May 12th

Original story:

Police say a brown bear mauled an Eagle River man walking on a hiking trail near his home Saturday evening, leaving him with scalp injuries and claw marks on his back.

The man, identified by police as 57-year-old Howard Meyer, was on a trail described by police as about one mile from Eagle River Road.

At 6 p.m. Saturday a bear knocked him down from behind, said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Dave Parker.

It's unclear exactly where that trail is or in which direction Meyer was hiking. Meyer lives on nearby Mariah Drive, a mountainside subdivision below Ram Valley, Parker said.

Mariah Drive is about 3.5 miles from the Eagle River Nature Center.

Meyer told Parker that the bear was "stomping and huffing" at him.

"All of a sudden he's knocked over and rolling around with this very large creature," Parker said.

The bear clawed and bit him but didn't continue the attack for long, Parker said.

When it ran away Meyer was able to call 911 from his cellphone.

When police arrived, they carried rifles in search of the bear.

"There were children playing not too far from there," he said.

But the bear hasn't been seen since, Parker said. Based on its behavior, officers think it may have attacked because it was surprised.

Paramedics transported Meyer to an area hospital where he was treated for his injuries, which police said were not life-threatening.

On Sunday, Meyer was conscious and able to speak briefly from his hospital room. He said he needed to get some sleep.

This is the first report of a bear attack in the Anchorage area police have heard of this year, Parker said.

Asta Spurgis of the Eagle River Nature Center said that while the entire Eagle River Valley is bear habitat, staff and visitors haven't reported any sightings yet this year -- just tracks and scat.

May 12th

TRINIDAD, Colo. (CBS4) – A woman who was mauled by a bear in Trinidad Friday evening was banging pots and pans together on her porch in an effort to scare the bear away before the attack, wildlife officials say.

“The woman was at her home with her grandchildren and one of the grandchildren was outside and said ‘Oh grandma, a bear’ and so she went out, brought the grandchild in the house and then went out to bang some pots and pans together on the porch,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said during an interview on the CBS4 Morning News Monday.

“At that point she was actually attacked by the bear,” Hampton said.



The woman was able to escape and get inside the home. She called for help and one of her friends arrived before deputies.



Her friend fired some shots at the bear and the animal ran away.

Deputies from the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the woman’s home with officers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. When the bear returned, the officers shot and killed it.

Hampton said the bear was a young male. He said the situation was rare because the woman wasn’t doing something his department advises against.

“We encourage people to do things that don’t get that bear to want to hang around,” Hampton said. We don’t want (bears) comfortable in neighborhoods. We don’t want them comfortable where people are. So banging pots and pans together can be an effective strategy. And we’ve seen it work time and time again.

“It’s just unfortunately in this situation she got too close to the bear — the bear got too close to her — and it can have these tragic consequences, too. Sometimes it’s best to call for help if you’re not in a situation where that bear is a threat to you if you are in the house.”

The woman was taken to the hospital in Trinidad for her injuries afterwards.

May 27

Yellowstone Park's bear spray information outdated and contradictory

Yellowstone National Park's bear spray information is outdated and contradictory; it omits a key fact that could save lives. The National Park Service uses a long-winded "Bear Pepper Spray" video that's laughably amateurish.

The video shows two people ambling through the woods carrying rifles, but a National Park Service paper on "Using bear spray to deter an aggressive bear" says the spray is "Better than a firearm."

Then why show people carrying firearms? It seems contradictory to tell people bear spray is better than a firearm, and then show a video with people carrying firearms. The message the public gets might be, "carry both bear spray and a firearm."

In a discussion about "Firearms in Parks" found at "Laws & Policies," Yellowstone Park says, "Firearms should not be considered a wildlife protection strategy. Bear spray and other safety precautions are the proven methods for preventing bear and other wildlife interactions."


If Yellowstone Park officials don't want people carrying firearms for protection against bears, why show video of people carrying rifles?

The Bear Pepper Spray video shows people using bear spray on seven occasions. One time a man fires the bear spray from a hip holster, once a man uses two hands to fire bear spray, and on five occasions people are shown firing bear spray one-handed.

It's possible to fire bear spray one-handed, but is it a good idea for a person who just bought their 1st can of bear spray for a hike in Yellowstone? No, says Center for Wildlife Information Director Chuck Bartlebaugh. In a 2011 news article titled, "Spray . . . then pray," Bartlebaugh said your can of bear spray "must be held with two hands so it doesn't tilt upwards" when fired.

