Grizzly Bear Mauling WY Shed Hunting
Bears
Contributors to this thread:
Bowboy's Link
Recent mauling in WY. The guy was out shed hunting.
I cannot imagine the fear that runs through a person at the time of the attack.
Not for sure bou. They left that pair of bears that attacked th doctor from Minnesota alone. Ron Niziolek thought that pair had also rushed him.
So sad. We've gotta get a handle on this!
We were also shed hunting the same day and some friends had a run-in with a couple griz. No attack, just some huffing and posturing.
This is getting ridiculous.
It seems the odds of a grizzly encounter are skyrocketing of late.
Too many of them G bears. We’ve already our eyes on 3 this spring. That’s bad news to have this already Be careful out there boys. Praying a season is in the works.
That'll get the blood flowing. I know, not funny.
I'm all for a season, but if you're under the impression a season will stop bear attacks I think you're mistaken. They'll issue what, 5 maybe 10 tags. A hundred bears won't be shot at to kill the 5 or 10. It's not like the bears will post a memo, hey they are shooting back now.
It's in their nature to be the "big dog" in the woods. That won't stop by shooting a few bears. I don't like it either, but bear attacks will remain a possibility with a "recovered" bear population.
Too many of them G bears. We’ve already our eyes on 3 this spring. That’s bad news to have this already Be careful out there boys. Praying a season is in the works.
What is it with Wyoming bears? We've spent time around bears in Alaska and Northern Canada many times (both inland and coastal), and it's rare to encounter an aggressive one. If you stay alert, and give them some space, they're rarely a problem. Is the habitat in WY too poor to support them properly? Are there so many that they are always in competition with each other? Are people (tourists/visitors) in WY clueless around them, or are the bears there just naturally more aggressive? Would it help if more people carried, and knew how to use, bear spray? There must be a solution. Getting rid of all the bears isn't it.
My experience with Wyoming griz is that 25% act like normal bears and fear humans; 50% are ambivalent and do not care or show much fear; 25% are aggressive. Of course, those are approximations. There are too many bears for the habitat and crowding and offspring expanding their ranges cause problems. Yes, tourists for the most part are clueless about handling bear situations, but I can assure you that most of the avid outdoorsmen and women here are well versed and well armed for them. Often it does not matter how prepared you are, shit happens quickly. I don't see any form of quick solution, but a grizzly season would be a good start.
“ That'll get the blood flowing....”
Or something!
I think Ziek raised a good point. There must be something really different about the WY bears... and maybe it is just the protection, but it seems like this is something that may have developed over generations of bears raising their cubs without unpleasant encounters... In which case it’ll likely take a few generations to re-educate them.
Season or not, more people carrying deterrents would certainly help. NOT advocating shooting any bears unless absolutely necessary, but it seems to me that if there were more bluff charges ending with bears getting a snoot-full of 5-alarm (or getting walloped with rubber bullets or bean-bag rounds, or other meaningfully unpleasant repercussions) there would be fewer encounters of any type.
Basically Hobbes’ point - we need to educate way more bears than a season would reach....
Notice the victim carried and initiated an InReach SOS and within about an hour was in a chopper.
Populations probably way higher than what is reported. The thought is that when judges are involved they may try to mandate populations to remain at these too high numbers. Some bears are getting shot every year. More than advertised. Odd that someone on this site would think shooting a bear in self defense is a bad thing. Thankfully the population is not threatened and we’re going to have bears for a long time. We probably need to manage the population to a lower level but that will be hard to sell maybe even on here. Anecdotal science is that there are sows with cubs in every drainage that I hunt in. Bears are hard to census and probably a lot of dispersal going on. Hard to show in court.
The salmon runs in a Alaska probably keep the bears occupied.
If in an area where animals that aren't shy or run away get killed, then the one's left are the shy ones. They breed and create more shy ones. The dead aggressive and not shy ones are dead so they don't reproduce those. Just like dogs you can somewhat breed out certain traits. These bears and wolves haven't had the non-shy ones culled. Add to that too many bears and it is a recipe for disaster. Just shows how all the people who say you are more likely to die by lightning strike et cetera are ignorant. Seems like more and more this will be a real issue.
Generations of these bears have grown up now without ANY reason to fear humans.... Fact is there is TOO MANY bears per the available habitat.. if I want to see Griz I'll book a trip up north. They are far from endangered as a species. Fellows, they aren't going to let us manage these things properly... We are outnumbered.... It's up to us to do what's necessary when the opportunity presents itself.. and protect ourselves and our neighbors.. my2¢
It seems like the whole idea of where they are introducing/protecting apex predators is really screwed up. Take a large fairly pristine area, make it into a park and invite clueless tourists from around the world to come play. Then introduce/protect apex predators (and other potentially dangerous critters like bison) without adequately controlling their numbers. Then close large areas of the park to people for significant times of the year to protect them and the animals, ensuring that even during non-peak visitation season, it's over crowded.
People in general seem to be pretty careless with their surroundings in general. Our two most important senses for staying safe is sight and hearing. Any more, most people - even many who should know better - are walking around constantly with their heads up their asses. Busy staring at their phones and/or with headsets/earbuds blocking their ears, they have no way to be aware of their surroundings. That's just dumb whether you're in the middle of a city or the outdoors.