Home » Plants & Animals » Bears » Dangerous Bear News For The End Of The Millenium - Page 3

Dangerous Bear News For The End Of The Millenium - Page 3

© Gerald Eugene Smith

I recently received a classic example of the absurdity of the Canadian government's attempts to "stonewall" all the bad news about the very real problem of dangerous bears in Western Canada. In another site where I have bear articles, a woman who is a forest ranger in B.C. wrote a reply accusing me of exaggeration and sensationalism about the black bears in B.C. She says that the Canadian bears are being unfairly stigmatized and are "not so bad". For the most part, she is correct. Most Canadian black bears are as shy and gentle and easy-going as their U.S. counterparts. But the nice bears are NOT the ones I am advising people to worry about! She then said she only knew of one recent fatality in the area where she works. This involved a bear killing and partially eating a full-grown man. The bear apparently deliberately spooked the horse he was riding, then attacked and killed him after he was thrown to the ground.

She then went on to say that she herself had been attacked recently while out in the forest a hundred miles away hunting for deer. A 300 pound male black bear ambushed her in an attack that she herself recognized was predatory. It charged her completely by surprise and without warning from about 40 feet away; all she saw was a black blur out of the side of her right eye. I have heard entirely similar descriptions of surprise attacks by other survivors of predacious black bears. The beasts try to take you by surprise; if you are lucky, you see a black blur streaking at you. She was an experienced hunter and skilled marksman, well-armed with a 30.06 rifle and 220 grain bullets and ready to fire on a moment's notice. I don't think too many hunters would have managed to get off even ONE shot if they were suddenly charged from the side at forty feet, but she got off THREE perfectly placed shots, any one of which should have killed the bear instantly: One through the right ear, one in the center of the chest right through the heart, and one above the right eye into the brain. Despite these three separate mortal wounds, the bear fell only 9 feet away from her. An investigation was carried out, and the official conclusion was that the only logical reason for the bear to have attacked her the way it did was that it was trying to prey upon her.

The copyright of the article Dangerous Bear News For The End Of The Millenium - Page 3 in Bears is owned by . Permission to republish Dangerous Bear News For The End Of The Millenium - Page 3 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.