April 19, 2007: Electrocuted bear

[Undertoad]

A lurker who I can't match to a Cellar user name (thanks Shannon!) sent this along last night. The story that goes with the pics is a little suspect, but Snopes has checked it out and this brown bear actually did get electrocuted.



Before the bear could get to this wire, in which ran 5,000 volts, he had to tear open a utility box at the airport.



One kinda odd note about this one is that it was first discovered by a child riding her bike. But I'll wager that, in Alaska, children aren't kept unaware of the bleak realities of life and death in nature, and bears aren't friendly speaking creatures who sell you toilet paper.



According to this story,

Bears like to chew on plastic, said Sinnott, who was not surprised the bruin was curious about the box and its contents. "I don't know what they get out of it, but they are curious and he might have tried to investigate it just because it's rubber or plastic."