Trophy Hunting American Black Bears: Fatal Ambush of Cinder the Bear

Summary: Washington National Cathedral Episcopalians blessed animals Oct. 1, 2017, even as then or later Cinder the Bear became all but bones in Washington state.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) bear/cougar biologist Rich Beausoleil with Cinder; photo by Don Seabrook, photo editor, The Wenatchie World: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife @WashingtonFishWildlife, via Facebook Aug. 5, 2014

Washington state allows trophy hunting of fund-raising, radio-collared, research-friendly wild animals such as Cinder the Bear, five-year-old, wildfire-surviving female black bear ambushed, assassinated and flayed near Leavenworth, Washington, sometime in October 2017.

A last fibrous, grassy, pine needle brunch perhaps blocked her lower colon after Cinder the Bear bulked up on 50 to 60 pounds of winter-spring fat. Cinder the Bear concentrated upon annual American black bear customs of cave, log or tree hollow, slope or tree root denning November through March or May. She dwelt near her release site 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) north of Leavenworth, Washington, with Kaulana June 3, 2015, until the two-year-old's fatal ambush October 2015.

Perhaps deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) endures in her black-brown coiled, cylindrical, segmented scat, foot- (0.31-meter-) wide bear trails or tree 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) above sea level.

Trophy hunters first facilely, fatally followed fund-raising, radio-collared, research-friendly two-year-old Kaulana, Carlton Complex (July 14, 2014-Aug. 24, 2014) wildfire-orphaned best boyfriend forever of Cinder the Bear.

Kaulana (from Hawaiian kaulana, "famous") never got far into physical independence as an 18-month-old in 2015 or grew into sexual maturity as a four- to five-year-old. Media blitzes helped California Wildlife Center and Idaho Black Bear Rehabilitation Center budgets but headed trophy hunters toward Kaulana's high-profiled, release-site homelands with Cinder the Bear. Rich Beausoleil installed in February 2017 another radio-transmitting neck collar that informed the Department of Fish and Wildlife Service bear specialist of Cinder the Bear's itineraries.

Nobody and nothing jeopardized radio transmissions about Cinder the Bear's journeys around her release-site hollowed-out tree den until October 2017, second anniversary of Kaulana's fatal ambush.

A trophy hunter killed Cinder the Bear on or after Oct. 1, 2017, day of blessing all animals by the Episcopal clergy at Washington National Cathedral.

Trophy hunters loaded up the world-famous exteriors and interiors of Kaulana in 2015 and Cinder the Bear in 2017 and left Cinder's collar, skeleton and skull. Already sexually mature three- to five-year-old Cinder the Bear never mothered a blind, deaf, semi-immobile, 0.5-pound (0.23-kilogram) singleton first-birth and twin births every two years thereafter. A 25- to 35-year life cycle never netted 20- to 30-cub lifetime maximums to nap with their first two winters and nurse their first five months.

Cinder the Bear never obtained solid food for two-week-old cubs or offered her lap for every second June through July mating season's January- or February-delivered newborns.

Cinder the Bear never pulled her progeny through six-month denning paces of muscle-preserved proteins; 10-beat heart rates per minute; water calories from 4-inch- (10.16-centimeter-) layered fat.

Cinder the Bear never queued up with denning newborns absorbed, anti-osteoporosis, recycled calcium; cholesterol-free circulation from fats; protein-filled amino acids from kidney and liver nitrogen urea. She never ran 30- to 35-mile (48.28- to 56.33-kilometer) hourly speeds, removed biting parasites in mud wallows or rested in shaded thickets with two-week-olds to 18-month-olds. She never showed them territorially scratching rough-barked maple, oak and poplar and smooth-barked aspen, beech, birch and pine or seeking apple, chokecherry, pawpaw, raspberry and serviceberry.

Trophy hunting terminated Cinder the Bear and Kaulana, even though the two wildfire-surviving orphans burned-pawedly  turned regional tragedy into national triumph, before they tendered newborn treasures.

