Bear Attacks

[Autonomous]

Q. What is the difference between a buffalo and a bison?

A. In a convincing Aussie accent: A bison is what an Australian washes his
faice in...

 

[30-30remchester]

In a small Colorado town was a Boy Scout camp. In the summers various troops would camp out there in their tents. For 2 consecutive years black bears had grabbed boys in their sleeping bags. While Canadians call a bear attack while in a sleeping bag as "Canadian take out" here we call it " a snack in a sack". Both boys were rescued by adult leaders and fellow scouts' shouts. I said it before in an above post, anyone think Yogi is just misunderstood and only bothers others when startled, should watch the YouTube "Scary Bear Attacks, and the Colin McCelland episode.

 

[steelslaver]

I do think some people misunderstand Yogi. But, I also think that believing they are serious people predators is also wrong. I do think that if you are in his nick of the woods he will sometimes do what bears sometimes do. Thinking all bears think and act the same would be as foolish as trusting all people although the majority of neither will purposely seek out and try to kill you. The ones that will will. The odds of meeting a killer bear are probably less than meeting a Jeffry Dalmer type human.

But, knowing kids as I know kids especially camping, I do have to wonder just what those boys smelled of when the crawled into those bags. Plus, the prior history of their activities.

The big "Night of the Grizzlies" in Glacier was as much the faulty of human behavior as natural bear behavior.

But, if you insist on camping, fishing, etc where there are bears on occasion one of them might decide it is snack time, or even just check out the weird smelling "fawn". You do have a right to defend yourself. But, we do spend far more time in the territory they live their whole life in than they spend in the areas the vast majority of us live the majority of our lives in. The more of us who frequent their areas the more interactions their are. Who really know if the ratio of bad interactions goes up or down, but the very fact that there are more people in bear country means more bad interactions NOT less just on shear volume.

I also believe hunting bears helps them keep a health fear of humans. After all we are far more danger to bears, than bears are to us.

I am going to keep on camping and enjoying the forests. Maybe I will met my bear. but even though I spend weeks a year camping in grizzly habitat, and live where I see bears within a couple miles several times every year, I doubt it and have far more concerns . Like having had 3 trees blow over on my place in the last 2 years.

 

[wood714]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAK5yr4mf7c[/ame]

 

[Rustyt1953]

Interesting video, Kev. Towards the end I could visualize the thought balloons over both anchors' heads saying "wrap it up".

 

[30-30remchester]

Have a different perspective than many on this thread, that we as intruders are the problem. Building houses in their territory. Our little mountain town has been here since the 1870's. Asked many an old timer what the wildlife situation was like in the early 20th century. Everyone asked said they had never seen a bear in town and maybe one deer a year inside the city. Many an old timer had never seen a bear. Now in our town of 2500 people there are 11 active bears according to wildlife official. And the deer population in town has exploded. Well over 100 deer live in town and routinely wander down main street and sleep in people's yards. Yesterday I saw a doe eating beside a bike lane. A cyclist rode within 6 feet of her while she was eating, and she never looked up. Watched a man moving his yard while a buck was sleeping in the yard. The deer only woke when the mower got within feet and went back to sleep when it passed. Man is not the problem. Moose now regularly sleep near my porch and are not the least concerned we are on the deck mere yards away. Reading diaries and stories of early mountain men, starvation was a common theme. Many nearly died from lack of game to shoot as did many Indian tribes and would assume many did die. Louis and Clark talk about starving Indians eating the intestines raw while still attached to the animal they had just shot for meat. Zenus Leanord's chronicles being on the first overland trip to California tell of starvation after leaving the great Salt Lake and killing only one rabbit till they saw the first deer track on the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain, all these regions are now teaming with wildlife since man arrived. The earliest reports of Texas migration talk of no game animals to shoot. These areas are now overrun by deer and are known as rats with hooves. Growing up far from town on the banks of a river, I was 16 years old when I saw my first Canadian goose. Now that region is thick with them and are tame to the point you can walk within a foot of them, and they pay you now attention. Goose **** on everything. We have even had several mountain lions living in town, one denning up near the high school. No man is not the death nell to wildlife and is often the greatest reason so many exist. This is just not what the Disney crowd want people to believe.

