Some very sad news indeed
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...-bear-rcmp-1.2760221

Horrible news

Very unfortunate. Sadly this is something that can happen when we play in bear country. My condolences go out to his family and I hope the game department leaves the bears alone. The sow was just doing what comes natural.

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
Very unfortunate. Sadly this is something that can happen when we play in bear country. My condolences go out to his family and I hope the game department leaves the bears alone. The sow was just doing what comes natural.

Would you be so benevolent if it was a coyote protecting her pups from a curious child?

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
Very unfortunate. Sadly this is something that can happen when we play in bear country. My condolences go out to his family and I hope the game department leaves the bears alone. The sow was just doing what comes natural.

Would you be so understanding if it was one of your family members ? Time to give your head a shake.

Grizz

Actually I know a couple of people who were mauled by grizzlies and fortunately survived. Neither of them wanted the bears destroyed.

What happened to the hunter is horrible. That should be obvious and it is a tragedy for the family.

The hunter accidentally walked into a bad situation, a sow with cubs on a kill. She attacked and her actions are the same as has happened dozens and dozens of times in the past. In most of these cases it is unlikely that this bear would do it again, there is precedence to support this.

If it was a problem bear with a past history, that would be different. Perhaps that is the case, but that information is not in the brief newspaper write up.

What happened is a sad thing and I have had lots of grizzly encounters myself over the last 50+ years in Western Canada. What I am suggesting is that we should not instantly condemn and demand a death sentence to every animal that responds to a situation in a natural fashion. We do run the risk when we play in their habitat.

If my views don't conform with yours, oh well, I will not lose any sleep over it. I am also not going to pretend to think a certain way just because some think it is the PC way to view things.

Actually I'd say yours is the general PC way to view this. And what if it was a wolf or coyote?

It would be interesting if he had a round chambered at the time.

Or was hiking with a empty chamber.

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
The sow was just doing what comes natural.

Your seriously justifying a man killer because it comes natural?? Wow. I would think the opposite reasoning should be applied. I hope Fish & Wildlife do everything they can to kill both sow and the cub. Bloody PC reasoning.

It's a real pity Mr. Cross didn't have the drop on the bear. Very sad, prayers go out to the family

I am reading the comments differently than most of you. I think all Skyline is saying is that this attack differs from predatory behavior. Perhaps I am wrong.

Skyline seems to be saying leave a proven man-killing bear alive in an area frequented by thousands of hikers in the summer and a good number of hunters in the fall. Some of us spend a great deal of time in this area and I know I'd rather not share it with a proven man killer....regardless of why she killed. There is no reasonable explanation for allowing her to live. It seems to me the government is setting themselves up for a huge lawsuit it they follow any other course but destroying her.

Yes bears are a way of life in this area and an acknowledged risk but proven man killers are not acceptable.

They should take a poll on how many people would leave the bear alone, based on what I have read I would let the bear be, seems the hunter got lax, we are not the top of the food chain. A year ago I was in Alaska with a guide pursuing Brown Bear when we had a Large sow with 2 cubs who ran into are scent she huffed and puffed and then started a fairly decent trot toward us, we backed out of their guns ready, fortunately it was bluff charge. The guide stated in 21 years of bear hunting he has only had 2 defense shootings, one the year before and it was over a food stash but the distance was short so there was no choice. If your hunting in bear country be prepared to walk up on one, hikers can make noise but hunters can't, part of the game in my opinion.

Perfect...blame the victim. He was a very experienced man of the mountains and for those of us that actually spend significant time in them, we realize how quickly things can go wrong.....no matter how diligent.

Very sad news.

Sounds pretty similar to the guy in Swan Hills that got attacked 2 years ago and nearly killed by a mother grizzly. At least he had a handgun to save himself in that case.

Wasn't there a another hunter who got charged for killing a grizzly when it was charging him and his son on horseback a couple of years ago in that general area?

Yet another reason we should be able to carry in the bush.

It always scares the hell out of me to be in grizzly country and have my rifle secured in the pack. These stories don't make me feel any better.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
It always scares the hell out of me to be in grizzly country and have my rifle secured in the pack. These stories don't make me feel any better.

+1

Everyone in Africa chambers a round when they leave the truck and there are whole threads about sling or no sling.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck32:

Wasn't there a another hunter who got charged for killing a grizzly when it was charging him and his son on horseback a couple of years ago in that general area?

Yes but thankfully he beat the charges.

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
It always scares the hell out of me to be in grizzly country and have my rifle secured in the pack. These stories don't make me feel any better.

+1

Everyone in Africa chambers a round when they leave the truck and there are whole threads about sling or no sling.

Mike

Perhaps in Africa but a bit different when you have 100+ pounds on your back in challenging terrain. Keeping a rifle at the ready just isn't a realistic option.

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
It always scares the hell out of me to be in grizzly country and have my rifle secured in the pack. These stories don't make me feel any better.

+1

Everyone in Africa chambers a round when they leave the truck and there are whole threads about sling or no sling.

