[AMP-L] Alaskan Grizzly Bear Amputee

[Susan Henderson]

Just thought I'd share this story:

For a photo of the bear, see:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/11/alaska-grizzly-missing-half-a-leg/

Alaska grizzly missing half a leg

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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