Talk:List of fatal bear attacks in North America/Archive 1

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Message for my fellow Wikipedians in respect to filling up this list.

There were 52 fatal black bear attacks from 1900-2003, to-wit: Alaska - 5 lower 48 - 11 Canada - 36

There have been roughly 50 fatal brown bear attacks during the same time period. There have been about 5 fatal polar bear attacks. So we're looking at 100-110 attacks roughly to fill the table up. The old Hoke appreciates all the help he can get, especially from our Canadian friends. --Hokeman 18:22, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Although it doesn't give specifics on the individual attacks, I thought this might be of some use:

http://www.vs.gov.bc.ca/stats/quarter/q1_2_98/index.html#fatalities

- Webgeer 17:12, 10 May 2006 (UTC) August.10, 1993 Colin McClelland age 24 (a logger)died as the result of a crushed skull after a 240lb. male Black Bear tore the door open to his trailer. The bear after killing him returned twice to feed upon the body which it drug outside the trailer. The bear was later traped and killed by game wardens.

--There are many missing fatal attacks here, especially from Alaska in the early days. I will make a point of collecting these from the various books on early Alaska hunting and include them with citation once confirmed.

No records are shown for the 19th century. There were many documented attacks in California during American colonization of the area. I will try to find more details and post.

Last entry doesn't apply
The top and most recent entry (Brycen Andre` Donovan) is of a non-fatal attack threfore it should be removed. Also, no reference is provided.

Tiagoams 18:34, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

agree that donovan entry should be removed. can't find it on google news though it happened yesterday???

Omarcheeseboro 20:11, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Challenge to Nomination for Speedy Deletion
This is one of may lists of fatal animal attacks in Wikipedia. There are also a fatal shark, wolf, alligator and cougar pages. This page has been around for well over a year. Other media publish fatal animal attacks--Hokeman 19:03, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Just because there are other articles that should be deleted does not mean that this one shouldn't. perhaps a merger into one article fatal animal attacks? -- /\sSb\/TALK/\ -- 19:27, 20 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Perhaps, but this doesn't seem like speedy deletion material under any of the WP:CSDs. Angus McLellan (Talk) 19:58, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

The entry listing David Robinson as having been killed by a brown bear in NC in January 2008 should be deleted. First of all, there are no Brown Bears in NC. And secondly, there was no fatal attack in NC in January 2008. 1/29/2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mowgli16 (talk • contribs) 17:58, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism?
"The bear, yogi, was smarter than the average bear. After stealing Berry's picnic basket, Berry pursued after notifying Park Ranger, Ranger Rick. Berry gave chase, but was later mauled. The bear was later found at a picnic table. At a picnic table, they found him there; stuffing down more goodies than the average bear. The bear was turned over to the custody of Jellystone Park"

I can't tell exactly when this came in, or what it replaced. The page has been edited since then, and I don't want to kill any legitimate edits by reverting. Would somebody who's been watching the article like to fix it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.52.69.217 (talk) 14:31, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

This was not vandalism. It should be added back into the original article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.165.2.174 (talk) 03:19, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

polar?
The article claims 5 polar bear attacks resulted in human deaths, but then none of the listed attacks are credited to the polar bears. Tempshill 04:19, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
 * That's a good point you make. Attacks that occurred in isolated regions, particularly northern Canada and northern Alaska have been difficult to document. I have not been able to come up with any names or dates in regard to polar bear attacks - just bits and pieces of information here and there such as 'Inuit seal hunter killed by polar bear'.--Hokeman 16:28, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

split by species
I think the decade lists should be split by species, something like 1960s Black bear

Brown bear

Polar bear

that would make it easier for somone who is interested in just one species to match the decades list to the summary at the top.--Paddling bear (talk) 18:12, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

There has been no comment on this, so I'm going to try it and if it's not better, someone can revert it. I thought about having one table per species broken by decade, but thought people might want to compare # of (documented) attacks per decade, I left it by decade THEN by species.--Paddling bear (talk) 16:09, 21 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but I think it's best just to list everything chronologically, and then indicate the species in the row (as is). Like pretty much everything on the web, most users are going to be quickly scanning over data... it's nice just to have everything compact and if they want to see species, they can just look in the column.
 * I apologize if I misunderstood. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 16:28, 21 March 2010 (UTC)


