Grizzly attack in Ovando

[mtmuley]

Lazy. cycle simplified.

Please say you don't turn them on at night. mtmuley

 

[Falcon75]

Please say you don't turn them on at night. mtmuley

Keeps the bears away from bird feeder. Also don't have to take time out during hunting season to rehang the lights. Smart.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

It was pointed out that hunting would have done nothing to prevent this incident. I am in support of hunting grizz as well, but put little credence in that as a deterrent to the very infrequent mauling incidents, most of which involve inadvertent sudden close encounter or protection of cubs or food source (carcass).

Plus I am concerned about the unthinking nimrods who will undoubtedly bait the bears and perhaps cause unnecessary bear - human encounters.

100% agree that a newly implemented hunting season, limited and very controlled, would not have prevented this sad tragedy. Only reducing the ever growing bear population may help with future bear conflicts. I expect that bear encounters, with injury and death, will only increase over time. The wild places that signify true Grizz country are now saturated and unfortunately the new bear members are being pushed to areas populated by us humans. I am sad for the family and friends of the victim. My guess is that this bear had probably grown up in the area and this wasn't the first conflict with people. Time will tell when the DNA results come in on the bear that was killed.

 

[BucksnDucks]

Absolutely agree. My point is that hunting doesn’t reduce conflicts by teaching bears anything. How many bear hunters are trolling the ‘burbs looking to shoot a problem bear behind someone’s house? Any reduced conflict is almost exclusively due to reduced populations, better population distribution, and reduced rates of bear/human contact. Not all hunting results in reduced populations.

I think we agree for the most part, I do however think hunting impacts problem bears in mountain communities that interface with hunt able lands. Maybe not the bears sleeping under a deck or living in exclusively in a backyard, but a hunted/chased bear may develop or be taught an aversion to people and dogs. From my experience the bears I deal with causing human conflict are behaving differently now compared to when bear hunting with hounds was very popular. I believe there was some learned behavior

 

[OntarioHunter]

I received a PM semi- reprimand about giving in on a hummingbird feeder deal.
Good enough points and pretty much agreeable.
I shared my wife's agreeable compromise pic and all's well. So to any who may have the same concerns, my wife and I work very well to find mutual compromise.

While I'd prefer nothing, well - most spouses know it's a mutual agreement on as many occasions as possible. Here's the pic shared.

I apologize for the humored diversion from the tragic situation though it is applicable. Far more applicable semi diverson than most threads here. Haha!

View attachment 188001

View attachment 188002

So now the bears tear up your front porch trying to climb up there and get at the feeder? I think you probably have made the problem worse instead of better. Good luck with that. At least a very expensive "I told you so" should ensure some bonus points going into any future disagreements with your wife.

 

[Sytes]

Edited... not worth typed words.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Okay, so the wind and birds scatter that sugar water all over the side of the front porch and it's not going to attract bears?

Here's a story applicable to your ingenuity. Thirty-five years ago I had an early season elk camp in the Great Bear wilderness. Getting everything in there required two trips with my horses over separate days off at the plant. So half the camp goes in and I construct a cache on a platform between three slender lodgepole, accessible by a removeable ladder also constructed on site. All my grub and oats for horses are wrapped in manta and secured to platform. Next days off I show up to find the platform broke down and all food for man and beast either gone or ruined. Now, we knew there was a camp robber up there, a HUGE and very smart black bear (no one ever saw anything but his tracks and his wreckage). He was also something of a gentleman. He bit a single hole in everything to sample. If he didn't like it, he left it alone. Both cans of peas had only one hole punched in the top. Understandable. I don't like peas either. I still have the windup traveling alarm clock with one hole punched clean through. And it still works. I can still find the single hole in the cover of my army fart sack. Anyway, how did that monster bear get up into the cache? He tried climbing the supports and stripped them bare of bark. He even started chewing on one tree and I have no doubt he would have chewed it off had he not come up with a better idea that didn't taste like turpentine. The bear climbed up a much larger lodgepole about five feet from the cache and skydived onto the platform, breaking it down. And you cannot believe the damage the grizzlies did to the residence cabins at Katmai National Park. Windows and doors were planked with spiked heavy plywood during the off season so the bears simply chewed/clawed their way through the log walls. Or they climbed up on the roof and tore their way in there. Bears probably won't be able to get at that hummingbird feeder. But that doesn't mean they won't raise hell with your beautiful porch trying.

Eventually the Great Bear gentleman camp robber made a mistake and one of Andy Cook's clients shot him. Andy told me it weighed 550 lbs.

Edit: Fortunately, on the way in during the second trip I shot a couple of fool hens for dog food. Poor Lab Ethyl had to suffice chewing on guts, beaks, and claws while I choked down spruce grouse breast and legs for two days. By the time we got back to the truck saddlebag leather was beginning to look appetizing.

 

[peterk1234]

Okay, so the wind and birds scatter that sugar water all over the side of the front porch and it's not going to attract bears?

