Grizzly Bear

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By Jimmy Orr, Cowboy State Daily

A Montana man who was reported missing after hiking with a friend earlier this week was killed by a grizzly bear north of Yellowstone National Park, officials announced Friday.

Park County (Montana) Sheriff Brad Bichler said searchers had found Craig Clouatre, 40, early Friday afternoon.

“It appears he had an encounter with a grizzly and unfortunately did not survive,” Bichler said.  “We will continue to work through the afternoon to bring Craig home. Please keep his family and all those involved in your thoughts and prayers.”

Clouatre and a friend on Wednesday morning went to the Six Mile Area of the Absaroka Mountains to hunt for antler sheds.

Sheriff Bichler said the two split up that morning and Clouatre was not heard from again.

“When the other man returned to their vehicle and his friend wasn’t there, he called us and we began searching on Wednesday night,” the sheriff told the Livingston Enterprise.

An extensive search was called with helicopters, horse teams, and ground teams all being used.

“After flying thermal imaging late into the night, the search for Craig continues this morning,” Bichler had announced early on Friday.

Friends of Clouatre expressed their sympathies on the Park County Sheriff’s Facebook page.

“Craig was an awesome man,” wrote Paula Hill Laubach.  “It was an honor to have called him a friend. Thoughts are prayers are with his family.”

Tragedy struck the Clouatre’s family two years ago when their house burned down. Anne Tanner, a friend of the victim, told the Associated Press that the family had just recently recovered from the fire.

“He was finally just getting their house together,” Tanner said. “It just makes me angry that something like this could happen to such a good person…Of all the men I know, I can’t believe he would die in the wilderness. He was so strong and he was so smart.”

Clouatre was married to his wife Jamie and they had four children.

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

Two people were injured late Tuesday when they were attacked by a grizzly bear in southwestern Montana, officials said.

Around 8:30 p.m., two men were hiking with a dog off-trail in the Bear Creek area southeast of Ennis, Montana when they encountered a sow grizzly bear with cubs at close range. Sows with cubs can be especially defensive in close encounters with people.

During the encounter, the two hikers were injured by the bear. However, they were able to use bear spray to defend themselves.

Both hikers were able to leave the attack site without assistance and received treatment for relatively minor injuries.

A game warden with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks investigated the scene of the attack on Wednesday with law enforcement staff from the U.S. Forest Service. The trail nearest the incident has been closed and signed temporarily as a precaution.

Other trails in this area have also been signed, advising visitors of the incident, but no further action will be taken.

Officials believe this attack was likely defensive in nature.

This is the second time in recent weeks that a grizzly has injured someone in Montana. Last month, a woman was killed by a grizzly while in her tent.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report this week regarding a West Yellowstone man who was killed earlier this year by a grizzly guarding a moose carcass. The grizzly in that incident was later killed after it charged wildlife investigators.

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

A West Yellowstone, Montana, man was ultimately found to be at fault for causing the fatal grizzly attack that resulted in his death earlier this year.

Charles “Carl” Wesley Mock, 40, was attacked by a grizzly bear on April 15 near the Baker’s Hole Campground, just outside of Yellowstone National Park two miles west of the Wyoming state line. He was alone and parked his vehicle at the campground entrance, both of which are well-posted with grizzly information.

A report on an investigation into the attack by officials from Wyoming, Idaho and Montana was released this week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The tragic event of Mr. Mock being attacked by an adult male grizzly bear and subsequently dying from the attack, was the direct result of Mr. Mock’s own purposeful or random placed proximity to a moose carcass that an adult male bear had cached and was actively feeding on,” the report said.

“A short time before the adult male bear attacked Mr. Mock it may have defended or claimed the  moose carcass from another grizzly bear. If so, this would have contributed to the bear’s  extended aggressive defense of the moose carcass,” the report said.

Mock died two days after the attack from complications due to his severe head and neck injuries.

Officials couldn’t say whether Mock purposely went to the site of the attack. He was in possession of fishing gear and a telephoto lens, and the closest point to the Madison River is about 400 yards northeast of the attack site.

An examination of Mock’s fishing gear showed he hadn’t been actively fishing at the time the attack occurred.

It is estimated Mock was in the area for less than 90 minutes, but it can’t be determined exactly how long he’d been at the site before being attacked. It also isn’t clear whether Mock came upon the animal feeding or if he was already at the site and the grizzly happened upon the moose carcass.

An empty cannister of bear spray was found at the scene and the bear carcass’ hair contained bear spray residue, so officials did determine Mock was definitely aware of the potential for grizzly encounters in the area. It is unclear at what point during the attack (if not before) Mock used the bear spray.

