Eyewitness account
To the editor,
My family and I witnessed the grizzly mauling at Great Bear Adventures. While it was a shock to see this, it was an even greater shock to see a 600-pound grizzly bear sitting against a tree making sounds like he was crying. Our family could feel the remorse the bear was feeling as if the bear was human.
When we arrived at the park, the two smaller bears were playing in the water. They were dunking each other, and one was climbing onto something in the pool and jumping on top of the slightly smaller bear. The largest bear of the three was watching the two youngsters play. They were like a couple of colts, children, cats, playing and frolicking.
We had cars behind us, so we decided to move on and come back around and watch them play. They were still at it when we came back around. The park employees were sitting on chairs, in the trees, watching the bears closely. They were also watching the vehicles and their passengers closely. The young gentleman who was injured had to tell some folks to roll up their windows.
The park warns each vehicle and person in it not to get out of the car, to keep windows rolled up, and to lock the doors. They advertise, "Your car is your cage." The man who owns the park has tried very hard, for a very long time, to meet every rule that the state has given him to comply with. The park is clean, the animals well nourished, and each individual who goes into the park is watched carefully.
The two younger bears started running, the bigger of the two was getting a little rough, and you could tell that the smaller bear wanted to be left alone for awhile. To break up this roughness, the young man who was injured ran over to the two (with the third standing up, looking confused) and hazed them apart. He had them separated and had turned his back on them.
To my whole family, it appeared that the bears wanted to play with him, but his hide and weight are nothing in comparison with the bear's hide and weight. The young man was knocked down; the bears started "playing" with him. He was injured and got up and ran. The bears chased him, running at a lesser speed than when they were chasing each other. The third, largest bear went up and looked confused.
Being a prior emergency room and ALS-registered nurse and witnessing this, I wanted to get out of the car to help the young man as quickly as possible. The park employees, two brave young men, kept the bears off of their fellow employee and wouldn't let anyone out of their vehicles until they had hazed the bears off of the man who was down. As soon as the park employee said it was okay, I got out of the vehicle to help the injured young man with the two park employees, much to the dislike of my family.
He did have some injuries, which we treated. I am unable to disclose the injuries, as that would be a violation of patient-nurse confidentiality. He was in good shape when he flew out on ALERT. I was very impressed with Canyon QRU, Columbia Falls Ambulance with paramedic, and the ALERT crew. It did not take them long to arrive—to me it felt like hours, as I'm sure it did for the injured young man. His strength and determination is what got him through this incident.
I do not believe that bear or man caused the accident. It was an accident and should be treated as one. The park owners and his employees have great respect for the bears, as the bears have for the men. The animals are well taken care of, the park is very strict about their policies to prevent injuries, and it is a great learning experience for those who do not have the opportunity to see live grizzly bears.
I do not like bears, but I wanted my children to see how the bears interact and what they look like. In my opinion, the park should be kept open—there was absolutely no wrong-doing on anyone's part. If anything, I've gained a lot of respect for those individuals who take care of the bears and treat them like children.
Grizzly bears are an aggressive animal, but the Great Bear Adventure bears have respect for their caretakers and don't act aggressively. In fact, while I was helping to take care of the injured worker, there was a bear close to me. He/she was woofing at me. I truly believe that the bear was trying to protect the injured worker from me, someone the bear did not know.
I say keep the park open and teach people how to respect these bears. The owner and the employees have a great thing going for all Montanans and all of the persons who visit in Montana. We have the opportunity to see live grizzly bears and drive amongst them without danger. I would gladly go back and see the bears again.
Jeni Frank
Whitefish