Animals, Bizarre, Environment, Science, Society

New Jersey Student Takes Picture Of Black Bear Before Being Mauled To Death in First New Jersey Black Bear Fatality

hiker-3As many readers of this blog know, I love to hike and bring back pictures from the various trails of wildlife so this story was particularly chilling for me. Darsh Patel was hiking with his four friends when they spotted a black bear in New Jersey and stopped to take pictures. Patel continued to take five pictures with his cellphone as the 300-pound bear charged and killed him.

I have seen dozens of black bears while backpacking and hiking, particularly in Virginia and Michigan. Attacks are incredibly rare. I often see black bears on the Old Rag hike or other locations in the Shenandoah. I black bears come through camp sites at night in past years without incident.

In this case, the hikers are in the Apshawa Preserve in West Milford in September and decided to split up when the male bear got closer. The bear selected Patel and mauled him — even gouging his cellphone.

The bear was later shot by a police officer and was found to have digested human flesh. It was a four year old male bear.

Paresh a senior at Rutgers University’s School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in information technology and informatics.

Kovacs-Patel copy.jpgPolice said that Patel, 22, was the first person to be killed by a bear in New Jersey. That is a rather surprising statistic for a state like New Jersey with ample forested areas, even considering the low likelihood of such attacks. Black bears have killed 61 people in North America since 1900. As one bear site host remarked,”My chances of being killed by a domestic dog, bees, or lightning are vastly greater. My chances of being murdered are 60,000 times greater. One of the safest places a person can be is in the woods.”

NJbear

Source: NY Post

77 thoughts on “New Jersey Student Takes Picture Of Black Bear Before Being Mauled To Death in First New Jersey Black Bear Fatality”

  1. The Framers of the Second Amendment were dyslectic that night they penned the Amendment. They meant to say: The Right to arm bears…. Not bear arms.

  2. You mean the black bear didn’t grab the camera and delete the photo? Now the black bear will be put on paid administrative leave until the investigation is concluded. Maybe the bear will secure the protection of the Thin Bear Line.

  3. Squeeky…I am proud of “Shadow” because he turned out to be such a great dog with kids in the family I gave him to upon rescuing him. He validated my judgment so to speak. Many people said he couldn’t do it. We couldn’t keep him here because we had the limit (legally) of dogs & cats. I knew he’d be great from the first time I saw him at the age of 3 months old…a very contemplative dog, aloof as a pup, but no sign of suspicion or meanness. The people who had him gave him up when they couldn’t figure out how to handle him, and I had insisted that if they ever reached that point that they let me know. They did. He came to town from the north woods to live with a vet tech I knew who had worked with our dogs, even the tough ones without problems, when we were out of town.

    Normally a wolf hybrid doesn’t work out so well, retaining the suspicion of the wild to a substantial degree. I recommend no one ever acquire one or try to breed one, but “Shadow” was just different. A gift of nature so to speak. I had spent a good deal of time around wild wolves and “Shadow” exemplified how the transition from wolf to dog was made by animals like him.

    A side note would be that the Czechs and the Dutch have tried two different hybridizations of Shepherds with Wolves, with mixed success…the Saarloos Wolfhound and the Czechoslovakian Wolf Dog. Both can be easily seen via Google & Wiki.

  7. Aridog,
    We camped in Custer State Park and were told bison would walk right through the campground. The first evening we had several that did just that and they are an impressive animal. Now, I’ve called them buffalo my entire life and could never understand the difference between that and bison. I found out then that in North America they are bison and that buffalo are in Africa and Asia.

  8. Here is Shadow the wolf-dog I will never forget, ever. Half Timber Wolf & half German Shepherd….that I rescued at 6 months of age. The young man next to him is Kassidy, now near 20 years of age.

  9. Haz,
    Your comment reminded me of a “Faces of Death” video I saw back in the early 80’s. It showed a family in a station wagon at some national park. There were bears around being fed from their cars by the tourists. The driver got out of the car to film his wife feeding the bear on her side of the car. In his video, all of a sudden you hear the wife saying she’s out of food and the video cuts to the husband’s camera filming the sky. The next cut is of the bear running off with an arm hanging from his mouth. That has got to be as bad as burning to death!

    Squeeky, you are on a roll with your poetry of late; keep it up!

  10. Trooper York…perfect photo of what circa 1955 Yellowstone Park was like. I was there, with my family for the first time. I’ve never grown tired of that park, every trip it surprises me. I’ve learned that there are two animals to never mess with…bears and moose. A moose can strike you with an upward blow from a hoof…rare among the cloven footed clan. The elk for the most part have figured out that humans are not a threat (and are well protected by rangers), but you can get the odd one who doesn’t appreciate you in the middle of his pursuit of a fair maiden. . Today it is Buffalo who are common along the roads in the Lamar and Hayden Valleys, and people are just as silly. What ARE you thinking when you go up to a two ton bull to pet his forehead? In the middle of an August rut season? Hopefully, you are thinking about your paid up insurance policies. Same thing when you fed a 500 pound black bear through your car window? I appreciate people who love wildlife, but wild means wild. Think that when out there.

    I’ve spent days, weeks, months in wilderness environments and I have learned to respect the space of the wildlife there, from beavers to grizzly bears. Outside of Yellowstone I’ve spent time in the wilderness areas of the mountains near by…and the “rules” are the same. Griz will usually warn you, black bears aren’t so defensive until you are already too close, and cougars make no sound at all…but they may track you…if you traverse your back trail don’t be shocked to find the pug marks criss crossing it. In fact, circle back now and then and look for it. As for wolves, I’ve been within a few feet and never feared…so long as I didn’t act the fool, there is a reason why wolves are the ancestors of our domestic dogs…they do not hate you, they are just suspicious, for good reason, and will easily accept you if you leave them alone. The wolf hybrid I rescued long ago turned out to be among the best household dogs with two infant kids that ever was…nobody messed with those kids, in a ghetto in Detroit no less. I miss “Shadow” to this day…even if he lived 14 years as a magnificent animal 31 inches tall at the withers. And a threat to no one not trying to provoke him. I still miss him.

    1. Aridog – if you were in Yellowstone in 1955 then you were there when people were feeding the bears from their cars. Great times 😉

  11. Ranger Smith: “We are having a big problem with bears eating garbage here in Jellystone Ranger Jones.”
    Ranger Jones: “Really? I know that they like Indian food. I mean Indian food is pretty bad but it is not technically garbage.”
    Ranger Smith: “Really Jones? I don’t think that is appropriate.”
    Ranger Jones; “What? Too soon?”

    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wJEquIXPYC8/0.jpg

  13. Oh, I know this is morbid, but why didn’t he just stop taking pictures and haul buns out of there??? Anyway. . .

    Scenes From A Maul???
    An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm

    There once was a kid from the city,
    Who thought that the black bear was pretty!
    Sooo anthropomorphic,
    He tried for one more pic. . .
    But Black Bears are not Hello Kitty!

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  14. I’m sure Michael Brown’s mother or some African American reader finds this quite funny.

  15. “Demon” ” Hulk Hogan”.

    “Untermencshen”.

    He was someone’s son, he was a human being, as wrong as he may have been.

  16. I once watched a video of the late Johnny Carson holding a discussion with students at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Carson graduated from UN, and during his lifetime donated more than $11 million to the fine arts department.

    Carson engaged the students on the definition of humor. There was a lot of give and take, and finally Carson said that he believed “humor is tragedy plus time.”

    Sounds about right.

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