While the overall effects of the bear spray on the grizzly aren’t known, the bear did quit attacking Mock at some point. Mock moved away and called 911, but the bear remained agitated, close to the attack site and the moose carcass.

The grizzly was killed April 16 as it charged the investigation team.

“The unfortunate subsequent death of Mr. Charles (Carl) Mock caused by a grizzly bear attack…reinforces the inherent possibility of people being involved in a serious grizzly  bear encounter and the need for individuals to know and try to follow known safety recommendations,” the report said.

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating the deaths of two grizzly bears in separate confrontations with bow hunters in northwestern Wyoming.

In a news release issued Monday, the department said on Thursday night, a man who was archery hunting for elk in the Thorofare area was attacked and injured by a grizzly.

The bear was killed in the incident. The hunter was airlifted to a local hospital and received treatment.

In an incident on Saturday, a grizzly charged an archery hunter on Rattlesnake Mountain west of Cody. The bear was killed in the incident, but the hunter was uninjured.

Because grizzly bears are currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Game and Fish coordinates extensively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on any grizzly bear-related conflicts.

None of the grizzly skirmishes in Wyoming this year have ended with human fatalities. The last major report of a grizzly and human encounter in the state was in the Cody area back in July.

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Just last month the National Park Service advised people not to push their friends down in front of a bear if they are attacked.

That advice apparently works.

Two archery hunters from Idaho came upon a grizzly bear on Friday morning and one started to get mauled.

Instead of ensuring his friend was down on the ground and then running away, his friend decided — just like the Park Service advised — to help instead.

What makes this story even more bizarre is that this bear attack appears not to have been started by idiotic behavior of humans.

Unlike the Montana man who went searching for a grizzly bear in an abandoned barn (he found it) or the Montana woman who wasn’t paying attention while trail running and literally bounced off a grizzly, these two hunters appeared not to have done anything overwhelmingly stupid.

In fact, the Idaho Fish and Game Department credits the archery hunters for how they handled the situation: they were prepared.

The department said the victim (hunter #1) was pursuing an elk in a remote area of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest when he and his hunting companion (hunter #2) encountered the bear in thick brush.

Although you are supposed to be loud in grizzly country to not surprise a bear (Montana man: please take note), it kind of defeats the purpose when you are hunting — because you also alert the animal you’re hunting.

Regardless, the grizzly apparently went after hunter #1 who was able to deploy his bear spray right before he got knocked to the ground.

Following National Park Service advice of not pushing your friend down in front of the bear and running away, hunter #2 actually helped his buddy.

“The hunting companion came to his aid and deployed his own bear spray canister, shortening the duration of the attack and causing the bear to flee the area,” the department said.

“Their preparedness and use of bear spray allowed both hunters to walk out of the backcountry on their own accord to call for help,” they said.

As for the health of the hunter, he’ll be ok, apparently. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment.

To warn other visitors of bear in the bear country, the department is putting up signs to let them know there are bears present in the bear country.

Hopefully the signs will alert people who are in bear country that there are bears in the bear area.

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It’s a crazy video. Terrifying, even.

A group of hikers spotted a grizzly on a trail near Hidden Lake at Glacier National Park on Sunday.  Then this group of hikers saw another group of hikers on the same trail as the grizzly.

They did what any good neighbor would do. Start filming it.

Then, they let them know of the pending doom.

“We, from above, start yelling that there is a bear barreling down the same trail,” Dulé Krivdich told NBC Montana.

Krivdich said the three hikers yelled up at them asking what they should do.

“Make some noise,” Krivdich and his wife yelled. “Make some noise!”

At that time the grizzly starts sprinting (or whatever it’s called when a grizzly bear moves fast).

“Oh shit,” Krivdich said in the video (of course he kept the camera rolling). His wife, meanwhile yelled: “Get off the trail!”

“But just then, the griz made a bluff charge and we saw people booking it like we’ve never ever seen before in our lives,” Krivdich told the TV station.

Then you hear a lot of screaming from both groups of hikers and, in the background, some laughing.

“They shouldn’t run,” Krivdich’s wife said.  Then she yelled: “Don’t run, don’t run!” as the hikers are moving at a pretty impressive clip.

“Don’t run dudes,” Krivdich yelled. But then he started laughing when he saw how quickly they were running.

“Look at ‘em. Ha ha ha ha ha,” he laughed.

To be fair, the bear didn’t show any interest in pursuing those hikers and it was a really nervous situation so it’s not as though he was cheering on the grizzly like he was watching a gladiator fight in Ancient Rome.

