Visitors to Alaska's Denali National Park this summer may be able to catch a glimpse of something you don't see every day: a three-pawed grizzly bear.
A picture of the bear shows it to be missing about half of its right front leg.
"We call him Tri-pawed," park biologist Pat Owen told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "He kind of hops around."
The bear, the first Owen has seen missing a paw in 23 years with the Park Service, was first spotted in the park last year, when the wound was still bloody, she told the paper. She wondered at that time whether the injury would prevent the bear from getting food, digging its winter den or defending itself.
But it seems to have done just fine, she said.
One person at the park even saw the bear leap a highway guardrail, Owen told the Daily News-Miner.
"They said he looked very agile. I don't think he has any trouble getting around," she was quoted as saying.
Owen said park officials don't know how the bear was injured, but did not think it was from a trap because the wound was a clean cut.
The Park Service won't track the bear and won't do anything special to help it, she said. While the grizzly is listed as a threatened species in the lower 48 states, there are about 30,000 grizzlies in Alaska, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"For now, we'll let him do his thing and see what happens," Owen told the Daily News-Miner. But she said that if the grizzly is still around when visitor season opens on May 20, the park may post signs so rangers won't have to repeatedly answer the same questions about it.
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I would guess that a 3-pawed grizzly is still a formidable threat to everything except a 4-pawed grizzly, and even then, it'd be quite a fight. As long as the bear can eat, defend itself, and survive hibernation, it seems there's no reason it should have a problem being 3-legged.
Ok, where is Sarah?
I checked to see if anyone else said it before I did...:)
Unfortunately, Sarah does not provide assistance to bears. After all, they cannot vote, they really have no celebrity influence, and they cannot provide money for her family. So - what's the point?
I'm surprised Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson aren't in Yellowstone fighting for the bear's civil rights.
She's was in the helicopter when she shot off his paw.
Thems people from the dark side of Mars done hit it with one of them laser rays that travels through space at triple warp speed faster than the speed of light. They's practicing up on bears and squirrels and are coming after us next.
lol
Wear your aluminum ha Bobt, they won't be able to find you and read your thoughts.
cute
Use your head people. the cub got stuck in a bear trap.
Read the article..."Owen said park officials don't know how the bear was injured, but did not think it was from a trap because the wound was a clean cut"
Somewhere there is a large jar of honey, with a hairy paw stuck in the middle!
Michael Moore wanted to eat a bear claw.
yea right! it wasnt injured in a trap?! The National Parks Service is in the pocket of the Fish Game and Wildlife, hunters and fur wearers everywhere. Stop traping animals for fur and you will stop hurting these beautiful animals.
It takes 40 beautiful animals to make a fur coat for just one ugly human.
And they don't taste that good eithe, not near as good as eagle wings.
That's it only 40, good that means we should be Abe to get atleast 7500 bear fur coats out of Alaska!
Personally, I don't hunt or trap but the wildlife situation in this country wouldn't be as healthy as it is without the hunters and trappers. They provide the bulk of wildlife management monies. It's the uninformed public that is the greatest danger to wildlife. Against all educated advice, they continue to feed them and attract them. Then they complain when deer eat their prized shrubs and beavers inundate their basements. I will never understand people who decide to have bird feeders and wonder why squirrels(tree rats) have taken up residence in their attic or they are overrun by mice or a bear mom shows up at their doorstep wanting a handout. Isn't that cute we have all these animals in our yard? Now, go call the environmental police or an exterminator to have them executed.
Has anyone checked Palin's freezer?
he must be from afghanistan
They named him "tri-pawed". How original. "Trip" would have been funnier cuz I suspect he's done that a couple of times. Heh.
Sarah Palin would've sued since her son name is Trip, She'll do anything to get money.
They should call him Lucky
Ted Nugent, let this bear live.
The pocher lost both his legs