Griz in Colo.?

[Deleted member 28227]

This seems relevant- https://billingsgazette.com/lifesty...cle_33677ae6-efc4-5144-9581-7a02a809d393.html

He's making a 300+ mile annual loop.

This sow a few years back was even more impressive with her ability to wander- https://www.wideopenspaces.com/wandering-grizzly/

Both of those are interesting, but I would argue that that bear is moving back and forth through habitat corridors, with the extremities being only 180 miles apart. That's a bit different then making a 600 mile one way trek through a habitat corridor and/or making a 200 mile journey across a desert.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

There were absolutely no panthers in Georgia, until this guy shot one.

Georgia man sentenced to 2 years probation for killing Florida panther

archive.naplesnews.com

Bears, Kitties, and wolves aren't the same thing. Wolves in the San Juans, or lions running around the DC burbs are much more plausible in my mind.

 

[bushman13]

Similar though in the response from Georgia DNR was always the same. No cats in Georgia. The stance was changed once one was on the ground.

I don't actually have an opinion on Grizz in CO. There are reputable stories about wolves in CO, not so much about grizzly's. I don't think Adam's bear was a grizz.

Bears, Kitties, and wolves aren't the same thing. Wolves in the San Juans, or lions running around the DC burbs are much more plausible in my mind.

 

[----]

Both of those are interesting, but I would argue that that bear is moving back and forth through habitat corridors, with the extremities being only 180 miles apart. That's a bit different then making a 600 mile one way trek through a habitat corridor and/or making a 200 mile journey across a desert.

Yeah, absolutely. In the second article there's an aerial image with the bear's path on it. It was definitely sticking to forested areas that most would consider bear habitat, and had an aversion to crossing the interstate.

 

[bushman13]

The man who killed Colorado’s last grizzly bear

On Monday, 40 years ago, Ed Wiseman killed the last known grizzly bear in Colorado.

durangoherald.com

I knew about the last griz bear story from the 50's in the San Juans. This one was new to me though, occurred in 1979.
The guy that killed the juvenile cat with his bare hands, should be buying this guy a beer. What a story.

 

[smw110136]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought the argument Greentree made was that the bear he saw was a long lost relative of the last grizzlies to have inhabited the San Juans. Like the Wiseman grizzly. I don't think he thought the bear he saw had migrated from the GYE, but maybe I am wrong. I guess I find it much more plausible the bear he saw, if it was actually a grizzly bear, was a relative of the original Colorado grizzly population that had gone undisturbed and not a migrator from the parks.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought the argument Greentree made was that the bear he saw was a long lost relative of the last grizzlies to have inhabited the San Juans. Like the Wiseman grizzly. I don't think he thought the bear he saw had migrated from the GYE, but maybe I am wrong. I guess I find it much more plausible the bear he saw, if it was actually a grizzly bear, was a relative of the original Colorado grizzly population that had gone undisturbed and not a migrator from the parks.

So the +/- 15,000 hunters that, to paraphrase Steven Rinella talking about hunting that area last fall, were on every ridge top in the unit, and miles and miles back... so many hunters that people are advocating those units go full limited for archery and cut quotas dramatically. So those mountains have been home to a remnant population of grizzlies (max wild age 34) for over 40 years with at least enough surviving bears that there have been at minimum 2 separate generations of bears?

Please explain how I'm supposed to balance these two competing paradigms in my mind... without the solution being a massive government conspiracy theory.

For the record, I wouldn't believe Mr. Newberg if he said he saw a grizz in the San Juans. Pics under 300 yards with a good camera head on, hair, or a dead bear or it didn't happen.

We have had a dozen or so dead wolves over the last 20+ years and multiple videos of wolves under 200 yards yet every picture ever popularly circulated of a "grizz" makes the patterson video look like 4k quality footage.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Brown phased Polar Bear.......... the Arctic is losing habitat. They move.

 

[geetar]

Honestly, I would love to see G-bears reintroduced into Colorado... so I'm kinda with Yvon on this one.

Although I can’t speak from experience having not lived in a grizzly bear area I think the hunter / conservationist in us want all native species around if possible. I’m even really happy that black bears have expanded their range into the area I live.

 

[smw110136]

So the +/- 15,000 hunters that, to paraphrase Steven Rinella talking about hunting that area last fall, were on every ridge top in the unit, and miles and miles back... so many hunters that people are advocating those units go full limited for archery and cut quotas dramatically. So those mountains have been home to a remnant population of grizzlies (max wild age 34) for over 40 years with at least enough surviving bears that there have been at minimum 2 separate generations of bears?

Please explain how I'm supposed to balance these two competing paradigms in my mind... without the solution being a massive government conspiracy theory.

For the record, I wouldn't believe Mr. Newberg if he said he saw a grizz in the San Juans. Pics under 300 yards with a good camera head on, hair, or a dead bear or it didn't happen.

We have had a dozen or so dead wolves over the last 20+ years and multiple videos of wolves under 200 yards yet every picture ever popularly circulated of a "grizz" makes the patterson video look like 4k quality footage.
View attachment 122363

I don't think he saw a grizzly at all, nor do I believe they're in Colorado (currently), but I just wondered if that bit of information maybe played into it. If he thinks he saw one and it happened to be in the same place where the last one was killed, you can see how maybe he convinced himself it really was a grizzly. That, and a total lack of knowledge of grizzly bear population densities in the lower 48.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I don't think he saw a grizzly at all, nor do I believe they're in Colorado (currently), but I just wondered if that bit of information maybe played into it. If he thinks he saw one and it happened to be in the same place where the last one was killed, you can see how maybe he convinced himself it really was a grizzly. That, and a total lack of knowledge of grizzly bear population densities in the lower 48.

