Update: Woman OK after rare bear attack

Published 6:49 am Thursday, June 6, 2013

A northern Minnesota woman was injured in a rare black bear attack after her dog startled an adult female and three yearlings that recently had been hanging around her home and raiding her bird feeder, officials said Wednesday.

Darlene Baglio, 72, was clawed on her left arm and side and bitten on her right arm and leg in the attack at her home near McGregor around 7 p.m. Monday. She was hospitalized overnight but went home Tuesday morning, said Maj. Phil Meier, enforcement operations manager for the Department of Natural Resources.

She is still being treating for rabies as a precaution until lab results from the bear are available.

A conservation officer killed the 190-pound mother bear as it charged him, the incident report said. Officials left the yearlings alone to fend for themselves, while the woman’s dog ran off and remained missing Wednesday afternoon.

Chris Niskanen, DNR spokesman, said the woman was traumatized by the incident.The DNR said the bear been seen around the property in recent days.

The bears had damaged several bird feeders in the Baglio’s yard and apparently were attracted to the property to eat the bird seed, said Maj. Phil Meier of the DNR’s law enforcement division.

“It takes a lot for even a female black bear with cubs to attack someone. It’s not a typical situation,” said Dave Garshelis, the DNR’s lead bear research scientist.

DNR officials for years have suggested that people remove bird feeders, dog food and garbage cans from outdoor spaces if bears might be in the area.

After emerging from hibernation, hungry bears eat mostly grass and insects this time of year, but they also eat fawn deer and other animals easily captured, waiting for nuts and berries to ripen in mid-summer.

The incident took place on Starvation Lake about three miles southeast of McGregor.

Baglio’s next-door neighbor, Annette O’Keefe, said she was at the lake fishing when she heard the “blood-curdling screams” and ran up to Baglio’s house to get her keys and drive to her aid. O’Keefe didn’t even notice that the sow and cubs were by then in her yard.

“I dropped my rod, and I never do that, and I must have run right by the bears. But I knew (the victim) was in trouble and I had to get over there,” O’Keefe said. “When I looked back and the bear was there … I kept yelling until she left and I could get out.”

O’Keefe arrived at the victim’s house to find her standing on her steps and lucid. The ambulance was already on its way, O’Keefe said.

“I asked her what I could do to help her but the only thing she cared about was her dog, Rosy,” she said.

The victim’s golden retriever had run off chasing the yearlings and has not been found.

O’Keefe said it was the first bear she had seen in her yard in 16 years at the location.

According to the DNR, the incident began just before 7 p.m. Monday when Baglio let her dog out after checking to make sure the bears weren’t around. When the three yearlings unexpectedly ran from under the deck, the golden retriever ran off the deck to chase them.

The sow at first ran toward the running cubs and dogs, but when the Baglio yelled for the dog, the sow turned and attacked her, striking her on her left arm and side. The bear retreated but returned to inflict more wounds, DNR officials said.

Baglio called 911 just after 7 p.m.

No human fatalities have been reported in Minnesota from black bear attacks, and there have been only a handful of reports of bears touching or hurting anyone. That’s despite a population of more than 12,000 to 15,000 bears and increasingly more people living and recreating in the north woods where bears live.

The DNR says this is the fifth known time a bear has attacked a person in Minnesota since 1987. According to News Tribune files, it is the sixth such incident:

In July 2005, a bear charged, clawed and bit a 50-year-old Holyoke woman near her rural home. She suffered scrapes and bruises and was treated for rabies as a precaution.

In 2002, a bear attacked a woodcock researcher near Milaca. He suffered broken bones and puncture wounds.

In 2003, Kim Heil-Smith, 37, was attacked by a bear in her home near Grand Marais. The resident of Devil Track Lake Road was talking on a cordless phone when she opened her home’s entryway into the attached garage and came face-to-face with a sow and her cub. The bigger bear bit her head, shoulder and thighs. She suffered multiple puncture wounds and scratches that required stitches at Cook County North Shore Hospital.

In 1997, Ken Berger of Ely was bitten and clawed by a bear in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after he chased a bear that took his food pack.

On September 14 and 15, 1987, a black bear injured two campers in unprovoked attacks in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Each attack followed the same pattern. The gaunt bear entered a campsite, approached a camper, hesitated, then attacked, biting the camper on the head and neck until someone drove the bear off with canoe paddles. A day after the second attack, the bear was killed and later found to be emaciated, with plastic in its stomach.