70 year old woman killed by black bear

[Emily]

http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1054780


Search continues for killer black bear
Posted By The Canadian Press
Posted 1 day ago


MONTREAL — As conservation officers hunted Monday for a black bear that killed a 70-year-old woman, a Quebec wildlife expert insisted such horrifying attacks against humans are rare.

Provincial wildlife biologist Marcel Pare says four people have died in black bear attacks in Quebec during the past 25 years.

“There are more risks of attacks by grizzly bears in national parks in Western Canada,” Pare said.

Cecile Verreault-Lavoie’s husband went looking for her Friday evening when she didn’t return from a fishing excursion in an isolated area near La Sarre, about 600 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

Police say the man, also in his 70s, found Verreault-Lavoie’s body and spotted a bear nearby before he contacted police.

“We tried to approach, but the animal was too aggressive and it was too dark to try to find the woman,” said provincial police spokesman Gregory Gomez del Prado.

“We came back the next morning with wildlife conservation agents and we able to recover the body.”

Traps have been set to catch the bear.

Pare suggested Verreault-Lavoie was attacked by an older male that was on the hunt.

“There are certain individual bears, often adult males, who will exercise predatory behaviour,” Pare said.

“In the area where the attack occurred, it happens during this period of the year.”

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Pare said the black bear is usually a vegetarian that eats a lot of plants, foliage and small fruits, but “there are certain ones which, on occasion, will nourish themselves with meat.”

“Probably that’s what happened in this case. The bear probably considered the victim as a potential prey and he attacked her viciously.”

Pare said it’s unlikely the woman was attacked by a female bear protecting her cubs.

“In this case, there were no young (with the bear) and, considering the size, it appears to have been a male,” he said.

Pare emphasized the attack, which occurred in an area “just south of the 50th parallel,“ was not triggered by the bear’s hunger after a severe winter.

“We had less snow than the region of Montreal,” he said.

If it’s captured and the bear turns out to be an older male, the animal will be destroyed.

There are at least 70,000 black bears in Quebec.