Last week in the Boundary Waters a turn of events happened in the blink of an eye as a hungry bear looking for food happened to grab a campers bag that also contained a handgun. Conservation Officer Mary Manning reported the incident  in her weekly conservation report. 

Bring Me The News reports that Manning was working in the Boundary Waters canoe Area with a U.S. Forest Service Officer when they received a report of a bear that was armed in the BWCA.  According to that report a camper in the area apparently had some snacks in their backpack that smelled delicious to this bear.

The bear managed to run off with it into the woods from the portage landing. The campers were not able to track down the bear so reported the incident to the officers. I don't know about you but, If a bear ran off with my backpack I would not be brave enough to chase after it to try and track it down.

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Oh, the irony, this person brought a handgun with them for protection against the possibility of running into a bear, and instead the camper was left unarmed with the bear being the one to end up having the gun even if it was for a short time. This is something you might see on a Farside cartoon.

The officers searched the area and found the backpack partially shredded with a number of empty snack wrappers. the gun was also recovered and was undamaged. With conditions being extremely dry right now much of the bears natural food sources have been affected forcing them to seek other sources of food. This might cause more bear and human interactions. As always visitors are strongly encouraged to reduce food access to bears and other wild animals in the area to the best of your ability.

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