Two hands. Bartlebaugh recently said, "In tests to see how people would use bear spray, we gave cans to 50 people and had them aim and spray as though a bear were out in front of them. In almost every test, the force of the propellant pivoted the can in their hand so the spray was going into the air above the target. While they were shooting into the sky disabling birds and butterflies, a bear would go right under the cloud unaffected. That's why we recommend that most people use both hands when using bear spray."

The "Bear Pepper Spray" video does not tell people to use both hands when deploying bear spray. Instead, the Bear Pepper Spray video usually shows people using bear spray one-handed.

In addition to the Bear Pepper Spray video, Yellowstone National Park 's webpage on "Your Safety in Bear Country" features six seperate links that provide detailed information about bear spray. None of them tell people to use both hands when using bear spray.

After two fatal grizzly bear attacks in 2011 on hikers in Yellowstone Park, the Associated Press did an article titled, "Bear Attacks Lead to Renewed Focus on Safety."

The main thing the National Park Service and other agencies are doing is telling people to carry bear spray and know how to use it. But the agencies are not telling people to use two hands with bear spray.

Yellowstone needs a new bear spray video and up-to-date information on bear spray at its website.
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Dave Smith, Bear Attack Examiner

Dave Smith is the author of Don't Get Eaten, and Backcountry Bear Basics: The Definitive Guide to Avoiding Unpleasant Encounters. In past lives he spent more than a decade in Alaska, and another six years working as a winterkeeper in the snowbound heart of Yellowstone Park. He's an avid...
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Researcher: Bear spray "doesn't make sense" for hunters facing charging bears
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Grizzly mauls hunter, bear spray hoax continues.


Dave Smith

Bear Attack Examiner

A grizzly bear mauled an elk hunter near Cody, Wyo., last Saturday, but instead of giving hunters realistic safety advice, the Powell Tribune reports that Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist Brian DeBolt urged hunters to carry bear spray, "have it accessible, and know how to use it."

You need two hands to use bear spray, so a hunter carrying a rifle when he or she encounters a grizzly can't use bear spray. Chuck Bartlebaugh, Be Bear Aware director of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee says, "The bear spray can must be held with two hands so it doesn't tilt upwards."

Hold the bottom of the can with one hand to keep it from tilting up, use your other hand to operate the safety and trigger on top of the can. Two hands. But hunters need at least one hand to hold their rifle.

Instead of telling hunters to carry bear spray and know how to use it, state game and fish departments should offer hunters practical advice on how to use their firearm effectively for self-defense. The bear spray hoax puts hunters in grizzly country at terrible risk.

Bear spray hoax puts hunters in grizzly country at risk


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Dave Smith

Bear Attack Examiner

To prove bear spray is a better choice than a firearm for self-defense in grizzly country, bear spray advocates often rely a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service "fact sheet" titled Bear Spray vs. Bullets: Which offers better protection? After carefully scrutinizing the document, a few words of caution are in order.

First of all, who wrote Bear Spray vs. Bullets? The author is not identifed. The fact that someone was not willing to put his or her name on the document is troubling.

Bear Spray vs. Bullets claims that based on investigations of human-bear encounters since 1992 by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service law enforcement agents, "persons encountering grizzlies and defending themselves with firearms suffer injury about 50% of the time. During the same time period, persons defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time, and those that were injured experienced shorter duration attacks and less severe injuries. Canadian bear biologist Dr. Stephen Herrero reached similar conclusions based on his own research--a person's chance of incurring serious injury from a charging grizzly doubles when bullets are fired versus when bear spray is used."

How many human-bear encounters did U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service agents investigate? Five? Ten? Fifty? Bear Spray Vs. Bullets doesn't say. The number could be so small it's statistically insignificant. When you check the bibliography and notes for Bear Spray vs. Bullets to find out for yourself how may human-bear encounters were investigated . . . there's no bibliography or notes. That's problem #2.

Three, there's no publication date on Bear Spray vs. Bullets. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service agents investigated human-bear encounters from 1992 to . . . 1995? 1999? When? A Google search reveals that Bear Spray vs. Bullets appears to be part of a series of fact sheets on "Living With Grizzlies" done by the U.S.Fish & Wildlife Service in 2003.