“Thank goodness that it all went well afterwards,” he said. “Other than that it was a beautiful day for a hike down to Hidden Lake.”

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His reaction is understandable. After all, he said, the grizzly tried to rip his shoulder off.

Shanun Rammel, who was mauled by a grizzly last month, isn’t happy Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) officials haven’t killed that bear yet.

It doesn’t appear to be the agency’s fault, however. It’s just that the grizzly has completely disappeared — like a ghost.

As you may recall, Rammel, the father of 10 who runs a firewood business, got a tip from a neighbor that a grizzly might be near his home. 

Like a teenager in a slasher movie (or Geico commercial), he decided to check an abandoned shed near his property. When Rammel opened the door, all hell broke loose.

The startled bear did what startled bears do, which is never a good thing if you’re next to that bear.

Now, it’s not as though Montana’s FWP hasn’t been doing anything.

According to Montana TV station KRTV, the agency had been searching for the bear for 12 straight days using helicopters, fixed-wing planes, infrared cameras, and ground patrols but came up empty.

So they discontinued the search.

That didn’t sit well with Rammel. He thinks the offending grizzly is still in his area.

“We’ve got tracks of the grizzly right next to the ponds,” Rammel told the TV station. “And my neighbors have got pictures.”

To be fair, Rammel isn’t recommending FWP carpet-bomb the entire state of Montana, he just thinks it could do more.

The agency, instead of continuing the search for the bear, put up an electric fence around Rammel’s property — something that he’s not a big fan of.

Remember, Rammel has 10 children. Many of whom, he says, don’t understand what an electric fence is.

“I have a three-year-old, a five-year-old, and a six-year-old that don’t have a clue what it is,” Rammel’s wife Jamie said. “They say it shocks really hard, so I worry.”

In the meantime, if you’d like to help the Rammel family, a GoFundMe page has been set up here.

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Whenever there’s a bear story, chances are we’re on the bear’s side.

That’s because the bear usually seems to be the victim of something stupid that a human does.

Bears don’t like to be surprised.  But time and time again this summer, bears have reacted instinctively because humans surprised them.

Then, many times, humans kill the bears because of mistakes humans made.

As an example, somebody leaves food out at a campsite. A bear gets used to grazing on that food. If the behavior continues (and why wouldn’t it), then wildlife agencies put down the bear.

Thankfully, in this story, there are no stupid humans. 

Taylor Bland is a wildlife guide at Yellowstone Wolf Tracker. The company describes itself as a “wildlife adventure company.”

The company explains that their speciality is wolf and bear-watching.  Because all of their guides are experienced wildlife biologists, chances are they won’t be the subject of a bear mauling — which is a nice bonus for 2020.

Bland was out on a safari in Yellowstone where she filmed what she called “the most epic bear-wolf interaction [she’s] ever seen.”

It is magnificent footage and we can’t help root for the mama grizzly bear as the pack of wolves seem intent making one of her cubs their prey.

Thankfully, the grizzly won and her cubs were safe. As a nice bonus, nothing happened to the wolves either.

“Epic day in Yellowstone, as usual,” Bland writes.

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

A grizzly bear was euthanized after killing a cow on private land in Montana last week.

According to a news release from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the adult male bear was captured shortly after it killed the cow on July 29. In consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the decision was made to euthanize the bear due to this depredation and past livestock kills in the area.

Relocating bears safely at this time of year is difficult due to many factors, including high bear densities, heavy recreation use and other land usage in nearby areas, the department said.

This is the second management removal of a grizzly bear this year within the demographic monitoring area of Montana’s portion of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 

The first grizzly bear removed in this area in 2020 was captured and transferred to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone after gaining access to food at campgrounds in the Rainbow Point area.

Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are currently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Several grizzly bear recovery areas exist in or near Montana, including the Selkirk, Cabinet-Yaak, Northern Continental Divide, Bitterroot and Greater Yellowstone ecosystems.

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It’s kind of a weird twist for 2020 — actual good news.

Recently, most of our bear stories haven’t been that positive.

There was the story about the Choteau, Montana man who had his shoulder nearly ripped off.

Then there was the story of the hiker in the Shoshone National Forest who surprised a grizzly and got flattened in the process.

Then there’s the more humorous story of the trail runner who literally ran into a grizzly, bounced off the grizzly, became interlocked with the grizzly, and rolled down the trail with the grizzly.

Today, we have a story of some bears who are just cute.

As it turns out, the Idaho Fish and Game Department have something they call “Grizzly Cam.”

Every year, they say, biologists place GPS collars on grizzly bears to learn about their reproduction, survival, and distribution across the ecosystem.

