A grizzly attack on a school picnic in Canada late last week was a rare and puzzling happening that may have been spurred on by scrambling children's panicked screams, bear experts say.
The bear, thought to be a female with two cubs, attacked a group of about 20 people including several schoolchildren on Thursday near a tiny coastal community in British Columbia, Canada.
What happened near the small waterfront town of Bella Coola might have resulted from a “perfect storm” of circumstances — such as noise cover from running water and startled children going into a panic, one expert told Cowboy State Daily.
As of Monday morning, four people were still hospitalized, including a teacher and three “grade four and five” children, Canadian bear safety expert Kim Titchener told Cowboy State Daily.
Some of the victims were in critical condition, added Titchener, the founder of the Bear Safety and More organization.
The bear, or bears, had still not been found. The case is baffling and rare, because bears almost never attack large groups of people, she said.
Details Still Unknown
The attack happened near Bella Coola, in an area where there has been an uptick in bear trouble, CBC News reported.
Many details of the incident were still murky, Titchener said. That included the size and age of the cubs, if it was indeed a female with cubs involved, she said.
“It’s so tough, because there’s people in hospital that can’t be interviewed” to help investigators unravel what happened leading up to and during the attack, she said.
Apparently, the teachers and children had gone for a hike along a trail and “were off on the side of the trial, having lunch” when the attack occurred, she said.
Still Lots Of Bear Activity In Area
Although bears in the high country in Canada have started to go into hibernation, Bella Coola is in the coastal lowlands, where the weather has been rainy, Titchener said.
It’s also the middle of salmon spawning season, so bears are congregated near water, to gorge on fish, she added.
Wildlife agents have been searching the area for the bears, including with heat-seeking drones, she said.
The hope is to capture the bears. DNA samples will probably be taken to confirm that they were the bears involved with the attack.
The animals will also be tested for disease, to determine if that was a factor in aggressive behavior, she said.
Grizzly attacks, particularly those involving females with cubs, are almost always defensive in nature, Titchener said.
According to initial reports, some of the teachers ended the attack by driving the grizzlies off with bear spray, she said.
Children Running And Screaming
In grizzly country, it’s best for groups to stay together, and stay calm, Titchener said.
During a surprise, close-range encounter, it might have been difficult to keep young children calm, and that could have been a contributing factor in the attack, she said.
Retired federal ecologist Chuck Neal, who has extensive experience hiking in grizzly country, agreed that “children scattering, running and screaming” would likely aggravate a bear attack.
As with any predator, running triggers a bear’s chase instincts, he said.
He also said that if the people and the bear were close to “rushing water” during the salmon run, the noise of the water could have kept the bear from hearing the people until it was too late.
Like Titchener, he noted that bear attacks on large groups of people are extremely rare.
“The best thing to do in a group is to stand together, stay calm and talk to the bear,” he said.
“I’ve experienced probably 15 charges at close range. In each case, I stayed still, talked to the bear. And the bear put on the brakes, turned around and ran the other way,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
