A Boy Scout leader is recovering after a bear attacked him inside a cave in Rockaway, New Jersey, authorities said on Sunday. Petronino defended himself by striking the bear twice in the head with a rock hammer, then pulled his sweatshirt over his head and curled into a fetal position. The scouts reported that the bear eventually walked out of the cave. When that didn’t work, they started a fire to smoke the bear out and were successful.
Advertisement
Area police firefighters and a state police helicopter had been searching for the Scouts and were able to locate them using the Global Positioning System coordinates of the cellphone.
The Scouts called 911 for emergency help, though it was slow to arrive because they could not answer the dispatcher’s requests for location information. That is the moment when the bear run up the hill, giving Petronino the chance to exit the cave where he was being held hostage.
Petronino said he scampered out of the cave as soon as he heard the bear leave. But if the bear begins to scratch or bite, then it’s time to change plans.
“We have a gentleman in the cave with the bear he has been injured by the bear”.
More human interactions with bears over the years may be triggering the animals’ aggression, officials said.
Dave Oakes owns a nearby horse farm and grew up combing the same woods.
Petronino told the officers that he has never observed a black bear in that cave or in the surrounding area. “You realize that [there] could be a bear in there and the last thing you want to do is poke your nose into a cave where there’s a bear trying to hibernate”.
The attack comes less than 24 hours after the end of New Jersey’s annual state-mandated bear hunt, which was extended an additional four days this year. When the extension ended Saturday, hunters had harvested a total of 510 black bears.
Advertisement
The black bear population has been steadily increasing in the Garden State, according to New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s website.