I don't necessarily think he is lying about what he saw, I bet he actually does think he saw a grizz.

I have a bear rug on my wall, 99% of people who walk into my house ask were I killed the grizz... people are full of it.

Would love to have my mind changed by hard evidence, internet PM me if you have actual proof.

World's smallest grizzly...



Honestly my bear looks more "grizzly" in some respects than Ed's actual grizzly (last bear killed in CO)

 

[EYJONAS!]

Nice looking bruin there.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Thank you... little lady had a great hide.

Great article IMHO...

Grizzlies near Independence Pass?

Twice in his 42 years Brad Phelps has seen the strange sight of crickets above timberline, hundreds of thousands of them, so thick that several were squashed with every

www.aspentimes.com

I think if I met an old crusty at the bar or David Peterson for that matter and he said he knew there were a group of bears living in CO, he had seen them, and that they were living off of Purgatoire peak, and the owners knew and were keeping it quiet... I'd probably by that one.

 

[rjthehunter]

I'm no bear expert and won't claim to be. But the pic looks like a grizz. Look here, without a better pic there's not a good way to confirm, but it does have the hump that a grizz has.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Meh...black bears have humps.

 

[rwc101]

 

[EYJONAS!]

Meh...black bears have humps.

What a beautiful TANK of a bear......... I am in agreeance that the first bear posted on the grizzly sighting is merely a color phase black bear. Unless the Mexican Grizzly is making a comeback.....Needless to say the first bear posted seems like one I would look over and then over again and then maybe a little closer one more time before I flicked the safety.

 

[EYJONAS!]

I'm not a bear expert myself but, I have looked over many bears over the years in MT. Different stances and feeding positions can cause a black bear to show some sort of a "hump" especially with a head down. Different lighting situations can cause bears to almost change colors even if they are black, many black bears have a brown undercoat or "guard hair". There's a reason why they are one of the hardest animals to actually judge especially in the wide open. The first posted bear to me looks like a bear that if I were out hunting for a bruin I would definitely be trying to get a second look at him or close the distance if possible. If that bear had his head up and we had a couple different angles of it this mystery could be resolved pretty quick. Point is if that is the only picture of it theres no way to rule either way it's a griz or not. I'm leaning on a blackie though.

 

[Little Canyon Creek]

When I was going to college in Bozeman, one of my favorite places to go fishing was the Gallatin in the park. There are places with more and bigger fish, but that place just jived with me. In the summer of 2012 people were talking about a grizzly that was hanging around and people needed to be careful. I took note of it, but it is all grizzly habitat up there, I was being careful anyways.

Well, one day I head up there and it was jam packed with people. It was July-ish and I think the Park had closed the Madison and the Firehole because of elevated temps. So all of the people on vacation in West Yellowstone who wanted to fish those world famous rivers made their way over to the Gallatin. After dealing with enough people who seemed stressed out about their trip not going how they planned, I was just kinda going through the motions, fishing some spots I hadn't hit before. I was by the old abandoned road on the other side of the river when this cinnamon colored black bear sow walks by not 10 yards from me. Just plodding along, probably pissed off at all the fisherman but not doing anything about it. It was not a big bear, I would guess 100-150 lbs. Fun to see for sure.

Later that summer I took my dad and my sister up there for some fishing. On the drive back later in the afternoon I spotted the same sow feeding along the river. We pulled over so my sister could see the bear. I think it was the first bear she had ever seen in person before. Well, that started one of those Yellowstone chain reactions and in 5 minutes there was probably 20 cars parked behind us. This one guy, from Oklahoma I want to say, was talking about how cool it was to see a grizzly. When I told him that it was actually a cinnamon black bear, he laughed and said he would just say it was a grizzly because it was a better story. Funny guy and I don't blame him.

I guess there could have been a grizzly hanging around the Gallatin that summer, but I spent a lot of time up there and only saw that sow. I am pretty sure that most people are just kinda terrible at figuring out which bear species it is that they are looking at. I am with EYJONAS on this in that the picture isn't good enough to be sure. If someone told me that was SW MT, I would lean 80-90% sure it was a black bear though.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

@Little Canyon Creek, my wife and I were in Teton, I saw a bear, pulled out my binos cinnamon sow. Showed a couple people on the trail. Ranger walked by, I let him see... he says "thats a grizz", I rolled my eyes "he continued, I was a ranger in Alaska for ten years."

Watched the bear a bit, it came pretty close... the Iphone 6 had a crappy camera... but...


I don't give a shit if you can pass the MT bear test, have killed 20 black bears and killed 10 grizzlies in AK. The mind is fickle when you want to believe something, I saw a bear that I'm still kinda sure was a grizz in the bridgers (wasn't).

Hell there is a Canadian guide that has like 20 youtube videos about big foot, Vilhjalmur Stefansson has a whole bit in his book about a guy thinking a snowy owl was a polar bear.