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DOWNIEVILLE – An post-mortem has discovered {that a} California lady who was discovered lifeless in her Sierra County house again in 2023 was killed by a black bear — the first-ever recorded case of such a lethal assault.
Initially, deputies with the Sierra County Sheriff’s Workplace responded to 71-year-old Downieville resident Patrice Miller’s house on Nov. 8, 2023 to do a welfare examine. Miller was discovered lifeless – and the sheriff’s workplace mentioned proof pointed to a suspected bear encounter.
On the time, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned the preliminary investigation decided that Miller had died earlier than the bear received in.
Nonetheless, on Thursday, the California Division of Fish and Wildlife revealed that the post-mortem report they lately acquired confirmed that the bear assault killed the lady.
The Downieville incident is now the primary documented deadly assault by a black bear in California historical past, CDFW officers mentioned.
Wildlife officers additionally revealed that the bear concerned within the incident had been trapped and euthanized. DNA evaluation was used to substantiate that it was certainly the identical bear, CDFW mentioned.
Bear assaults in California
Whereas human encounters with black bears are rising more and more frequent within the California excessive nation, experiences of individuals being injured by the animals are extraordinarily uncommon.
Nonetheless, some incidents between bears and people have led to severe accidents – like in 2022, when a North Lake Tahoe lady got here head to head with a bear in her house.
The rising variety of guests to California’s bear nation, just like the Lake Tahoe area, coupled with carelessness in securing meals and rubbish are what wildlife consultants are blaming for the spike in bear encounters. Earlier in 2024, additionally famous {that a} document variety of bears had already been evicted from Tahoe buildings.
Downieville is a Sierra Nevada group of lower than 300 folks, about 60 miles northwest of Truckee.
California is house solely to at least one species of bear, the black bear. In contrast to their grizzly bear cousins, the black bear has a extra non-confrontational status in the case of human encounters.
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