BENTON, Tenn. – Authorities put out traps baited with honey buns and doughnuts Friday in hopes of capturing a potentially crazed black bear that killed a 6-year-old girl and mauled her mother and 2-year-old brother.
It was only the second documented attack on a human by a black bear in modern Tennessee history, said Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency spokesman Dan Hicks.
“There is a chance that the same bear would attack someone else, so I hope they do catch him,” said Lynn Rogers of the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minn.
Black bears generally avoid humans, animal experts said. Rangers at the Cherokee National Forest, where the attack took place Thursday, said a disease, tumor or parasite might have made the animal more aggressive.
The 350- to 400-pound bear attacked the family at a waterfall near a campground after several adult visitors tried to drive it off the trail, Hicks said.
The bear bit the boy’s head, then went after the child’s mother after she tried to fend off the attack with rocks and sticks, Hicks said. The animal picked up the woman with its mouth and dragged her off the trail.
The girl apparently ran away, and almost an hour passed before rescuer Danny Stinnett found the bear hovering over her body about 100 yards off the trail.
Stinnett, a county fire and rescue chief, said he approached and was about 25 feet away when the bear charged him on all fours. He said he fired at the bear twice with his .380-caliber pistol, scaring it off.
“I know I hit it,” Stinnett said. “It reared up on its hind legs. It was as big as you and me.”
Authorities said they didn’t know whether it was wounded.
Dogs failed to pick up the bear’s trail in an overnight search, and authorities set out traps in the 1,000-acre area around the attack site.
The girl was identified by the U.S. Forest Service as Elora Petrasek. Her mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, was in critical condition at a Chattanooga hospital, while her brother Luke Cenkus was upgraded to stable condition. Both are expected to recover. The family is from Clyde, Ohio, between Toledo and Cleveland.
Luke suffered a bite wound that punctured his skull, while his mother had eight puncture wounds to the neck and too many claw and tooth injuries to count elsewhere on her body, doctors said.
Joe Clark, a wildlife ecologist with the U.S. Geological Service who has been studying black bears for about 20 years, said injuries or sickness can make them more aggressive. They also may attack when surprised or, in the case of females, to protect their cubs.
Authorities at the Cherokee National Forest said that if the animal is captured it will be killed so tests can be done to determine if it was ill.
“We may never find it,” Hicks said. “It may be on the top of another mountain by now.”
The attack occurred in a mountainous area, 10 miles from the nearest highway. The national forest covers 1,000 square miles along the Tennessee-North Carolina line.
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