Enjoy
Greg

From the NY Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/02/national/02GRIZ.html

Following All the Rules in a Close Encounter With a Grizzly
By BLAINE HARDEN

s the grizzly approached, taking his sweet time, Abigail Thomas tried to practice good bear etiquette.

She stood still as a tree in her dark gray jogging outfit. She did not look the bear in the eye. She silently told herself, as she later recalled, that if the bear did not feel challenged, he would "leave me alone."

The bear, though, had other ideas.

So it was that last Sunday morning on a parking lot in Yellowstone National Park, Ms. Thomas had a moist and terrifying encounter with a grizzly. The five-minute face-off became painful, she explained in a telephone interview, only after the grizzly released the grip of his jaws, which he had gently clamped on her right thigh.

It was the first time in two years that a grizzly had injured a person in Yellowstone, a park that is home to 400 to 600 grizzlies and is visited by three million people a year. Marsha Karle, a spokeswoman for the park, said there are very few contacts between bears and people considering the number of people and the number of bears. If startled, separated from their cubs or hurt, grizzlies can attack and kill humans. In Yellowstone, three people were slightly injured by a grizzly in 2000. Grizzlies have killed five people in the park in the last century, with the most recent death in 1986. Across North America a person is killed by a grizzly about once every two years.

In the Rocky Mountain West, the probability of contact between people and grizzlies is rising. An increasing human population is settling in areas where there is a recovering population of grizzlies.

Lecturers from the Great Bear Foundation in Missoula, Mont., offer the following advice for anyone encountering a bear: avoid eye contact and sudden movement — and never run. That is the gospel that Ms. Thomas tried to follow.

Ms. Thomas, 30, is a mail sorter in the Lake Station Post Office in Yellowstone. She is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. She has been a veterinary technician in Portland, Ore., and loves animals. Her professional expertise is limited to dogs and cats.

The grizzly she encountered is a "male subadult grizzly," the National Park Service said. He is about 3 years old and probably separated from his mother in the spring. Based on his age, the bear is about half the size of an adult male and weighs 225 to 250 pounds. Grizzlies at this age are often playful and sometimes insecure because they are away from their mothers for the first time.

When he approached Ms. Thomas, he sniffed her right leg. Then he sniffed her hands, which she, in her effort to impersonate a tree, was pressing against her legs. She tried to talk to him. "Hey, bear," she said, in a normal voice, "leave me alone." She drew up her fingers so he would not bite them.

"I wasn't afraid so much he was going to kill me," Ms. Thomas said, "as I was worried that he was going to mouth me."

Then, he mouthed her.

"He opened his mouth and he put it around the front portion of my thigh muscle on the right side," she said. Then he drew back his head and scraped her skin with his teeth, which did not draw blood through Ms. Thomas's jogging pants, but it hurt and scared her.

She yelled, "Leave me alone!"

The grizzly kept sniffing her. Ms. Thomas remembers thinking that if he mouthed her again, drawing blood, then he might become more aggressive. She decided to play offense. Slowly, she reached for a water bottle that she carried around her neck.

"He didn't seem impressed by me talking or yelling at him, so that is when I squirted him," she said.

The startled bear walked slowly away. More frightened than injured, Ms. Thomas went to a clinic for an examination, which found bruises on her right leg. She had recovered enough by Tuesday, she said, to go jogging — in an area of Yellowstone with no bears.

According to the article, "Across North America a person is killed by a grizzly about once every two years."

In Alaska alone over 56 people have been killed by bears in the past 100 years. That makes it at least one every other year, and bear/human confrontations happen quite often, perhaps one or two every year. I will post the USGS site in Alaska where the information can be found.

Here it goes: http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/brownbears/century.htm

[ 06-08-2002, 05:32: Message edited by: Ray, Alaska ]

As the case in many bear attacks. A good gun of most any caliber would of put a end to this one. Most likey some pepper spray would of worked. I am sure the bear was impressed that she loved animals.

Hmmm...maybe the young bear was trying to sniff his way to some milk, except that he was sniffing her leg instead of her chest; then when the water hit the poor little bear on the face "he" realized that milk didn't taste as good as "mommy's."

