Bear Safty Education
Recently the park obtained a large, male, black bear from the Department of Environmental Conservation. The bear was killed out of season by a deer hunter who clamed that it attacked him. It was donated to the park for educational purposes. A taxidermist mounted the head and front paws, and prepared the skull. These are materials the park naturalists will use for the Bear Safety program. Bear Safety was added to the list of program offerings in an effort to educate campers to the dangers of feeding and getting close to bears. Bears in the park are used to people, and they seem tame. Even so, they are still potentially dangerous wild animals.
The right side of the skull of a big male black bear. The canine teeth (fangs) are normal.
The taxidermist discovered an interesting thing when he prepared the skull. The bear had a bad canine tooth, or fang. The tooth had been broken off, and was riddled with decay. The bear, apparently an old one, had also lost one of his cheek teeth. The bad tooth, probably infected, caused the upper jawbone to deteriorate. Bears are among the few wild animals that are subject to tooth decay.
A missing molar. The eroded jawbone makes us think this tooth was infected.
Left side of skull showing broken/decayed canine tooth.
Close-up of decayed canine.
This was originally posted by fellow worker/naturalist ninehtotoo5 in the Allegany State Park Event blog. She asked if I would like to also post this cool bear skull article in the Mon@rch Nature Blog! Of course I said that “I would love to see it in there”! So, thanks ninehtotoo5 for helping me with adding some interesting content in my nature blog!
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 
Ouch… I might be a little ornery if my tooth looked like that too.
13 February 2007 at 12:21 pm
I’m glad ASP has a program to teach people *not* to feed the bears. I feel bad this particular bear had bad teeth – ouch to the max!!! Can we see the mounted bear?
As a side note, I was watching America’s Funniest Videos (I think that’s what it’s called) last night and this woman was taking food out to feed a bear, and her husband made a loud noise and scared the stuff out of her – made her drop the food and run. Too funny, but sad too, that she was feeding the bear at all, and then what she was feeding him was white bread. Yuck.
13 February 2007 at 12:58 pm
Both side of his mouth in pain.. poor thing.
Great article.
13 February 2007 at 1:31 pm
Great post. Too bad the bears don’t have access to Anbesol. Poor thing.
Powerful, scary, canines…shudder.
13 February 2007 at 4:20 pm
@ Jeremy – lol agree!
@ Pam – isn’t that crazy people thing that is the right thing to do? Lets see of ninehtotoo5 will post the bear!
@ Didi – didn’t have a good day for sure!
@ Mary – makes you wonder about our wild critters, doesn’t it!
13 February 2007 at 4:44 pm
That’s fascinating! The erosion of the jawbone looks so awful.
***Susan picks up the phone to make a dentist appointment***
14 February 2007 at 11:31 pm
Well, those teeth could certainly lend credence to the attack story. A bear with teeth that bad might be in a lot of pain, and therefore more ornery. Similarly, he might not be able to get enough food and would be looking for easier things to eat – and a porky, chewy hunter might have looked mighty good.
16 February 2007 at 5:10 pm
@ Susan – I would have to be the one doing the root canal on this guy! Would you be willing to help hold it down?
@ Marty – I hope it makes people think that the cakes, pies, cookies, ect.. that they are feeding them isn’t helping but hurting them.
16 February 2007 at 9:59 pm