Day/date: September 2, 1987 FIELD INCIDENT REPORT Incident type: Drowning - Grizzly Sow Log number: 87-221 Date/time of incident: 8/26 Date/time received: 9/2, 2pm Park: Denali N P Location: not available Reported by: Tom Griffiths, CR (through Rich O'Guin, ARO) Received by: Melissa Warner, WASO Summary: A NPS research team of 3 attempted to replace a radio collar on a sow with 2 cubs. After darting her with Telezol the bear ran down a slope and disappeared into the brush. Two of the members of the research team lost sight of her, the third (who was the spotter) could still see her. Meanwhile the 2 cubs charged uphill toward the research team. The sow was out of sight for approximately 5 minutes. When the researchers found her she had fallen into a pond. She still had a pulse. For the next hour the researchers performed nose to mouth resuscitation. The attempt was unsuccessful. The cubs have not been seen since the incident. A decision was made to leave them alone. The sow was originally collared in 1985 because she was a problem in developed areas. Since that time, she had stayed away from developed areas and had remained in the park near Elison. The incident has attracted a great deal of attention from the local media. Persons involved: Name Address DOB or age ***not given*** Anchorage Dally News Wednesday, September 2, 1987 Tranquilized bear drowns at Denali Park officials fear orphan cubs will die The Associated Press FAIRBANKS - A grizzly bear darted by a researcher's tranquilizer gun staggered into a lake at Denali National Park and drowned, leaving her two cubs standing on the bank, park officials said, "The truth is, there is some possibility the rubs might survive, but it will be tough for them," Tom Griffiths, the park's chief ranger, said Wednesday. "They are small and defenseless and now they have no sow to protect them from being eaten by male bears or wolves" Wolves were seen feeding during the weekend on the bear carcass, but no one hes seen the cubs since the Aug 26 shooting, Griffiths said. A team of three biologists sedated the adult bear near Glacier Creek, about 70 miles west of the park entrance. They had hoped to replace en old battery-operated radio collar on the bear, known as No. 107. But shortly after they shot her with the tranquilizers, the bear staggered over a hill, fell into a lake and drowned, "The research team pulled her out of the water, held her mouth closed and blew through her nose for nearly an hour, trying to revive her," park spokeswoman Jane Anderson said. "It didn't work. She didn't come to." The bear was first collared In 1085 as part of an "aversion conditioning experiment," In which researchers try to train problem bears not to go near camps in the backcountry, After several years of conditioning, the experiment seemed to be working well with this particular grizzly, who had stolen food from several camps before she was collared. "What the researchers do is set up fake campsites and when the bear comes around, they shoot It with rubber or plastic bullets," Anderson said. "The bullets don't penetrate, but they sting. The goal is to get the bear to associate eating backpackers' food with a negative experience." This bear had steered away from camps and hikers for two years, Anderson said. "She was a success story," Anderson said. "Her death makes us all real sad It's unfortunate the way it happened." The researchers who shot the bear wore in the field and could not be reached for comment. The bear was the first to die during park research in six years, Griffiths said. The aversion conditioning program was Instituted several years ago when bears and hikers started running Into each other with alarming frequency, Anderson said, "Bears would rip backpacks, get food, or scare hikers while they cooked dinner," Anderson said. "Fortunately, there were not a large number of Injuries or tragedies." So far, four bea^ have gone through the conditioning program, and all have avoided camps, Griffiths said. "Five or six years ago, Denali had the highest number of bear-human conflicts in the backcountry of any grizzly park In the park system," Griffiths said. "That seems to have been turned around. There was not one food-related bear problem in the backcountry this year, that we know of." No attempt was made to track down the cubs, but the area was closed to overnight use to reduce the chance of the orphaned cubs turning into camp-robbers, Griffiths said. "At this point, we're letting nature take its course as best it can," he said. Capturing the cubs for a zoo or trying to find another mother bear to adopt them are impractical ideas, he said. "Zoos don't want grizzly cubs any more," Griffiths said. "And getting another sow to take the cub would have been risky." Biologists would have had to tranquilize another grizzly to bring the cubs in. "Say we went out and found another sow and cubs," Griffiths said. "We would be running some risk of something happening again. There where would we be? We'd have four cubs without mothers." Compliments of Duncan 335pm