I saw this lady being interviewed on TV the other day and was real impressed. She has nerves of steel! We should all hope that we could face this kind of challenge in a similar fashion. Wow!

I can tell you what the bear would have sniffed running down my legs. I would definitely "Mud My Unders" if that happened to me

[ 06-09-2002, 18:32: Message edited by: PC ]

PC "AMEN"

Based on the statistics quoted in that article I say enough is enough. Lets thin those bear populations down to zero along with the wolf.

Todd E

Mr Todd E and I quote:

"lets thin those numbers down to zero".

I would disagree with your logic and your postion.

Would you also remove all buffalo, dogs, coyotes, snakes, spiders, and bees from the planet?

perhaps also automobiles and firearms?

Your position is undefensible and reckless.

If you speak in jest, then your humor is unfinished and too well disguised.

I for one, see the value in allowing baiting for grizzly and wolf, so long as lawyers and engineers and ecologists are allowed as bait, although there may be some things even bears wont eat.

and for this one, I guess I must admit to being an ecologist.

TODD E, no one here is saying kill all the bears, that is really not to sharp, I thought you were a college kid?. Kev

I have to give the woman credit for not running. In all likelyhood the story would have read Jogger killed by Grizzly, the guilty bear was destroyed by Park personell. When people enter the home of the bear then they need to accept the risk involved no matter how small that risk is its still there.

I went to Yellowstone a couple years ago and was amazed at the PEOPLE! My god people are stupid! I watched two guys get within about 5 feet of a full grown bull elk lying down to get it on their camcorder, they could have spit on it!

Now more idiots are going to hear about this and think that all they need for close ups of a grizz is a love for animals and a water bottle..

The park ranger told me that numerous (seems like he said it was about 50) idiots are gored by buffalo each year. Nice buffalooooOOOOOO!
I dont agree with Todd E. but urbanites and wild animals are not a good mix and reintroducing the nice wolves to the park is bound to backfire sooner or later. There was another group of brilliant considerate people camped next to us who had their food sitting in boxes inside their tent trailer. The ranger that found that was sure pissed.

Ill bet the number of idiots who invite trouble is much higher than the number of casual mishaps in Yellowstone. Gotta give it up for the lady with the gnuts though.

Strange encounter. I saw a documentary on the polar bears around Churchill on Hudson Bay. There was a scene of a bear approaching some tied up sled dogs. The dogs were barking ferociously but the bear came upon one particular dog that then stopped barking and kinda coward. The bear took the dog's neck into it's mouth and then let go without biting down and walked away. The narrator mentioned something about the bear showing respect for another predator; I don't know about that but strange indeed.

My post was sarcasm! At the time this was originated there was considerable debate going on about killing all the wolves on earth. Supposedly the handful of wolves in Yellowstone are managing to kill ALL THE ELK in the northern Rockies and most of the DOMESTICATED LIVESTOCK.

So in I sarcastically posted that statement in support of my "friends" who wish to destroy all the predators as these predators are responsible for the loss of rancher's ranches and all the elk and mule deer!

I am in reality a big proponent of the wolf reintroductions and keeping the bear populations big and healthy. That way I will get to hunt them again someday.

IMO the biggest problem is as Western hunter pointed out. The urban idiots (which may comprise many of the posters here) that haven't the brains to realize they are trespassing in the bears / wolves house so be careful and behave yourself.

I will be in the Wyoming and Montana Rockies soon. I look forward to watching these idiots, perhaps I will get lucky and see a bunny hugging moron get gored by a bison! I just hope a bison doesn't take off after the motor home.

Seems like everytime the moron known as Todd E. makes a fool out of himself with one of his posts he immediately swaps ends 180' and claims he was just kidding.

Sure you were, Todd. You keep guessing. You're bound to say something right sooner or later.
Or maybe it's time for another one of your famous "apology posts?"