 * It's still chronological, but before the attacks within a decade for black or brown bears were mixed, making it harder to see how many attacks there were for each. I just finished the edit, so see what you think. IF it's accepted, we could remove the column for species, giving more room for the name,date, comment.  I didn't do this because I wanted it easier to revert if people didn't like the new format.
 * I recall a woman in Quebec was killed jogging around a track, but I'll look for that citation. Found another attack list here (http://www.covebear.com/BlackBearAttacks.htm), but prefer a real citation.  I don't want to add or edit any lines until the format is accepted or reverted. --Paddling bear (talk) 17:12, 21 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Yeah, getting rid of the mixing is what I expected. Initially I thought I'd prefer it all mixed together, but after viewing your edit, I think this is an improvement. Nice work!
 * If we had a graphic person with some time, we could create a map corresponding to all the attacks. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 17:19, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I could make some basic maps if I had coordinates, but I don't know that the locations are meaningful since the cause of the attack is not wholly location. Glad you liked the new look.--Paddling bear (talk) 22:27, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
 * There's a black bear fatality in the brown bear list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.226.245.153 (talk) 00:36, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Fixed. Thanks. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 00:46, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for catching that missed entry.--Paddling bear (talk) 22:27, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Purpose
What is the purpose of pages listing fatalities? Another comment listed one for wolves, alligators, sharks, etc. What is the inteneded use, except support that bears are too dangerous to have around? Three species have killed ~110 people in 150 years, do we list the 100s of thousands of bears that humans have killed? Not really against the page, just wondering why it's worth all the work to keep it current. --Paddling bear (talk) 18:19, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Today, I found this article very useful. We have a black bear that prowls around the cottage at night. We haven't been overly concerned, but I did decide to do a little research. This article has illustrated very clearly, that while bears are not a rampaging menace, there is a very real danger associated. We've always treated wild animals with respect and caution, but I never realized that there is the potential (albeit rarely) for bears to break into trailers, cabins, and homes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jc128842 (talk • contribs) 05:48, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm also wondering what the purpose of this list is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.232.171.232 (talk) 04:58, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Unreferenced sources - stop gap solution
One of the basic aims of Wikipedia is to provide sourced/referenced "facts". Most of the incidents reported on this article page are not referenced, and as such do not belong on Wikipedia, with the resulting threat of speedy deletion. I understand that many people have taken their time to add stuff here, so I will not delete their contributions, but merely put them on hold by copying and pasting them on this discussion page until a reference is provided for each case. --Technopat (talk) 10:07, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree that this page is not useful. How many people came here looking for advice on what to do if attacekd by a bear? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.42.208.182 (talk) 18:09, 23 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia is not a place for "how to" articles --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 18:11, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Nick Ruberto - Referenced Entry is bogus
The following entry appears bogus to me even tho it has a reference to Star-Tribune. I can find no reference anywhere on the net to substantiate this entry.

Nick Ruberto, 22, male September 5, 2007 Black Whilst drinking with his friends in Ely, Minnesota, the unfortunate Mr. Ruberto wandered into the woods to urinate. He never returned. Upon waking up the following morning, his friends found his mauled remains 60 yards (55 m) away from the cabin. The bear was later captured and killed by the Minnesota DNR. [3]

--Imgahn2u (talk) 22:49, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

I too noticed that this doesn't look right. Went to the startribune website and did a search of the archives under "Nick Ruberto". Nothing came up. This looks fake, I'm removing it. Thanks. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 02:10, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Deleted from article pending reference as per Wikipedia rules
Harvey Robinson, 69, male || August 26, 2005 || Black || Fatally mauled while picking plums at Selkirk, north of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Rich Huffman, 61, male; Kathy Huffman, 58, female || June 23, 2005 || Brown || Killed in their tent at a campsite along the Hulahula river 12 miles upriver from Kaktovik in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Isabelle Dube, 35, female || June 5,2005 || Brown || Killed while jogging with 2 friends on the Bench Trail in Canmore, Alberta

Merlyn Carter, 71, male || 2005 || Black || Found dead in the main cabin of his fishing camp located 300 km Northeast of Ft. Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada.

--Technopat (talk) 10:14, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Forestry worker || April 17, 2003 || Black || Stalked, killed and partially consumed by a large, black bear near Waswanipi, a village in northern Quebec.
 * Christopher Bayduza || September 2002 || Black || Attacked and killed at a remote oil rigging site in northeastern British Columbia.
 * Maurice Malenfant || September 2002 || Black || Attacked and killed in his campsite in Gaspé region of Quebec.
 * Ester Schwimmer, 5 months, female || August 2002 || Black || Bear grabs and kills 5 month old infant from stroller on the porch of home in Fallsburg, New York.

