Never Trust A Bear

Dan Mooney

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There was a thread in the last couple weeks about big cats and bears, here are some pictures I just got in an Email about a bear release. Scary Stuff :eek:

Didn't say what happened to the Bear.
 

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Dan,

The bear died. The handler was very experienced, and knew better than to do what he did, but still got careless.

But the real story here is the photographer. It's probably the most celebrated electronic copyright case in the history of the web. He spent several years sending out cease and desist letters to every site where these pictures were posted. And since they're such good pictures, they get posted all over the place. I think he's likely given up by now. ;)

I guess we're going to find out soon enough whether he's finally given up! :doh::dunno:

Thanks,

Bill
 
Hey,
can you blame the bear... somebody shoots you in the but with a dart that knocks you out, puts you in a box that's all hot hot and steamy (Probably smells like an old sweaty bear) then drives you out into the middle of nowhere, away from all the nice houses and people where you used to eat fairly frequently and easily, then just dumps you out.:rofl::rofl:

Closest I have ever been to a bear is in the local zoo.... think I'll keep it that way.
 
The passenger in the truck didn't seem to care about helping out either. :(


That bear is a lot bit bigger than the black's we have around here. And a lot nastier I suspect.
we had one wander through the yard a few years ago during my son's going away party. Scared the heck out of the quests. My son sure had an interesting story to tell on his way to Iraq.:D
 
that was a real nice sized bear for sure, and i too wondered what the passenger was doing all this time. this isnt the norm for a bear to act after a release..they generally just get out and run..
 
1987, grizzly, Glacier National Park (Montana)

The bear was initially caught as a cow killer, guess it decided to go higher up on the food chain menu. The 60 year old game warden that was getting mauled ended up putting all six from his .357 magnum revolver into the bear and killed it.

I'll make you a bet it all happened in under 20 seconds. If you're not the one getting eaten you're probably barely figuring out what to do next. :eek:

New York Times article http://tinyurl.com/yasnnvs

I have direct experience with black bears in the San Gorgonio Wilderness here in southern California. I spent a few summers as a wilderness patrolman, I carried an overnight pack and gear, a shovel and a radio. I was almost always over 6000 feet in altitude whenever I saw them on foot. I had two memorable contacts. The first one was a bear that I saw crossing on a trail about 100-150 feet in front of me. I let it pass on by, waited a few minutes and continued. About 5 minutes later I had a crawling feeling up my neck and turned around, a few moments later there it is shuffling up the trail after me. I raised my arms, waived my shovel and yelled. No response, I radioed in my position and took some higher ground. After some more yelling and stomping and waving (and lots of sweating) it ambled off.

Another time my patrol partner and I were in our sacks when a bear walked through. My partner for some reason had vitamins in the outside pocket of her sleeping bag, the bear walked to her and flipped her over. The vitamins dropped out, it ate them and walked away.

Back in the day the Spanish and Mexican rancheros would go up the local mountains to capture grizzlies. Drag them down to the ranches in the flatlands and pit them against the biggest orneriest bull they had for a death match. Did I mention there are no more grizzlies in the southern California wilds?

My biggest scares were always the rattlers sunning themselves in the middle of the trail, those always gave me the heebie jeebies.

Cheers,
 
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We use to have lots of bears at the dump and on the fishing trails up in Northern Bc around Terrace. I remember chucking some garbage out and had a kermode bear (white black bear) pop his head out of the garbage and check out my garbage with me standing about 4 ft from him. I have some great shots of a grizz that was walking across an open field. I crouched down behind a shrub to get some good pics and he turned and started walking towards me. Got about 15 ft from me and sat down to eat some dandilions. Got some great pics of him. Recently we were driving up the west coast of Vancouver Island up towards port Renfrew and we saw blacks almost every day. Of course I brought my camera with me and got some great shots of the bears. Some as close as 15 ft. I have been very fortunate to get some wonderful shot of all kinds of big game wild life in my years and no mishaps yet. Thank the man upstars for that.
 
I've had a few run-ins with bears, all black bears, but they can rip you to shreds too :eek:

Once we were up riding dirt bikes in an area that had been logged off maybe 5 years earlier, so there was lots of small growth, but no real trees, we found a HUGE patch of black berries. We stopped to pick and eat some, they were sweet. I had a bag and had it about half full, and I was kneeling down picking berries, my two cousins were there too, I heard a shuffle and a grunt, I thought it was one of them, then, I could smell the bear, and believe me, that is a smell you only have to smell once. I stood up, and so did the bear, I thought he was about 2' from me, I yelled and threw my bag of berries at him, and then ran for my dirt bike, which I started and took off on in a heart beat. Down the road a bit, my two cousins (who also fled the scene) and I stopped, we had a rather nervous laugh about it, they also told me the bear was at least 20' away :eek: :D

One of my other uncles works as a mining assayer, and was way up in Norther BC working, they are far from anything, they use helicopters to move their camp each day. Him and his crew boss were the last two guys at a camp, they were waiting for the helicopter to return, and a black bear charged then, they went up a tree, the crew boss first, my uncle second. Black bears climb trees well, and this one was upset about something. For whatever reason, they made the grave error of loading all the gun onto the helicopter, and the only weapon they had was an axe, so while the bear was mauling my uncle the crew boss hit in in the head with the axe, finally killing it. My uncle had 150+ stitches and just about died. To this day, whenever in the bush, he carries a 44 magnum, and yes, he knows how to use it, he is one heck of a shot with it.

Bears are not something you take lightly.:wave:
 
Yea Stu I have heard stories of lots of the guys from DFO. One guy was walking in the bush and he heard a noise. He froze against a tree and a grizz came out sniffed his crotch and then walked away. Blacks climb and like fresh meat. Grizz's like to tenderize the meat and you can play dead with a grizz not a black. Heard one story of a guy running naked in the bush as he was running away from a black and he stripped down as he ran. Quite the site i am sure.
 
I mentioned in earlier post closest encounter with a bear was in zoo... forgot that a few years ago when was married to first wife, we did a stint at a guest ranch in the mountains east of Modesto... between the Kings Canyon and Sequoia national forests.
Yosemite rangers often caught the local trouble maker bears and turned them loose in the two parks .... we were haveing a night time cookout with a roaring bonfire when a big boar bear (assuming boar only because of size... did not try to check) came abling into the corral circle where we were. He ambled in between the owner's cabin and the owner himself so there was going to be a delay in Carl getting his rifle... one of the guest (probably a city feller)(I'm a country boy moved to the city and know better) decide he would just bang on a pan with a big spoon and scare him off..... he wasn't afraid of people... he was used to eating out of the garbage cans in Yosemite. He charged the guest... I swear that man was 1/4 mile away before the pan and spoon hit the ground. The bear just wandered around the corral and checked the tables to see what was to eat, then ambled off up the trail towards where the cook slept. This was a concern to Carl and Adeline.... the cook was known to be a drug addict and usually would be in some sort of stupor after dinner.... Carl ran immediately to get his rifle and followed the bear up the trail, but he was already gone... lost interest in the goings on and had headed back into the forest or up along the John Muir... probably easier going along there.

Did make for an exciting evening though.
 
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