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» SusanAK - Recent attacks in Alaska

Jerry, we have read of two recent attacks by brown bears in the Kodiak region, which I believe are two of the incidents you mention. Several things have contributed to this, according to local biologists - failed salmon runs, drought which contributed to lower berry production and less food for the deer, which the bears prey upon. The bears in the area are in a major bad way looking for food.

One of the hunters was injured while gutting a deer he had just killed. The bear simply tossed him aside to get to the deer. He lived. The other hunter died from his injuries.

For the record, Liard is out there! It is a campground, but it is miles and miles from anywhere. I will never forget the account of the three men who were attacked by a lone black bear there. It was chilling. Personally, I love Liard. It is a wonderful place. I would never go without my bear spray.

-- posted by SusanAK

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» JerryBear - Holiday Greetings

Beary Christmas To all and a Happy New Year!

I wanted to thank everybody on here for their contributions. I am now a regular user on here and can no longer put up articles. I guess they still haven't found a replacement as editor. But any way, To all best wishes for the coming year!

Susan, I think there were more attacks than just those on Kodiak; the drought effected a large area. You are right about Liard (it was a woman, her son and two men who were attacked, the woman and a rescuer were killed). The mother of the woman who was killed went back up there this summer and says nothing has changed, there is no better security than before. Considering that they had a pretty determined predatory black bear attack (no casualties though) two years before the last incident, it is awfully likely to happen again. There was also a case of an entomologist (he firmly believed that if you didn't bother bears, they wouldn't bother you) who was eaten by a grizzly at Liard in the early 70's. You are RIGHT, take the bear spray along if you visit Liard. Basically any area along the Alaska Highway in B.C. is dangerous and you would be wise to take precautions. Some other tourist areas have reported problems but not so spectacularly as at Liard. I know of at least one case where an elderly American was trying to photograph a black bear on the Highway only to be charged and knocked down. The bear then tried to drag him off into the woods. The other tourists there were eventually able to drive the bear from his "prey", but it really took some doing. These are not Yellowstone bears! They should be treated with great respect and caution.

I am in occasional contact with a ranger at Liard on my bear discussion group ("True Bear Tales" on the "Nature" conference) at Cafe Utne. He has a difficult and prickly personality and likes to give me a hard time. He has accused me of "sensationalizing" the Liard incident (the facts speak for themselves, I am not sure just how you would be able to make them more sensational than they are...), but refuses to divulge the details he knows on his own. I think there is a policy of keeping details of bear attacks secret among wildlife officials in B.C.

I found an equally weird attitude from another B.C. ranger, a woman this time as a reply to my threads on black bears on Nature.net (Any of you remember that dear old sweet tempered thing named Spike on there?) She accused me of making black bears in B.C. look a lot worse than they were. After all she only knew of one death in the immediate neighborhood the last few years (a black bear deliberately spooked the horse a man was riding, after he was thrown off, the bear killed him and partially ate him), and she herself had only been the target of one predatory black bear attack as a forest ranger (the bear charged her without warning from a hiding place 40 feet to her right; she survived only because she had a deer rifle ready to fire and was an excellent and cool-headed shot; she hit the bear 5 times, every shot lethal but the bear dropped only a few feet from her), so how could black bears be all that bad?

I tried to contact her to ask her what would have happened if she hadn't had that gun ready or it had jammed or if she had been an unarmed family taking a hike? Predatory black bears are the only known North American animal that readily attempts to take multiple human prey, killing the humans one after the other than cacheing the bodies together as a food supply. If you are in inland central to northern British Columbia, you should be as careful with black bears as you would with white sharks on the California coast north of San Francisco. (You don't really need to worry about the black bears in coastal areas, instead you need to worry about the grizzlies...)

Anyway, I hope everybody has a nice holiday.
Good night, good night, don't let the bears bite!

Jerry

-- posted by JerryBear

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