Cinder with Kaulana, who preceded her in death, having been killed five months after their June 3, 2015, release: Idaho Black Bear Rehab IBBR @blackbearrehab, via Facebook May 3, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) bear/cougar biologist Rich Beausoleil with Cinder; photo by Don Seabrook, photo editor, The Wenatchie World: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife @WashingtonFishWildlife, via Facebook Aug. 5, 2014, https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonFishWildlife/photos/a.10150617082151761/10152186278946761/

Cinder with Kaulana, who preceded her in death, having been killed five months after their June 3, 2015, release: Idaho Black Bear Rehab IBBR @blackbearrehab, via Facebook May 3, 2015, @ https://www.facebook.com/blackbearrehab/photos/a.131225786944212/865238863542897/

For further information:

"American Black Bears." In: Encyclopedia of Mammals, Volume 2, Bat-Bea: 236-261. Tarrytown NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation.

Associated Press. 13 December 2018. "Burned Bear Cinder Shot and Killed by Hunter in Washington." The Daily Nonpareil > News > National > Wire > AP.
Available @ https://www.nonpareilonline.com/news/national/wire/burned-bear-cinder-shot-and-killed-by-hunter-in-washington/article_30c322af-540e-5205-a633-a35bca04fdc2.html

Haider, Sarah Batool. 13 December 2018. "Cinder The Bear, Whose Paws Were Badly Burned in the 2014 Washington Wildfire, Is Killed by a Hunter." Inquisitr.
Available @ https://www.inquisitr.com/5207722/cinder-the-bear-whose-paws-were-badly-burned-in-the-2014-washington-wildfire-is-killed-by-a-hunter/

Hair, Steve. 13 December 2018. "Cinder The Bear Killed by Hunter." North Central Washington Life Channel > News.
Available @ https://www.ncwlife.com/34110-2/

Idaho Black Bear Rehab IBBR @blackbearrehab. 31 May 2015. "Kaulana and Cinder. Cinder is trying to hide a cantaloupe under her arm.." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/blackbearrehab/photos/a.131225786944212/865238863542897/

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 June 2018. "Vermont Black Bears and Elementary's Sand Trap Episode June 18, 2018." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/vermont-black-bears-and-elementarys.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 January 2016. "New Jersey Black Bear Kills May Increase in October and December 2016." Earth and Space News. Monday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-jersey-black-bear-kills-may.html

Maughan, Sally. 2014. "Bear Journal 2014." Idaho Black Bear Rehab IBBR > Bear Journals.
Available @ http://www.bearrehab.org/journal2014.shtml

McDougall, Len. 1997. The Complete Tracker: Tracks, Signs, and Habits of North American Wildlife. New York NY: Lyons & Burford, Publishers.

Mertz, Leslie Anne. "American Black Bear." In: Michael Hutchins, Debra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist and Melissa C. McDade, eds. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 14, Mammals III: 302-303. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

Robbins, Jefferson. 12 December 2018. "Cinder the Bear, Burned but Saved After Carlton Complex Fire, Has Died." iFiberOne.
Available @ http://www.ifiberone.com/wenatchee/cinder-the-bear-burned-but-saved-after-carlton-complex-fire/article_53455db8-fe59-11e8-a622-b7fa3549bac0.html

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife @WashingtonFishWildlife. 5 August 2014. "Updated their cover photo."Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonFishWildlife/photos/a.10150617082151761/10152186278946761/

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife @WashingtonFishWildlife. 5 August 2014. "Our bear/cougar biologist Rich Beausoleil, with the help of many folks in the Methow Valley and northcentral Washington area, rescued this bear cub that was badly burned in the wildfires there. “Cinder” is now recovering in the care of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, a wildlife rehabilitation center in California that has experience with burned bears. . . ."Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonFishWildlife/photos/a.390652606760/10152185690206761/