A recently retrieved game camera shows a female grizzly as she emerged from her den in late-April with three cubs in tow.

“The antics of these three cubs playing together was too cute not to share,” the department said. “Watch as they play together and learn just how far they can push mom’s limits as she watches over them.”

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It’s one thing to get attacked by a grizzly bear but it’s another to get attacked by a grizzly bear and then start videoing yourself to document the visible bones following the encounter.

That’s what Shannun Rammel did following his grizzly bear experience up in Choteau, Montana.

After his story made headlines earlier this week, a Montana TV station went to the hospital to talk to him about the experience.

It was during the conversation that Rammel showed the reporter the video he made immediately after the attack.

“You can see my bones and my tendons,” he said to his wife who was acting as the cameraperson. “He ripped into me pretty good there.”

He told the reporter that it was important to document the experience in case he didn’t survive the attack.

Rammel was he was in shock after the attack but he appeared quite matter-of-fact during the video conversation with his wife only minutes after the experience.

“We have problems with grizzlies up by my house and I just got attacked by one,” he said looking into the camera.

Rammel had been alerted by a neighbor that a grizzly was in the area and when he went to check an abandoned shed, the attack was immediate.

As soon as he opened the door, the bear lunged.

“I looked to the left and all of a sudden I heard a roar and he came flying out of there right off the bat,” he said.

“I remember rolling to my belly and he jumped on my back and bit me with full force trying to rip off my shoulder,” Rammel said.

His wife told the TV station that when she saw her husband “getting thrown like a rag doll,” she came up with the idea of running over the bear in their truck.

“So when I punched the truck, he stopped and looked at me, dead straight in my eyes,” Jammie Rammel said. “He got off Shannun and turned around and got out of there,” she said.

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You could argue it was a successful day for a Choteau, Montana, man who went out searching for a grizzly bear after hearing reports it was near his farm.

After all, Shannun Rammel successfully found the bear. But the grizzly, like many grizzlies, didn’t like being surprised.

Before you condemn him, it’s not like Rammel spotted the bear, snuck up to it, put on a Halloween mask, and yelled “boo!”.

Instead, the man — who has nine children and lives in the area — got word from a farmer friend that there was a grizzly near his place.

He saw some tracks at a pond and wondered if the bear might have been attracted to something in an abandoned shed.

In a horror movie, this is where the slow motion starts and the spooky music begins to play.

Because just like in a horror movie, once Rammel opened the door, chaos erupted.

Except he didn’t run into a leather-clad deranged man with a chainsaw, he ran into the grizzly. But the result was the same.

“The bear had him and was throwing him like a rag doll,” his wife Jammie told the Great Falls Tribune. “My 12-year-old daughter was standing by me. She was watching her dad and screaming her head off – ‘There’s a bear! There’s a bear!'”

She said her first inclination was to take their truck and try to run over the grizzly – which would have been a great addition to the aforementioned horror movie.

But it didn’t get to that point as once the grizzly heard the vehicle fire up, it ran away.

Jammie drove toward the shed, mentioning that she was driving slowly because she “didn’t want to run [her] husband over.”

She took her husband to a local hospital where he underwent treatment for cuts and bites to his upper body.

“When his forearm was opened up you could actually look down and see the tendons and bone,” she told the newspaper.

As for the bear, just like Michael Myers, it disappeared.

The Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Department said it searched the greater area with a helicopter.

The agency said the bear was not located “which isn’t surprising as bears will often flee an area after an encounter such as this.”  

Agency officials said they will continue monitoring the situation and trapping efforts.

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It’s starting to feel like if there’s not a bear attack to report on every day, something’s awry.

Thankfully, Wyoming skirmishes with bears this summer have not been fatal, including an incident reported Tuesday south of Cody.

The circumstances seem to follow a pattern. 

An individual was hiking alone on Deer Creek Pass in Shoshone National Forest and surprised a grizzly bear.

Not surprisingly, the grizzly did not take kindly to the surprise and charged the hiker.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department reported the grizzly knocked the hiker to the ground and took off.

“The victim sustained injuries to his chest and arm, but was able to bandage his wounds and hike out,” the department said.

The hiker was picked up by Game and Fish personnel and taken to the hospital.

Another bit of good news: because of the remote location and the low probability of finding the bear, no management action is planned.

That means the bear will live and hopefully hikers will not surprise it in the future.

“Game and Fish always has the safety of outdoor recreationists at the forefront of our minds,” said Dan Smith, Cody Regional Wildlife Supervisor. “We will continue to make management decisions in the best interest of public safety.”

