Woman killed by Black Bear in Oilsands camp

[Regulator75]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/05...n_5284552.html

A female worker has been killed by a black bear on the job at one of Canada's major oilsands companies in northeastern Alberta.

"This is an absolutely tragic event," Sneh Seetal, spokeswoman for Suncor, said Wednesday.

"We are extending our heartfelt condolences to the family. We are in the process of reaching out to them, and until that time when we've reached out to them, we won't be releasing any details about the individual without the family's consent to do so."

It happened Wednesday afternoon at Suncor's main base site 25 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.

[Trailer Fire]

Our site superintendant (Kearl Lake) said over the last 100 years black bear attacks average out less than 1 fatality a year in north America.

[habernac]

Crazy. I worked a few summers out at Suncor, only saw one bear, can't imagine how this happened.

[Coys1882]

DELETED - turns out the bear was a male.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by habernac

Crazy. I worked a few summers out at Suncor, only saw one bear, can't imagine how this happened.

I hope it wasn't a case of people enticing the bear to visit by feeding it.

I used to live in a town where daily black bear sightings were common (usually around unsecured garbage). It was sad, because the bears would often have to be destroyed.

[TurdFerguson]

Damn Oilsands!
/insensitive green text

Seriously though, you don't hear of many people dieing of a black bear attack. very unfortunate.

[peter12]

I was bluff charged by a black bear in the field last year. I bet it was a problem bear feeding on improperly disposed garbage around the site. Bear finds a food source, bear becomes territorial, bear eliminates threat.

[Hevishot]

Powered By Suncor

[no_joke]

Originally Posted by peter12

I was bluff charged by a black bear in the field last year. I bet it was a problem bear feeding on improperly disposed garbage around the site. Bear finds a food source, bear becomes territorial, bear eliminates threat.

I know that site and camp areas pretty well. In their defense, bear "resistant" (latch and hinge mechanism) disposal bins are a matter of course on that site. To build upon what you've said, that doesn't necessarily prevent a person from improper disposal.

[burn_this_city]

We had a bear get in through a window of a office trailer on another site a couple years ago. He raided the fridge and panicked when someone came in the morning to start their shift. He booked it out of the building once everyone ran out of the trailer. The victim may have accidentally cornered the bear and it reacted differently than the situation we had. We gave the contractor crap for leaving things unlocked when they had been told there were numerous bears in the area.

[Looch City]

This story even made it on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/08/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

Something along the lines of "nature fights back".

[Free Ben Hur!]

Originally Posted by peter12

I was bluff charged by a black bear in the field last year. I bet it was a problem bear feeding on improperly disposed garbage around the site. Bear finds a food source, bear becomes territorial, bear eliminates threat.

Encounters with wildlife is relatively common at the oilsands plants. These facilities are carved out of the boreal forest, and the perimeters are not secured by fencing where there are no near by roads, hence animals can roam fairly freely. Coyotes and foxes have been fed with camp food (by morons) over the years which has caused problems from time to time. People used to drive down to the dump and toss rocks at scrounging bears back in the day. Cheap thrills I guess. And there's been lots more wildlife lost in the tailings ponds than just a few ducks here and there.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Really surprised to hear it was a black bear. If you take the black bear populations and # of fatal attacks and compare it to the Grizzly population and # of fatal attacks you would find a staggering difference.

[Peanut]

Suncor has been in the news I think 3 times in the last little while because of on-site fatalities. Not good.

[undercoverbrother]

nm

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

sliver!!!!!!!

????

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

????

Use the skills from when you were a private investigator.

[Wood]

You're thinking of dess. Sliver hates dogs

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Wood

You're thinking of dess. Sliver hates dogs

that was stupid of me

[YYC in LAX]

Not sure if it was a factor in this case, but when out in the wilderness, females need to be extra cautious when they are on their...period. Bears and other wildlife are highly attracted to the smell of the blood.