What were the circumstances when bear spray was used, vs. the circumstances when bullets were used? Bullets are most commonly used by big-game hunters who accidently surprise a nearby grizzly and get charged. This is a life or death situation, and few hunters are trained to cope. In contrast, biologists with state and federal agencies often use bear spray to shoo away curious or food-seeking bears from campgrounds or cabins or homes. Is Bear Spray vs. Bullets comparing the use of bear spray and bullets under the same circumstances? We don't know, and that's problem #4.

Five, Dr. Stephen Herrero published a study on Field Use of Capsicum Spray As A Bear Deterrent in 1998, but it does not include any data on firearms vs. bears. No amount of searching finds a hint of evidence that Dr. Herrero did research on firearms vs. bears. It appears there was no verifiable data available on firearms and bullets when Bear Spray vs. Bullets was written.

Six, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen is in charge of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, and the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee recently dropped claims that bear spray is more effective than bullets. From 1999 to 2009, an Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee "Bear Pepper Spray Position Paper" claimed, "No deterrent is 100% effective, but compared to all others, including firearms, bear spray has demonstrated the most sucess in fending off threatening and attacking bears and preventing injury to the person and animal involved."

Now, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee's IGBC Bear Spray Recommendations no longer compare bear spray to firearms: "No deterrent is 100% effective, but bear spray has demonstrated success in fending off charging and attacking bears and preventing, or reducing injury to the person and animal involved.."

Why did the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee stop comparing bear spray to firearms? Because there's no data on firearms. Bear spray vs. bullets is a hoax.

why no studies : because most of people with firearms are not pro-efficient .... you need to train and lot of people cant handle the stress to be in the bush ....

what i found very interesting is most people living outside of where are living grizzlies are more concerned than the people living among them ...

As a little side note to all this -- the USFWS training for being a PASSENGER in small aircraft in Alaska takes days -
yet their training for carrying a gun for bear protection, EVEN FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER HANDLED A GUN, is a two hour course !

I am not sure that even if they did a study comparing spray and firearms that it would mean anything.

I will still stick with my assessment that visitors to Alaska will be better served with spray -- and I have dealt with dozens of bears every year for the past three decades.

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
why no studies : because most of people with firearms are not pro-efficient .... you need to train and lot of people cant handle the stress to be in the bush ....

what i found very interesting is most people living outside of where are living grizzlies are more concerned than the people living among them ...

This thread has demonstrated that the Wisconsonites seem much more afraid than the Alaskans of Alaskan brown bears.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott King:

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
why no studies : because most of people with firearms are not pro-efficient .... you need to train and lot of people cant handle the stress to be in the bush ....

what i found very interesting is most people living outside of where are living grizzlies are more concerned than the people living among them ...

This thread has demonstrated that the Wisconsonites seem much more afraid than the Alaskans of Alaskan brown bears.

Bingo!!

Scott and Antlers,

i may add i was wrong : you re talking about brown bear not grizzly .....

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
Scott and Antlers,

i may add i was wrong : you re talking about brown bear not grizzly .....

Matters not. My advise regarding bear protection for the visiting outdoorsman to Alaska remains the same no matter the species.

Keep a clean camp. Travel during broad daylight hours and stick to open terrain. Make enough noise to allow a bear plenty of time to identify you and exit at their convienience. Be aware of the goings on around you and supress the urge to investigate the gatherings of magpies or ravens in trees or bushes near by.

Use every and all options at your disposal to at least not encourage a bear to rub elbows with you. If all that fails, blast him/ her/ it with a more than healthy dose of pepper spray. Two good reasons to use spray. 1) you're not ruining your trip skinning and handling July brown bear pelts. 2) you've just administered a lesson to the bear they will literally never forget. Bears do learn and there have been at least hypothosesis if not conclusions that for example if bears encounter an electric bear fence they will never return to the area. Great for the bear, great for you. Give a curious bear a lesson he'll take to the grave. A grave of either its, a bear hunters or another predator provides it, not the grave in all probability a thoughtless adventurer inadvertantly delivers.

In two weeks I've got an older brother headed here for a long weekend of king fishing. We'll be camping and fishing on the lower Nushagak River, prime brown bear habitat. The rough plan as it applies to bear protection will be to clean fish down on the skiff, (keep guts outta camp,) use the chainsaw and axe to make and maintain big ass smokey bright fires, pee all over hells half acre and have my noisy stinky black lab right there in camp with us. Its possible but not probable we'll have a bear encounter while camping there. If so, the plan would include bigger and smokier fires, a dramatic increase in the noise from the dog and people and if that fails a surrender of the fillets or chili to the maurader. Its likely I'll have .45's and .44's around somewhere but the point is to not entice the bear in the first place, dissuade it if it's enticed anyway and then surrender to fight another day, DBA as bear season.

