Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Katmai bear-cam viewers witness strange, unexplained death of two brown bears
By Hannah Colton, KDLG - Dillingham | November 9, 2015
Last month at Katmai National Park, the final hours of two brown bears played out in front of an online audience of thousands.
The two animals laid down and died within days of each other.
...
Troy Hamon is the Chief of Resource Management for Katmai National Park & Preserve. The staff decided to have the cub autopsied, so a few of his colleagues boated out and collected the 60-pound carcass.
...
This is uncharted territory for Katmai rangers. Hamon says they?ve never had a bear necropsy done, because they?ve rarely ? if ever ? witnessed a bear die of an unknown cause.
?We see bears being killed by other bears, we also see occasionally adult bears killing each other? But our understanding of the non-traumatic deaths is fairly uncommon.?
...
Ranger Michael Saxton is one of the bear technicians who collected the cub?s body. He says so far only a few things have been ruled out by the lab in Wisconsin.
Rabies is negative, >toxoplasmosis is negative as well? that?s just a disease they check for, a contagious disease.?
Samples from the adult male were sent to a state veterinarian, but the tissue was too decayed to do most diagnostic tests.
...
http://www.alaskapublic.org/2015/11...strange-unexplained-death-of-two-brown-bears/
By Hannah Colton, KDLG - Dillingham | November 9, 2015
Last month at Katmai National Park, the final hours of two brown bears played out in front of an online audience of thousands.
The two animals laid down and died within days of each other.
...
Troy Hamon is the Chief of Resource Management for Katmai National Park & Preserve. The staff decided to have the cub autopsied, so a few of his colleagues boated out and collected the 60-pound carcass.
...
This is uncharted territory for Katmai rangers. Hamon says they?ve never had a bear necropsy done, because they?ve rarely ? if ever ? witnessed a bear die of an unknown cause.
?We see bears being killed by other bears, we also see occasionally adult bears killing each other? But our understanding of the non-traumatic deaths is fairly uncommon.?
...
Ranger Michael Saxton is one of the bear technicians who collected the cub?s body. He says so far only a few things have been ruled out by the lab in Wisconsin.
Rabies is negative, >toxoplasmosis is negative as well? that?s just a disease they check for, a contagious disease.?
Samples from the adult male were sent to a state veterinarian, but the tissue was too decayed to do most diagnostic tests.
...
http://www.alaskapublic.org/2015/11...strange-unexplained-death-of-two-brown-bears/