Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks.
Today’s episode takes us to the prestigious Rocky Mountains, to a little town called Ouray.
The rigorous landscape consists of steep, boulder strewn mountainsides with lush pine
forests, the perfect environment for sightseeing, and black bears.
Water resources are abundant as well deer, elk and various berry bushes and nuts for
bears to eat and nurture their offspring from.
A popular tourist destination, the Colorado backcountry is replete with people.
Hikers, skiers, hunters and campers frequently crowd the primitive areas bears prefer to
live in, so sightings and confrontations are a possibility.
Educated and experienced travelers are prepared with either firearms, bear spray or both.
Donna Munson was a 74 year old single female retiree and widow who lived four miles north
of town and enjoyed her space, as well as her local wildlife.
Her husband had passed away about 14 years prior to her attack so she was alone, with
the exception of her periodic renters.
She navigated her property with the support of a walker and was losing her vitality to
age.
She befriended squirrels, birds, deer, elk and even skunks and frequently fed them from
her porch or windows in her home.
She even had visits from the local black bear population and particularly enjoyed their
visits.
She would set out dog food and bird seed for the area animals to eat as she watched from
the relative safety of her fenced in elevated deck.
Donna was too frail to carry the big bags of dog and cat food, so she engineered a pulley
system that would allow to lift the bags up to her deck.
The animals essentially developed into her social interactions for each day and she believed
she understood them and had developed a personal rapport with them.
They were her friends and she believed she knew them well enough to trust them.
As the years went on and she would see new individuals come and then go, the authorities
began to look closely at what was going on near her home.
They cautioned her against the illegal act of feeding wildlife of all kinds, as well
as the dangers of feeding bears.
She became so accustomed to receiving their certified letters and phone calls instructing
her to stop feeding animals at her home that she began ignoring the warnings and cautions.
Authorities began building a case to file charges against Donna, but the wheels of justice
turn very slowly and require time to accumulate evidence.
Donna had also been informed that any bears seen feeding at her home would be euthanized.
Afterall, it isn’t that only bears can be dangerous once they get accustomed to regular
feeding from a single source.
Animals as peaceful in appearance as deer and elk have attacked people whenever they
are no longer afraid of humans.
Donna’s neighbors had approached her on a few occasions after learning she was feeding
the bears from her home.
They expressed strong opposition to this practice as they had been seeing more and more bears
in their neighborhood and in the hills surrounding the area.
Some of these bears had started to approach humans for food and even acting aggressively
toward them.
Neighbors reported seeing as many as 14 bears at one time on her property.
Donna rented half of her home to several renters over the years and had even been overheard
explaining how, when the end comes for her, she would prefer “to go out with the bears”.
Donna was described as a sweet but eccentric animal nut by people who knew her or rented
from her.
Reportedly, her most recent tenant would not go outside at night due to being surrounded
by bears from the area expecting food.
Donna fenced in her porch after a renter with young children moved into her attached apartment,
but was comfortable without the fencing prior to that.
The fencing erected was shoddy at best and would not prevent a determined bear from entry.
At one point, the bears became so desperate and demanding that Donna’s car window was
broken into and her seat was clawed and chewed up so that the bear could reach the french
fries she left in her car overnight.
Her vehicle had claw marks all over it from the bears and her garage door was dented and
scratched up from the same.
About a year after her last renter moved out, Donna was alone in her house and enjoying
her animal company as much as she could.
Two of the bears had been in a scuffle outside and a smaller, younger bear had been wounded.
Donna wasn’t the type to let nature run its course when it came to her friends, so
she spoke with a family member and indicated she had to go because one of the babies had
been injured and she had to tend to it.
That was the last time Donna spoke with anyone, as her relationship with the bears was about
to take a fatal turn.
Based on the evidence at the scene, on the evening of August 7th, 2009, Donna had taken
some food outside with her and was standing near a bear probably feeding it and talking
with it.
The rickety fence made of 4 x 4 inch wire separated her and the bear as she examined
its wounds from the fight.
It is not clear WHICH bear struck Donna, but at some point a bear reached through the wire
and swatted her across her head, rendering her unconscious.
The blow lacerated her face and left large hematomas observed at her autopsy.
A bear then dragged her underneath the fence where her unconscious body was consumed by
a 400 pound male black bear.
Her walker remained inside the fence as a stark clue of the occurrence.
The next morning, a local handyman showed up to complete some painting Donna had arranged
for him.
He saw her consumed corpse and notified authorities.
Animal Control officers shot 2 bears at Donna’s house.
The first, a 250 pound male, had no signs of having fed on Donna’s body.
The 400 pound male that was shot, had tissue and bone from Donna’s body in his gut.
Authorities were not convinced of an attack, but the consumption was apparent.
An Autopsy revealed no heart disease so she did not have a heart attack but died from
trauma from the bear attack.
In the state of Colorado, since 2019 there have been at least 7 incidents of bears injuring
humans.
In nature, bears have to compete for feeding resources and the weaker bears would die off
due to lack of resources.
When people feed them, this natural culling is biased to favor and even prefer weaker
or more aggressive bears.
Two people in the area have been attacked by black bears leaping from garbage bins and
bears have routinely been reported as raiding tents and backpacks searching for food due
to familiarity.
Wildlife officials have indicated that Coloradans have effectively been training bears to misbehave
on a massive scale, just to survive.