 

[steelslaver]

Ever stop to think that it is not your little mountain town, but all the other new towns, cabins, 5 acre ranches and the like areas not all that far away. Although your town may be the same I bet the adjacent areas have more people in them either full or part time. When they but in that subdivision 30 miles or even 100 miles down the way the wild life there moved and they displaced wildlife when they moved too. A chain reaction. Face it in 1925 there were 1 million people in CO, now there are almost 6 million. How can you believe 5 million more people are not displacing animals. I don't care if 4 million of them live in Denver and Colorado Springs the other million are spreed every where and plenty of those in the cities spend time in the great outdoors,as many of them moved to CO for that. Not only do those people consume wildlife habitat and cause their displacement, they also expose the wildlife to more people and of course familiarity breed contempt.

All the deer and the occasional cat in your village didn't just say hey lets move to town for no reason and the game population isn't that much greater than 50 years ago. In fact CO deer population fell from from 600,000 in 2006 to 450,000 now

Wild life in town. Ya, we have lots of deer in town too, we also have ducks and geese, ques what that smorgus board occasionally brings in lions and recently a wolverine. Every town in Montana has more wildlife than it did 50 years ago. But then for one thing the states population is 1.5 times larger, with lots of 5 acre "ranches" But, I contend the number one reason for that increase is simple. Leash laws. When I was young there were lots of dogs running loose and no deer because a dog will chase a deer and deer don't like dogs. Now you almost never see a loose dog and do see lots of deer. Same goes for ducks geese, bears and lions. We make a great habitat for deer, nice lawns, gardens, scrubs, flowers with no dogs chasing them and then we are surprised when they decide to move into it. LMAO. Then we are surprised again when a predator notices it and moves in to.

When Lewis and Clark went though Montana there were not as many deer, but there were millions of Bison and antelope. The Indians around here ran them off cliffs. I do not believe either man visited anywhere near present day Colorado. Where they ran into a shortage of game was in the Lolo area, near the mountains. Plenty of deer there now. Also lots of acres of, alfalfa and hay fields where humans cleared the trees and made farm land. Man change the country then the game changed.

My Grandpa told me when he was a kid there were plenty of deer, but during the dirty 30s there were none. Between drought and people killing them to eat during the depression they flat dissapeared. Now the bottom lands have more than ever, of course there are sprinkler systems irrigation ditches etc. Hmm more hay, more deer, more deer more predators, imagine that.

I put a 7' dia water tank in my yard for a place to take a dip and cool off, now the deer who used to leave to go down to the creek to water are here a lot more, I see them drinking from the tank, Why would they walk a 1/4 mile for what I made available right there in the shade of an apple tree. None of my neighbors how keep horses near the houses anymore like everyone used too., there are more houses true all on 1 and 5 acre plots all growing lots of well watered grass and guess what the deer love it. Wonder why a lions wander through our neighborhood from time to time

 

[30-30remchester]

Steelslayer makes some valid points and reinforces some of mine. Mankind is creating the abundance of animals in so many cases. Forty years ago, there were no racoons in our town, now they are a nuisance. Geese didn't exist till we planted field for them to thrive. No moose were in Colorado till 1894 when they were introduced. Now they thrive. In our town you can look onto vast plains of empty fields of public land with no wildlife. Turn around and look at town and wildlife are flourishing. Excuse my zealousness on this subject but it has been a passion of mine and source of study. I didn't see my first elk till I was 16. They cover every golf course around here now. Mankind is one of the greatest proliferators of wildlife. As to his estimates on deer population I will believe it accurate but, BUT it was not man that killed off the herds by 2006. It was the severe winter of 2003 that destroyed so much of our game. I had a herd of @1,000 elk living below my house. After that winter it was 16 months before I saw another elk and it was a single cow. We had snow that covered up the stop signs. Few deer survived, and those that did, survived in town and on ranches where they could get food. As to the plains being full of buffalo and antelope during mountain man times, is accurate but again the evidence does not always support the availability. One trapping expedition left St. Louis and were near starvation while trying to reach the mountains. They were eating their horse just as Louis and Clark had to do. This expedition was turning around and making a desperate attempt to get back to civilization before starving to death, when they finally spotted the mountains in the distance. Louis and Clark expedition was always hungry. When encountering native tribes, the first thing they did was trade for meat. The natives sold them dogs to eat. They ate so many dogs that the natives referred to them as the puppy eaters. In most of these areas of starvation are now abundant with game. Again, please excuse me for my zealousness on this subject. It is a passion. There are many things that man does destroy wildlife, like dog teams in Alaska where native killed 25 caribou a year per team just to feed their dogs or depleted the rivers of salmon with their fishwheels to feed their teams. Now some rivers are closed to fishing altogether because of depleted numbers. It is a fascinating subject when you delve deep into the subject.