MINNEAPOLIS
Hope continued to dim on Sunday for a black bear named Hope with an international following online and a knack for slipping out of her radio collar. She disappeared recently near Ely, Minn., and researchers fear she may have been killed by a hunter.
Hope, whose birth two winters ago was broadcast online, has been missing since Sept. 21, when her family was spotted near a hunter's bait. In a phone interview on Sunday, researcher Lynn Rogers said he fears that Hope, who was not wearing a collar, was killed by that hunter.
"We e-mailed him asking if he shot Hope," Rogers said. "He responded to other questions but not to that one."
Rogers would not name the hunter, but he said the man was familiar enough with the area to know he was hunting near the research bears' regular territory.
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"We're not trying to make hunters look bad," Rogers said. "We just wonder why do they sometimes make the decisions they do."
Rogers and his supporters lobbied unsuccessfully for special protections for radio-collared research bears. Instead, the Department of Natural Resources sent letters to hunters at the start of bear season, asking them to voluntarily spare radio-collared bears.
It's possible neither approach would save Hope.
She did not have a radio collar on when she vanished. Rogers said the bear had removed all four collars previously placed on her. "That is a problem," he said. Rogers has asked the DNR for information about any bear killed at the bait site, "just so we can have closure."
Hope has been in the spotlight since her mother, Lily, gave birth and thousands watched on the Internet via a "den cam." Hope was feared lost for a while in spring 2010, but researchers found her and she later reunited with her mother. Until her recent disappearance, Hope was usually found near her mother and Lily's younger cub, Faith.
Rogers said he has been fielding calls and e-mails from people who have been watching Hope grow.
"People are devastated," he said.
Distributed by MCT Information Services
