Bear kills NJ family’s llama, days after another kills a donkey

A bear came after a Long Family family's llama Tuesday morning — then returned hours later, looking for more, according to a report by Long Valley Patch.

According to the report, homeowner Ron Caruso said he awoke to his barking dog, and went outside to find a black bear attacking one of his four llamas.

Caruso banged on a fence with a shovel and made loud sounds to scare the bear away — but not before the llama suffered a broken leg and severe gashes to its back and hind quarters, according to the report. The animal was later euthanized.

According to the report, the remaining llamas and other animals were put inside Caruso's barn Tuesday night — but around 10 a.m., he stepped outside to find the bear had returned, and was scratching at the barn door. The bear took off into the woods before a local, licensed bear hunter could arrive, he told Patch.

The annual New Jersey bear hunt is underway, running Dec. 7 through Dec. 12. After the first two days this week, which included expanded hunting territory, nearly 300 bears were culled, which is more than the 2014 total from the entire hunt.

Only a few days earlier, a bear reportedly attacked a donkey in nearby Chester Township.

Hunters are killing more bears than they have in several years of New Jersey's annual hunt, with successes attributed both to temperate weather and the large amount of bears around.

Field studies, modeling and scientific analysis of the population by the DEP coupled with  “reports of people seeing not just one or two bears but multiple bears in their neighborhood or yards confirms that indeed the bear population is large this year,” DEP spokesman Lawrence Hajna told New Jersey 101.5.