JACKSON — The grizzly bears suspected of fatally mauling outfitter Mark Uptain were trapped and killed early Sunday near the elk carcass that caused conflict on Terrace Mountain.
“We killed two grizzly bears up there a little bit ago, and we have every reason to believe they are the offending bears,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department Jackson Regional Supervisor Brad Hovinga said around 10:45 a.m. Sunday. “They fit the description.”
Forensic tests will provide certainty that the killer grizzlies are now dead, he said.
The successful overnight capture was unexpected.
Before boarding a helicopter hours before, Game and Fish carnivore supervisor Dan Thompson remarked that it was a “low probability” that the bears would have remained in the area because of…
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Exposing the Big Game 
All the ingredients were there to evoke an attack: an elk carcass of mutual interest and stake to humans and bears, the bears were in hyperplalgia (eating as many calories as they can get, the hunters were returning from the day before when they shot the elk with an arrow, to retrieve the elk, there was a bear sow with cub, surprise, territoriality ( humans encroaching). The killing of the bears, alleged suspects was revenge killing, retaliation.
Did they happen to mention the sex of the yearling cub? That has been conveniently omitted. It must be yet another female. While it is tragic that the man was killed, hunting, and especially this time of year, is a risky endeavor. But there is no need for ‘revenge killing’. It is irrational. The man had the luxury of choice in his behavior – he didn’t have to go there. The bears and other wildlife have no choice. And I don’t see how a hunting season is necessary when ‘authorities’ can go in and take out the bears who interfere with human dominance of the landscape. They aren’t even sure that they have the right animals. They fit the description? You can’t do that to human murderers.
You cannot eliminate the risk unless you kill them all – and maybe that is what some want, but they cannot justify it to the public. So I guess it is kill them all off a little at a time. The same thing with the mountain lion in the Mt. Hood National Forest.
Conviently omitted, or worse, dismissed as unimportant!!!!
Now the media is reporting that ‘they don’t know why the grizzly was acting so aggressively.’ Duh! She had a cub with her, there was a potential food supply nearby, and who knows what these interlopers were doing in her backyard? To her, she would perceive them as a threat. (so would I.)
I also wish that F&W would *not* give people a false sense of security out in wilderness. They should be told flatly that wildlife is unpredictable and dangerous at all times. That could be some of the reason why people behave carelessly in the wild and in national parks – because the so-called experts told them so.
I’m waiting to see if the sex of the cub will be disclosed. Where the poor bear wasn’t an adult, it probably doesn’t count in WY, ID and MT’s formula! Only .5 of a bear. But a yearling bear could be a potential parent in a few years.
I’m glad the judge is taking his time to understand the issue.
I’ll post it if I see anything more on it…