Grizzlies kill 2-year-old bear at WSU center ( updated with pic not of bear)

[dirty24d]

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) - A 2-year-old grizzly bear was mauled to death by two older bears at the Washington State University Bear Center in Pullman.

The university says the fight Tuesday was the first time the bears had shown violent aggression. Center Director Charles Robbins said it doesn't put bears together unless they show months or years of good behavior with each other.

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports the three bears had been raised in side-by-side pens for at least two years and were out together in a 2-acre fenced area with two other resident bears.

The WSU Bear Center houses adult grizzlies for research.


If they had one of these the whole thing could have been avoided!!

[dirty24d]

must have had a special permit to pull this off and not get in trouble with the gamies.     umm grizzlies and enclosures with  caretakesr in the enclosures  =   ..

[GoldTip]

Ya gotta love them bear researchers.  They can really predict exactly how them bears are gonna act, in the words of Bugs Bunny, "What a Maroon."

"This was the first time they had shown violent aggression."  These people do realize they are actual bears correct?  Good lord this little article makes my head hurt.

[Kain]

Dont get to see a lot of aggression when you feed them butchered meat and dog food.  Throw a live elk or deer in there and see what happens.    Three griz in a 2 acre lot...only a matter of time.   THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!   

[dirty24d]

Right because hey we can just watch them for a few months and know what they will do from now on.   The only thing i liked in that article was a comment from a reader basically saying:
 ( Hello??? bears basically have 2 predators # 2 being humans and # 1 being other bears).  Betcha there was some serious pucker action going on when the so called caretakers and experts witnessed this event, being that they had probbaly recently been in the enclosure with them.   Dummies!  

[sako223]

How many grizzlies are together in a pen at Woodland zoo?

Never know what animals are going to do.

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-12-16/news/mn-14604_1_grizzly-bear

[goosegetter79]

Use to work at WSU and I had to go dig a trench right outside there pens. One of the momma bears wasn't happy at this and charged at the fence scaring the crap out of me. The place they're in is pretty cool and you can go watch them when they're outside in the 2 acre field or you can even see them when they're in the pens. Closest i've ever been to a bear.

[sako223]

Like this close!

[wsucowboy]

You put three adult grizzly bears in a two acre pen. What the hell do you think is going to happen?  They do realise that grizzly bears are wild animals not cute little winny the poo walking around with his pot of honey? Funny that us hunters can figure out that they will fight but the researchers can't.

[goosegetter79]

Like this close!

Closer like within a foot only there was the one chainlink fence between us. I was using a trencher and had ear muffs on for the noise just happened to look up as she was headed my way. They are pretty cool animal's.

[goosegetter79]

You put three adult grizzly bears in a two acre pen. What the hell do you think is going to happen?  They do realise that grizzly bears are wild animals not cute little winny the poo walking around with his pot of honey? Funny that us hunters can figure out that they will fight but the researchers can't.

Everytime i've gone up there to see them and they've been out in the grass there's always been 2-3 out at a time. 

[wsucowboy]

Everytime i've gone up there to see them and they've been out in the grass there's always been 2-3 out at a time. 
[/quote]
I went there my senior year but to think that three grizzlies in such a small area aren't going to eventually  fight seems kind of dumb to me. They are wild animals. Even if they were breed in captivity they still have the wild instinct. It's obviously not anywhere near as strong as a bear born in the wild but it is still there. 

[bearpaw]

Most wild carnivores at some point practice cannibalism, just part of life....

[dirty24d]

If the conditions there are optimal they may be retaining more of there predatory instincts. Maybe they see deer and or other bears outside their enclosure on a regular basis? never been there so I couldnt speak to that. To me its no different then throwing multiple humans in a cage for years eventually one of them is going assert their dominance by way of violence. 

[predatorpro]

huh bears doing what they were designed to do.....how confusing.....

[dirty24d]

   reasearchers fail!!

[flashover52]

There's a show on Nat Geo -- forget the name, maybe Wild Adventures?? Anyway, the guy has trained Brutus a 800 lb grizzly since he as a cub. Started a grizzly sanctuary in Montana and actually uses Brutus for film and testing products. A recent show had an introduction of Brutus with another grizzly. They actually seperated the grass area with two portable electric fences that created about a 10' clear space between them. That way they could observe how the two would react to each other face to face sort to speak without them likely becoming entangled. Only after observing the bears observe each other, did they remove the fence and keep their fingers crossed.

Needless to say, I wonder if the WSU folks did something similar.......   

If they didn't, I wonder if they could've seen some initial aggression being shown and stop the introduction at that point before they could interact within reach of each other....

[ICEMAN]

Sounds like it is time for the researchers to apply for a bunch of grants to build multiple similar pens in order to verify what was learned.....