We do this year after year without dying at the hand or tooth of a ravenous bear.

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
I deal with bears on almost a daily basis all summer long - as I am writing this there is a breeding pair that I can see from the window 1/2 mile from the house - and On the very few times I have used it spray has worked as intended.

Sure I carry a gun - I have most days for the past forty years - but I have not had to use them on any "predatory bears".

Bearanoia, as we call it up here, is an unfounded fear of the unknown. Bring a gun if it makes you feel better, but I still recommend spray as the best defense for virtually everybody visiting Alaska

Phil there is no defense better than experience with a particular animal as long as it is used intelligently and backed by at least two levels of back-up! Having said that, it is my opinion that one weapon is twice as good if backed up by a second more powerful weapon, and I see in your picture above you have a large handgun to back up that spray.

I simply do not see depending on pepper spray ONLY when dealing with an animal that is as lethal and a brown bear. Additionally I think it irresponsible to recommend pepper spray alone to all visitors to Alaska when many of them can’t deal with a poodle dog effectively much less a brown bear, because they simply do not understand what NOT to do around bears.

I too have spent some years around brown bears, and I love those big rolly-polley clowns, but I live by the old adage that reads this way,”No bear has ever attacked a human unprovoked, but the bear is who decides what constitutes provocation!“ and there is some wisdom in the old joke about pepper spray and brown bears. A sure sign that lower 48 hikers have passed this way is a pile of bear crap with little brass bells,backpack buckles and smelling of pepper spray!

You have lived a long time around these bears and you probably know more about them that anyone on this website, certainly more than I, but the visitors from the lower 48 are simply not usually up to dealing with brown bears, and as someone here has already said, and Tim Tredwell found after 13 years, “it only takes one mistake” (and he made many) if you are not properly armed. I for one do not consider a can of pepper spray to be properly armed as the only weapon. At least that spray should be backed up with an adequate firearm. When out on the tundra or in the willows I am never un-armed and that spray is useless when the wind is blowing a gale and driving rain, and you happen onto a bear in the alders inside his fight zone. I guess you could always spray yourself so you can’t see yourself being killed! I’d rather have a little short rifle with a big hole in the muzzle but barring that a pistol with a large hole in the muzzle before a can of pepper spray or at least to back that can up with! Once out of the float plane I’m never without a 41 mag revolver in a tanker’s cheat rig just inside my rain gear, where it is available no matter if I’m squatting with a roll of TP in my hand or cooking breakfast! An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure in this situation.

........................... All only one man’s opinion and worth no more than you paid for it!

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
why no studies : because most of people with firearms are not pro-efficient .... you need to train and lot of people cant handle the stress to be in the bush ....

.

AND those people who are not proficient with firearms are going to be more proficient with a can of spray?????? Get real here!

People who are not proificient with firearms have no business out in willows and alders with bears!

I've been around brown bears for years while hunting Alaska, and I'm not scared of the bears, but I certainly respect their power, and I can assure you I'm never unarmed when in Alaska no matter what I'm doing, and Im very proficient with any type of firarm, and understand what NOT to do around bears there.

If Alaskans know bears well enough to be around them without being armed then why is it that 90% of those mauled and/or killed by bears in Alaska are native Alaskans, and not the hundreds of dumb hunters from the lower 48?
........................................................................................................................................

quote:

Originally posted by medved:
Scott and Antlers,

i may add i was wrong : you re talking about brown bear not grizzly .....

News flash! A brown bear and a grizzly are the same bear. It is just the bear that lives on the coastal areas (coast to about 50 miles inland) get much larger because of the salmon runs,is called a brown bear and the inland grizz (from 50 miles inland away from the coast) are called inland grizzly, but both are the same species! The inland grizz is generally much smaller, but more aggressive in nature. Either is a lot bigger than you however!

Just read about this !

Grizzly bear kills hiker in Denali National Park

By Paloma Esquivel
August 25, 2012, 4:57 p.m.

http://www.latimes.com/news/na...nali,0,1685822.story

PAPI