ToddE may not be about to win MR Popularity Accurate reloading 2002 here but I think if you read his post it is most definately sarcastic.
I'm not weighing in here for the debate on ToddE V's the world but looking at this post, I think if you fail to see the sarcasm you may need to re-read.

Well, Todd E and I might not be best of buddies, but I know he was kidding about killing all predators. He's just using the usual liberal, moron position about wildlife. We play God, step in, screw it up, and create another wildlife disaster.

I just went to Marineworld, and I've got to say, watching people interact with animals is truly terrifying, most of the time.

In a butterfly room, when 4 young girls walk in, about 10th grade. They decide to try and get the one legged bird to jump on to their hand. He's a parrot of some sort, and likes to chew on fingers...the staff personel warns the kids to stay away. NO, they keep trying. Finally, sick of wasting her breath on the children, she calls the bird, and he flys over to her, away from the kids. I'll leave you to decide who was the smartest in that encounter.

Likewise, I'm sure, created the demise of the petting zoo, the walking the cats around the park, and I'm NOT talking about house cats...
etc.

I will say I have a tremendous amount of respect for Africian, and asian elephants, after being around both for awhile.

Caught a nice 62 year old asian elephant who wanted to play. She regularly plays with logs, they weigh about 800-1000 pounds, and she likes to stack them for fun. I got to pet her, play with her trunk, and give her a bit of a snack, along with trying, along with about 40 other people, to tug of war with her. We couldn't even get her to move, much, leaned back, then pulled us all as far as she wanted.

After this part of the show, she came up to us for feeding at the end. Before she did this, she decided she was going to put one of the logs, it weighed about 1000 pounds, where she wanted it to be. Her trainers just let her do it, becuase, it was very clear, she was doing something she wanted to do, not a trick she was taught...

And, that is the spark that is amazing with such animals. It's clear they are very smart, have their own will about things, and, lest we forget, they outweigh us by about 9000-10000 pounds, or more.

Kava is a very smart, female african elephant, with tusks, and weighs maybe, 9500 pounds.
She is hyperactive, quick, and enjoys interaction with people. We road her around. Then got to meet her, up close and personal.

The intresting part is she is creative, and does things the trainers don't expect.

They teach her a trick on a pedestal, and, when they turn away, she starts rocking side to side, sort of dancing for fun on the platform, and, alternating feet off the platform, all out of the act, with sort of a rhythm to the music.

A very active, smart animal.

I can only imagine shooting one, if she was out to get me, and I better be a very good shot, and, better not miss. The speed, and power, at point blank range, is something to behold...

Anyway, that's my couple sense on the issue.

I can't imagine how rangers put up with the average person, who is completely clueless to what they are dealing with.

The entire time, I was thinking about ending up as part of someone's video in,

Wild Animals Gone Bad

S

I think what happens with the animal trainers is they fall in love with the animals they have raised, from birth, pretty much, and likewise the animals with the trainers.

The elephants, and I guess the large cats, are smart enough at a point to figure out that they are bigger, and way stronger, and we are fragile.
At least with the elephants, I think they handle us as they would a baby elephant, carefully.

We talked to the trainer, and I guess they have around 10 elephants, in a large enclosure. Kava is third from the bottom, being fairly small at around 9000 pounds, but, is supposed to be the smartest of the group. He was saying they do get into with their brothers and sisters, and, like the 62 year old elephant deciding she was going to carry a log to a certain place, they just get out of the way, and let them fight. Guess nobody really gets hurt, just smacked around.

None the less, if they applied that sort of force towards their trainers...hence my conclusion they are smart enough to figure out we are fragile, and only their love for us, and care, keeps the trainers alive.

Must make for an intresting conversation at the dinner table, concerning what the girls and boys did at work today.

I think one can safely say that if the elephants had the temper of most humans, there would be many more dead bodies at animal shows, and zoos, and far fewer shows.

Considering the abuse in most circus, completely absent from what I could see at Marineworld, except, perhaps, from the idiotic customers,
I'm surprised more elephants don't take out their trainers...

Anyway, I'm glad to see animals properly taken care of, and handled. Great place, SixFlags Marineworld.
s