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