent, according to the agency.
By Victoria St. Martin and Richard Khavkine/The Star-Ledger
Previous coverage:
• Authorities still searching for bear that hurt 2 boys in Sussex County forest
• Bear attacks, injures two boys at Sussex County state forest
• Boys injured by bear at campground are fine and back at camp, director says
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