DNA testing to find the killer bear from Yellowstone National Park

A “CSI” investigation has been launched after a grizzly bear attack at a campsite near Yellowstone National Park, when the authorities had to do DNA testing to identify the female bear that killed one man and injured two other campers.

The wildlife officials from Montana trapped a female grizzly bear and her two cubs just near the campsite where the attack took place by lured the bears into metal cages with the dead victim’s tent. The authorities believe that this is the same bear that attacked the campers and will euthanize it, but before they will wait for the results of genetic testing because they do not want to kill an innocent bear. The issue is that they have not yet decided if they should kill the two bear cubs too and they are still hunting for a third one, but it is more likely that they will be euthanized because they are supposed to have learned the predatory behavior from their mother during the attack. The attack took place at the Soda Butte Campground, on the northern Montana-Wyoming border of Yellowstone Park, at 2 AM in the night, when the camper groups were asleep in their tents. This is when a female bear, estimated to weigh from 300 to 400 pounds started running amok at the camp site, entering tents and attacking humans. Ronald Singer, a 21 years old young man who was bitten on the leg, says that he suddenly felt the tent flying and something attacked him. He punched the animal a few times because he was still asleep and then it ran into the bushes. The female bear then set off to attack people in other tents and Kevin Kammer, aged 48, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, was killed and dragged away from his tent.

Deb Freele, a Canadian camper, barely escaped alive after the bear crushed her arm in its jaws. Freele played dead and then the bear left her alone. She remembers to hear her bones cracking and thinking that this was not a normal bear. The attack is puzzling the wildlife officials because the campers had taken all the necessary precautions and they did not keep food anywhere near the sleeping area, but kept it away, locked in metal recipients. Captain Sam Sheppard, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks “investigator” who is managing the case says that he believes that the female bear targeted the three people and attacked them for no reason at all and this is why it should be put down. After the suspected mother and the two cubs were captured, the authorities will perform DNA tests to see if they did not get the wrong bear and link them to the scene of the attack. Authorities gather evidence after a bear attack just like they do on human crimes, and gather the saliva from the puncture holes where it bit the campers. The DNA tests are almost identical to human DNA tests, and once the match has been done there is less than a 1 in a billion chance of an error.