Mike

Perhaps in Africa but a bit different when you have 100+ pounds on your back in challenging terrain. Keeping a rifle at the ready just isn't a realistic option.

100 percent agree.


Was looking at one of the bear attack repellents at the walmart in anchorage this morning.

Mike

quote:

[/QUOTE]

100 percent agree.


Was looking at one of the bear attack repellents at the walmart in anchorage this morning.

Mike

Always have a canister with me.....rifle or not.

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:

quote:

100 percent agree.


Was looking at one of the bear attack repellents at the walmart in anchorage this morning.

Mike

Always have a canister with me.....rifle or not.[/QUOTE]


Problem is, in a lot of these cases, the party involved didn't have a chance to use either. Best defense is to be aware of your surroundings and vigilant at ALL times. It's not a stroll in the park out there.

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck32:

Yet another reason we should be able to carry in the bush.

Where do we let our voices be heard? I've got some bellarin' to do!

The real problem with coming up on a food stash is the dominant bear will generally be visible letting everything know it is his, subordinate bears from what I was told by an experienced bear guide will slither back away and either run away or just lay down to see what is coming, it is from there they either decide to fight or flight
I myself have snuck into deer stands only to get the you know what scared out of me when a deer busts out of there at close range. A friend of mind did just that on a bear stand in Wis, walked in quietly way before first light, put the light away and way preparing to go up the tree when all hell broke lose, seems as if a bear with multiple juveniles heard him coming and backed off and laid down, then when they got a whiff of him it was get out of dodge. The fellow now states he will only go in on first light. He could have been easily killed had the bears decided differently and based on what he said would have had no chance of self defense

Grizzlies have a nasty habit of burying their kill so it is not easily seen and typically, if not feeding, they will lie nearby in cover. Some will aggressively defend this kill and others won't. Coming upon a buried grizzly kill will give you an extreme case of the pucker factor

I killed my first grizzly in the mid 90's. I spotted it perhaps 2 miles away. We took off to attempt to bag it. It was no where to be seen until we got a bit upwind of it. When it got our scent, it came straight for us. I shot it in the head when it was bearing down on us. Subsequently, we determined that it was on a caribou kill which we had no idea was there.

We were prepared with guns in hand. I shudder to think what would have happened if the gun had been fastened to my pack.

The area where this took place is overrun with bears. Our group saw 11 different bears in a nearby valley last week. It was only a matter of time. We've kinda grown a bit complacent around bears over the years and often pay them little heed. I suspect that attitude will change at least for a bit. There's a good chance we were within a few hundred yards of this exact bear only two days earlier. Bears are definitely a way of life here but man killers shouldn't be.

Apparently the bear gets to live.....................

Have you heard any response from the family regarding this decision? If it were my father or brother I would be raising hell. Makes my blood boil.

I wish I could say I'm surprised by this but I'm not.

Ya no surprise. This bear needs to be destroyed not in retribution but as a public safety concern. I hope the government's liability insurance is up to date.

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:
It was only a matter of time.

I said these words to my wife about two weeks ago.

We live a 1/2 mile from K-Country and have a major creek that runs through our land. Grizzlies travel along here and we see them pass through quite frequently, last year we counted 12 different bears. I have pictures and video of them around our home and plenty of trail cam photos as well.

This past spring we were having an influx of them around home. I figured something was up and then found the rancher next to us was dumping his dead calves on the vacant land on the opposite side of our creek. The former neighbour/rancher had just passed away and I didn't personally know the new guy who took over operations. I attempted to contact him multiple times but when it became obvious he didn't want to talk I called the Fish & Wildlife.

The grizzlies were grabbing dead calves from the neighbours field and would drag them over to our side of the creek where they could eat in the cover of the thick spruce and alder. I have trail camera video of a grizzly with a calve 100 yards from my house. My best guess was there were 5 different bears grabbing the calves.

At first Fish & Wildlife sounded like they would take some sort of action because as they told me during our first phone conversation, it is illegal to dump dead animals near a water course. My reaction to them was this was the least of the problems. Bears were becoming habituated to eating dead calves not far from my house and it was a real danger to my family. Days went by, emails went back and fourth, but nothing was done and the best advice I finally received from Fish & Wildlife was that it would be better for me to contact my neighbour myself than them do it. I thought I tried that already??

I finally ended up to dispose of all the calf remains myself, but not before I got the scare of my life. I bumped a sow with two big cubs along our creek bottom, seemed they didn't want to give up their veal, nearly had to talk them out of chewing me up. It really is unbelievable how fast a bear can move, an experience I won't soon forget. Having my .375 strapped across my pack at that moment wouldn't have been good.

It's a real hands-off approach Fish & Wildlife seem to be taking with many cases of problem bears. Although in my circumstance it was more of a problem rancher.

Habituated bears are a big problem . We have had 2 cases this year of black bears attacking people in residential neighborhoods. These were a mile or so from my house. Idiot do gooders were feeding them.

quote:

Originally posted by .366torque:

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck32:

Yet another reason we should be able to carry in the bush.