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We haven’t seen a grizzly encounter like this so far this year.

The Glacier National Park Service reports that a jogger was running with two others on the Huckleberry Lookout Trail when she ran into a young grizzly — literally — on Saturday morning.

She not only collided into the bear, she then bounced off the bear and both of them went tumbling down the trail together.

“Once separated, the bear ran off,” the Park Service said. 

The woman received minor injuries to her head and arm but was able to walk back to the trail, meet back up with her friends, and then drove off to the hospital in Kalispell where she received some treatment.

It truly is unfortunate that there wasn’t a trail-cam that recorded the incident as it would seem difficult to accidentally run into a bear. Even young grizzlies are quite large.

Further, the site of a grizzly bear interlocked with a person tumbling down a trail would also be quite fascinating to see.

Then, once the tumbling ends, seeing the bear come-to and running away would be engaging to watch.

Of course, the speculation is fun because both the jogger and the bear ended up OK.

Regardless, the Park Service re-issued a press release Saturday reminding people that grizzly bears are dangerous — even the kind that bounce off joggers.

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

A grizzly was bear captured and euthanized in Wapiti earlier this week after repeatedly breaking into a chicken coop.

This was the third time the bear has been captured by the Cody regional Game and Fish office. Dusty Lasseter, community coordinator for the Game and Fish Department’s “Bear Wise” program, explained that the first two times, it had been caught in a trap meant for another bear.

Lasseter said that the bear was in poor physical condition when captured on Tuesday, with officials noting that he had lost around 85 pounds and had a large wound on his back, possibly from another bear.

“We take in a lot of different factors when we decide to euthanize a bear,” Lasseter explained. “Obviously, we’re not going to tolerate a bear breaking into a building. But if a bear climbs into an apple tree, that’s a different story.”

After the bear was euthanized, its body was donated to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Lasseter noted that its beautiful winter coat and large size were among the reasons the bear was a great specimen for the museum.

Adult male bears have already come out of hibernation, but female bears and cubs are leaving hibernation around early May. Lasseter recommended for anyone living in bear country in Wyoming to secure their “attractants.”

“You have to be really diligent about deterring bears from your house,” he said. “If you’re out hiking, you need to be prepared with bear spray and possibly a firearm. Don’t go alone. We’re predators, too, so a large group of people will be intimidating for a bear.”

Another grizzly in the area was far luckier last week despite attacking a man.

This bear surprised a antler hunter and while mauling the individual accidentally bit-down on his holstered can of bear spray.

The attack stopped, the man was able to get back to his ATV where he was airlifted to a Billings hospital, and the Game and Fish department announced there would likely not be any repercussions for the animal.

“Due to the circumstances involved a surprise encounter and the inability to identify the individual bear, Game and Fish does not plan to take management action at this time, and no area closures have been implemented,” the department said.

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Here’s a silver lining for you.

If you have to get mauled by a grizzly bear, try to maneuver your bear spray into his mouth so he bites down on it.

That’s what happened to Spencer Smith, the Cody man who was mauled last Friday in the Sunlight Basin area in northwestern Wyoming.

The Game and Fish Department on Tuesday announced they finished their investigation and concluded Smith’s survival might be due to a fortuitous chomp on the bear spray.

“During the encounter, the bear bit Smith’s bear spray holstered on his hip, rupturing the canister and presumably causing the bear to break off the attack,” the report reads.

Smith survived the attack and was airlifted to a Billings hospital on Friday where he was in stable condition with “severe” neck injuries.

Despite those injuries Smith was able to walk more than a mile from the attack area to his ATV, where he received assistance from Game and Fish Department personnel.

There’s good news for the bear as well. The adult male grizzly is unlikely to be put down.

“Due to the circumstances involved a surprise encounter and the inability to identify the individual bear, Game and Fish does not plan to take management action at this time, and no area closures have been implemented,” the statement reads.

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A Cody man suffered a “severe” neck injury Friday morning after getting attacked by a grizzly bear in the East Painter Creek area of Park County.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office received an SOS signal activation at 10:47 a.m. alerting them to the bear attack.

The office reported that Spencer Smith of Cody was antler hunting in the area when encountering the bear.

Smith was attempting to walk to his four-wheeler when attacked.

A number of groups including the Park County Search and Rescue, Park County Sheriff’s Office, Cody Regional Wilderness and Response Team, Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Guardian Flight all took part in the search for Smith.

At 11:31 a.m., the four-wheeler was spotted. Shortly thereafter, Smith was found and loaded into the Guardian helicopter for transport to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Billings, Montana.

Smith is described as alert and in stable condition, according to the sheriff’s office.

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