Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:20:12 -0800
Reply-To: Al Knoll <anasasi@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Al Knoll <anasasi@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: camping amidst bears, safety question
In-Reply-To: <EBBAB873-27DF-4E05-A331-71610161DD41@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
About packing a gun along with your sleeping bag. If you miss, ye bear may
eat you. If you don't kill him, he will eat you or sample you as a
horsedoover, while searching for more palatable vittles. The likely
tourist/camper who has a firearm at his/her disposal may feel safer but in
reality isn't. The ability to effectively take down a 1000 lbs of angry
sausage with a handgun is mythical wishing at best. The grizzly has no
recognized predator, or threat, you are merely an annoyance.
We had a well known Toklat grizzly, named Goldilocks that frequented the
dump at Ft. Greely with her occassional cub/s. She could take a whack at an
empty 55 gallon drum and flatten it with one smite. Powerful, fast, deadly
and really a good looker. We once saw her banish an almost full grown
brown male by a short charge and a standup and the requsite dropped head and
a "WHUFF". Story about holding off a female with cubs with a loud chainsaw
downwind by request, we were rescued by an H34 helicopter.
Don't mess with Goldilocks.
Pensionerd.
USAATB/NWTC 1963-64
On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 4:52 PM, Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:
> from NPR website, you decide if Loren has it right in his opinion:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2c9rbps
>
>
>
>> July 29, 2010
>
> by FRANK JAMES
>
> IAN MCALLISTER/RAINCOAST CONSERVATION SOCIETY
> A female grizzly bear thought to be responsible for horrifying night-time
> attacks that killed one camper and wounded others as they slept near
> Yellowstone National Park in Montana was captured, wildlife and law
> enforcement officials said.
>
> The bear was caught in a culvert trap (here's an example of one) after it
> returned to the scene of the attack just as officials had suspected it
> would. The bear was caught with two of its three cubs. No word in any of the
> reporting I've seen on the on the whereabouts of the third cub.
>
> The bear will be killed, if it already hasn't been. There was no indication
> from authorities on what would happen to the cubs aside from the information
> that they wouldn't be returned to the wild.
>
> People knowledgeable about bear behavior say the Tuesday attack on sleeping
> campers was unusual in that it wasn't a case of a mother bear or sow
> displaying protective behavior.
>
> Instead, the bear entered several tents and attacked the campers for no
> reason readily apparent to humans. The man who was killed was camping alone
> at a site a quarter mile away from where other campers were attacked.
>
> The Billings Gazette described what one family experienced as the attacks
> occurred at their camp site. An excerpt:
>
> Campers Paige and Don Wilhelm, of Aledo, Texas, were camped in site No. 12
> of the 10-acre campground when they heard a scream at about 1:30 a.m. At
> first, they thought it was just teenagers screwing around. They checked on
> their two boys, ages 12 and 9, and then tried to go back to sleep.
>
> Then they heard another scream, this one closer.
>
> “I heard somebody yell, ‘Stop! No!’ ” said Paige Wilhelm.
>
> And then they heard the woman yell, “A bear’s attacked me!”
>
> As they arose to dress, they heard a bear come by their tent, making a
> “huffing” sound.
>
> The Missoulian reports that the woman, Canadian Deb Freele of London,
> Ontario, eventually played dead, which caused the bear to break off the
> attack.
>
> While attacks like this are unusual, it did cross my mind that one result
> of something like this could be that more national park campers decide to
> protect themselves by packing gunsalong with their sleeping bags. And who
> could blame them, now that it's legal to do so?
>
>
>
>
> On 11-Feb-11, at 4:17 PM, Loren Busch wrote:
>
> RE:P Bear Attack
>>
>> This AP story seems to confirm your recollections, not mine. I heard the
>>> reports on two different NPR stations very near to the time the incident
>>> happened, actually hearing of the incident one day, and of its resolution
>>> a
>>> day or so later. I also seem to recall the fate of the younger bears
>>> incorrectly, as this AP story states that the two young bears were sent
>>> to a
>>> zoo.
>>> Memory is a funny thing. Mine seems to be wrong in this case, at least
>>> based on this AP report and your recollections.
>>>
>>>
>> Your memory may not be the problem, it might be the source. Most don't
>> consider NPR much of reliable source for news, known for really sloppy and
>> biased reporting.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
| 
