Bear that mauled campers to be euthanized

COOKE CITY, Mont., July 30 (UPI) -- A grizzly bear that killed a camper and injured two others in Montana will be euthanized and her cubs will live in captivity, a U.S. wildlife official said.

Kevin R. Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich., died after the Wednesday attack at a campground near Yellowstone National Park. Ronald Singer, 21, of Alamosa, Colo., and Deb Freele, 58, of London, Ontario, sustained injuries.

Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the three cubs could spend the rest of their lives in a zoo, ABC News reported Friday.

The bear that mauled the campers developed a predilection for preying on humans, meaning it was expected to enter a campground again "with the intent of killing and eating a person," Servheen told ABC's "Good Morning America."

"We would never release (the cubs) into the wild again, but they can be released in a zoo," Servheen said.

Servheen, responsible for coordinating research and management on grizzly bears in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington, used the predilection to capture the bear, using parts of the dead camper's tent and sleeping bag as bait.

The bear "went directly to that trap and went in," he said.

An autopsy will be performed to determine if the bear's behavior could be caused by an "organic problem," Servheen said.

Calls to emergency personnel Wednesday alerted authorities to the bear attack at the Soda Butte Campground near Cooke City, Mont., 5 miles from Yellowstone.

Wildlife officials said they would take saliva samples from the victims' bite wounds, and hair evidence from tents and the victims' clothes, to make sure they trapped the right bear.