Here's a story applicable to your ingenuity. Thirty-five years ago I had an early season elk camp in the Great Bear wilderness. Getting everything in there required two trips with my horses over separate days off at the plant. So half the camp goes in and I construct a cache on a platform between three slender lodgepole, accessible by a removeable ladder also constructed on site. All my grub and oats for horses are wrapped in manta and secured to platform. Next days off I show up to find the platform broke down and all food for man and beast either gone or ruined. Now, we knew there was a camp robber up there, a HUGE and very smart black bear (no one ever saw anything but his tracks and his wreckage). He was also something of a gentleman. He bit a single hole in everything to sample. If he didn't like it, he left it alone. Both cans of peas had only one hole punched in the top. Understandable. I don't like peas either. I still have the windup traveling alarm clock with one hole punched clean through. And it still works. I can still find the single hole in the cover of my army fart sack. Anyway, how did that monster bear get up into the cache? He tried climbing the supports and stripped them bare of bark. He even started chewing on one tree and I have no doubt he would have chewed it off had he not come up with a better idea that didn't taste like turpentine. The bear climbed up a much larger lodgepole about five feet from the cache and skydived onto the platform, breaking it down. And you cannot believe the damage the grizzlies did to the residence cabins at Katmai National Park. Windows and doors were planked with spiked heavy plywood during the off season so the bears simply chewed/clawed their way through the log walls. Or they climbed up on the roof and tore their way in there. Bears probably won't be able to get at that hummingbird feeder. But that doesn't mean they won't raise hell with your beautiful porch trying.

Eventually the Great Bear gentleman camp robber made a mistake and one of Andy Cook's clients shot him. Andy told me it weighed 550 lbs.

Edit: Fortunately, on the way in during the second trip I shot a couple of fool hens for dog food. Poor Lab Ethyl had to suffice chewing on guts, beaks, and claws while I choked down spruce grouse breast and legs for two days. By the time we got back to the truck saddlebag leather was beginning to look appetizing.

That right there is a great story!

 

[tjones]

Like wolves, grizzlies scare the shit out of folks.

At minimum hunters think both take something they are entitled to.

 

[MTLabrador]

Looks like the bear they shot was confirmed as the one that killed the woman.

https://www.ktvq.com/news/grizzly-b...ana-confirmed-as-the-one-that-killed-a-camper

 

[Dakotakid]

There is and has been a black bear season for decades, yet there are hundreds of problem black bears relocated and/or euthanized every year. Hunting clearly hasn’t kept them overly fearful of humans. Bears are driven by their need for calories. Everything else is secondary. Assuming this would be different for griz is illogical and fails to account for their biology. Why do you think so much money still goes into bear aware campaigns in bear country, even those areas with hunting seasons?

Black bears are hunted but we still have bear/human contacts so hunting clearly hasn’t kept them fearful. So hunting grizzly bears won’t reduce contacts.

That is not a logical statement. If x then y but if not y then not x.

To say that black bear hunting doesn’t reduce bear\human contact is not supported by the evidence.

There is no single perfect solution, there are tools that can reduce bear/human contact.

Hunting should be one. Just as bear aware and RR deaths are other facets.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Black bears are hunted but we still have bear/human contacts so hunting clearly hasn’t kept them fearful. So hunting grizzly bears won’t reduce contacts.

That is not a logical statement. If x then y but if not y then not x.

To say that black bear hunting doesn’t reduce bear\human contact is not supported by the evidence.

There is no single perfect solution, there are tools that can reduce bear/human contact.

Hunting should be one. Just as bear aware and RR deaths are other facets.

So what are you saying? I can’t make any sense out of this.

 

[Dakotakid]

The way I read your argument was that grizzly bear hunting should not be allowed because we have black bear hunting and we still have bear human conflicts.

I don’t find that logical.

 

[Hunting Wife]

The way I read your argument was that grizzly bear hunting should not be allowed because we have black bear hunting and we still have bear human conflicts.

I don’t find that logical.

Not at all what I was saying.

I said that the argument that opening a griz season will somehow instill enough fear in griz to eliminate conflicts is illogical. Did not make any statement either for or against hunting griz.

But since you bring it up, I have no problem with a griz season if conducted in a sustainable way. I just don’t think it’s going to make much of a dent in maulings or human/griz conflicts, particularly as human encroachment into griz habitat in the Rocky Mountain west increases.

 

[kwyeewyk]

The topic comes up quite a bit in these threads, the knee jerk reaction is always "need to start hunting them."

I think that the number of grizzly that could be sustainably harvested would be so low that the majority of bears would never have a clue there's a hunting season, much less be conditioned to avoid humans because of it.

A biologist friend of mine who lives in Wyoming contends that there may well be some level of selection of bears that tend to make themselves visible to humans if there were a hunting season, thus providing a very slight selective pressure for bears that tend to avoid humans. Certainly wouldn't end all bad human-bear interactions, but maybe could in limited specific cases remove potential problem or future problem bears from the gene pool. Not a solution but wouldn't hurt.