--Technopat (talk) 10:18, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Adelia Maestras Trujillo, 93, female || August 2001 || Black || Bear breaks into a house in New Mexico and is confronted by the elderly owner who dies during the attack.
 * Kyle Harry, 18, male || June 3, 2001 || Black || Attacked and killed at a rural campsite 25 km. east of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, Canada.
 * George Tullos, 41, male || July 14, 2000 || Brown || His partially consumed body was found at Run Amuk campground in Hyder, Alaska.
 * Mary-Beth Miller, 24, female || July 2000 || Black || Attacked and killed while on a training run in Quebec, Canada.
 * Glena Ann Bradley, female || May 2000 || Black || Killed and partially consumed by a 112 pound female and her 40 pound yearling. The attack occurred near the Goshen Prong/Little River trail junction 1.5 miles upstream from Elkmont, Great Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg, Tennessee

--Technopat (talk) 10:22, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I am the creator and one of the principal editors of this article. All these deletions you made are referenced in the first two Southeastern Outdoors articles listed under general references. In most cases other editors have come along and added names, ages, more details.--Hokeman (talk) 21:55, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Greetings Hokeman, It's precisely for the reason you state "In most cases other editors have come along and added names, ages, more details." that it's necessary to reference each case. I will try to revert to your original edits, but maybe you can add the refs. Regards, --Technopat (talk) 22:45, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

--DigitalShepherd (talk) 19:57, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Updated and added references for Christopher Bayduza (new reference with age) and Maurice Malenfant (age and reference to article).

Will Ferrell bear
Inserted the info on the bear that killed a trainer, same bear that was in the Will Ferrell movie Semi Pro.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.39.208.218 (talk) 15:17, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Hopefully not a new addition...
Keep an eye on this one

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_us/grizzly_attack -Omarcheeseboro (talk) 14:39, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/44156.html new one? + reference to biologist who has compiled data —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.176.26.103 (talk) 18:31, 14 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank You, I added two new entries. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 18:10, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Reference cleanup
I just did a cleanup on all the entries - if there's no reference to be found, I added a citation needed tag. Let me know if there's something missing. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 17:14, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

If anyone is interested...
Marcie Trent and Larry Waldron - the two who died on July 1, 1995 - were my relatives (Marcie being my uncle Frank's mother, and Larry his brother). It should be noted (not in the article mind you) that there were actually three people there that day - the third was my cousin Art. Marcie was attacked first, and Larry and Art escaped, with Larry forcing Art up a tree, I believe along with a shotgun to defend himself. Larry then went to save his mother, and was also attacked and killed. Art, however, survived, and returned shortly thereafter with the group sent out to kill the bear. He was featured by image on the front cover of the local newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News at the time. I actually saw him the other day and hung out in Marcie's old house with him. Sort of a strange night what with that whole occurance, but I'm glad Art is okay. - Somarinoa (talk) 10:30, 29 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I'm sorry about your loss. Also, I'm not sure if you saw, but there's a citation next to the entry, which is a ADN article. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 15:00, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Sarcastic, but true
.is it way the read to frustrating It's .years the like descending sorted be should tables the think I  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.232.120.232 (talk) 20:48, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the feedback, I've considered making the change, but it seems like the standard is to have dates/events in ascending order. I'll try to find out if it is okay to change it --CutOffTies (talk) 20:50, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I couldn't make any sense out of the unsigned comment, but I figure people would be most interested in the recent fatalities than old ones, especially as the list grows, so I like it in reverse chronological order. I've wondered (again) whether they should be listed by species first, but I think this works. Perhaps we just need a table at the top with a summary tally by species with the details below?--Paddling bear (talk) 04:47, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I believe the IP was saying that within the decade, it should be reverse chron.? Not sure. --CutOffTies (talk) 05:00, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Revamping list
I will be changing the tables to use sortable tables. Also I will add another column for location --CutOffTies (talk) 23:53, 29 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Having some problems sorting by date. --CutOffTies (talk) 01:57, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Got Black Bears in 2000s working! Will do the rest now in that format. --CutOffTies (talk) 02:45, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Completed. --CutOffTies (talk) 15:36, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

Timothy Treadwell
the current data on Treadwell says:

" Only a few days before, Treadwell filmed himself with the bear that killed him in the background, while commenting that it was a bear just like this one — older, struggling to bulk up for the winter — that posed the most threat to humans."

This statement is not true. The bear that ate treadwell was named by him the "Big Red Machine", an older shaggy red bear. The bear referred to in the above incorrect statement was identified by treadewell in Grizzly Man as "Ollie the big old grumpy bear", and it was a sleek brown in color not the shaggy "Big Red Machine". Rob043055 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:10, 30 June 2011 (UTC).


 * I removed the unsourced statement. Thank you. --CutOffTies (talk) 03:38, 30 June 2011 (UTC)