Where do we let our voices be heard? I've got some bellarin' to do!

Write your MP and MLA's especially now when they are looking at changing the firearms act. This is a case of squeaky wheel gets the grease.

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:
Ya no surprise. This bear needs to be destroyed not in retribution but as a public safety concern. I hope the government's liability insurance is up to date.

One minute you talk about your own complacency in bear country and the next post you talk about the governments liability insurance.



Perhaps they should pave a path for you up the mountain so you don't slip on the scree and hurt yourself!

The hunter got three shots off after the attack and managed to make it 75 meters before bleeding to death.
He was not fed upon by the bears.

Public safety… Be more careful in bear country sheephunterab! Not complacent. If not, I guess we'll be reading about another sad story of a bear attack in the near future.

quote:

Originally posted by BRICKBURN:

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:
Ya no surprise. This bear needs to be destroyed not in retribution but as a public safety concern. I hope the government's liability insurance is up to date.

One minute you talk about your own complacency in bear country and the next post you talk about the governments liability insurance.



Perhaps they should pave a path for you up the mountain so you don't slip on the scree and hurt yourself!

The hunter got three shots off after the attack and managed to make it 75 meters before bleeding to death.
He was not fed upon by the bears.

Public safety… Be more careful in bear country sheephunterab! Not complacent. If not, I guess we'll be reading about another sad story of a bear attack in the near future.

It doesn't take a Harvard lawyer to see that allowing a proven man killing bear to remain in an area of high public use is a recipe for a huge lawsuit. While I appreciate your concern for me, I'm far more concerned about the hundreds of children and tourists with zero bear experience that frequent this area in the summer. The NWT had the right idea on the attack up there. Too bad politics trumps common sense in Alberta.

Where did you read that he got off three shots?

3 shots fired after the attack indicates the distress signal.

quote:

Originally posted by BRICKBURN:

quote:

Originally posted by sheephunterab:
Ya no surprise. This bear needs to be destroyed not in retribution but as a public safety concern. I hope the government's liability insurance is up to date.

One minute you talk about your own complacency in bear country and the next post you talk about the governments liability insurance.



Perhaps they should pave a path for you up the mountain so you don't slip on the scree and hurt yourself!

The hunter got three shots off after the attack and managed to make it 75 meters before bleeding to death.
He was not fed upon by the bears.

Public safety… Be more careful in bear country sheephunterab! Not complacent. If not, I guess we'll be reading about another sad story of a bear attack in the near future.

Yep………..

Sadly, grizzlies react to things in a way that does cause problems. What should we do? Dart and relocate all of the bears in a given area because they might get into it? Sorry but all grizzlies can react in a negative fashion if the circumstances are right.. or wrong…. depending on how you want to look at it.

Most polar bears and barren ground grizzlies view things walking as meat………. so what, lets dart all of them and move them because people are getting into their areas in numbers that pretty much ensure conflict will happen?

Some of you are acting like pussies. If you play in grizzly, or polar bear, or brown bear country things can happen. It is terrible when someone loses their life hunting or filming or hiking. But the bears, in most instances are reacting as dictated by their DNA.

Killer bear………… f'ing give me a break. She was reacting as nature has instructed her to given the situation. At least as far as we know and I guess the totally unknowledgeable and politically driven biologists think it as well.

Don't want risk……… stay out of grizzly country.

Jesus, I use to live where grizzlies were in my yard every bloody night and we accepted it for what it was.

Stay home and mow the lawn if you worry about it that much.

We are talking about one proven man killer...not all bears. As far as we know she sought him out and purposefully killed him. The point is we don't know anything other than she's a proven killer. Why such a desire to save one bear that's in the heart of tourist country and has killed? I don't get it. And save the move all bear BS...this is about one bear that killed a human, not mitigating all bear danger. Some of you are acting like PeTa members. Next thing you'll be celebrating that the mean hunter got what he deserved. Why all the fuss over one bear...some of you have been watching too much Disney Channel.

That is complete bullshit.

All grizzlies are one move away from this terrible incident. So lets relocate all of them.

Sought him out and purposefully killed him? Give me a break. There is nothing to suggest that. Heart of tourist country,,,, yes indeed. Your point being? Kill all grizzlies in the area just in case?

Kill bears that exhibit bad behaviour is your premise???????? Well better kill all barren ground grizzlies and polar bears cause god knows they look at everything as meat.

Its not the fuss over one bear it is the premise of killing the bear and her cubs for the infraction and that, somehow we as men are not partly involved in how the planet functions.



How dare they!

last year a lady was attacked and mauled by a grizzly in Yukon and she expressly asks not the bear to be killed.

sometimes Pathos is taking a lot on us and we asked the bears to be killed with no reasons.

im a hunter of bears and i eat the meat of them and i think not doing that is really not respectful but that is just my opinion.

i love too the idea myself of camping where grizzlies roam.