‘The bear hunted him’: B.C. camper killed by black bear didn’t stand a chance

[Dave P]

okay, the man in the article was a member of the Facebook group (related to B.C. outdoors) I belong to, and his sister has commented. Apparently alcohol wasn't involved, and they found his body about 500 meters away from the campfire.

And he wasn't camping in the trailer. He was living in it for a long time now. The reason why the conservation officer shot the wolf is because they identified it from the last Facebook video he uploaded to his wall.

And supposedly the dog that was outside with him didn't wake up at all until the fiancée came out. The sister claims that the site was clean sans a few wet towels from skinny-dipping.

Interesting.

So basically, the same problem anyone who decide to live in the wilderness long-term eventually encounter at least once in their lifetime.

I would copy and paste, or take a screenshot, but it's a closed Facebook group; and it's best to respect the adminstrations' wishes.

[Justin Baker]

Is there a way to determine if a bear is predatory or not? Is a predatory bear going to follow you around for a while or is it going to ambush you?

[Dave P]

What? I thought BPL is the place for granolas and dirty hippies? At least that's what most people says when I talk to them about lightweight backpacking. ;)

But honestly, I never really understood why on North American outdoors forums, if you are in favour of free education and stronger labour laws, someone immediately think of an evil environmentalist who wants to take away everyone's guns, bankrupt the oil and mining industries and causing job drains. Yay, I am some boogey monster who is trying to destroy outdoorsmanship.

Nevermind the socialists I personally know on the other side of the pond are most staunch defenders of gun rights and most of them are hunters or fishermen. They love using their 5+1 weeks vacations to pursue their hobbies. Not to mention they are very pro-oil, and anti-green. It's the ones who live in the city who favour right-wing ideologies (aka neoliberalism).

[Dave P]

Most of the non-fatal encounters I have heard of involved wilderness living situations– eg. trapper's cabin; or an outfitter's base camp. There's a few incidents I've heard about with sheep hunts at a spike-camp, but the details on why a bear might attack is fuzzy. Not everyone is wise enough to sink their carcass into a lake or a stream overnight (standard protocol for anyone who hunt above the treeline) to prevent attracting bears. Or to hang them from the tree at least 400 meters away. Not only that, there's a lot of people out there who like to keep their hunting pack at the entrance of the tent which contain potential attractants like pots and stoves.

I have a 3-mil construction compactor bag for that– for sinking potential attractants into the lake. Not as light as cuben or silnylon which are popular here, but it's an inexpensive solution.

Details on fatal encounters are fuzzy because it sort of requires knowing the family member involved to get past the media filter.

So, I think, what lures the bears in many of the non-fatal encounter stories are the smell of carcasses being skinned, or fish being fried over the fire near the tents. Especially problematic if it's a young, inexperienced bear which haven't figured out moose calves are easier than humans.

I don't think the average BPL member will have to worry about it because a fair amount of people here recommend eating on the trail before arriving at the destination.

And I think that's the unique factor here in this situation: the person chose to live out of a motorhome as his primary residence; and he chose to sleep outside that night. My family always told us not to sleep outside near permanent or semi-permanent encampments because bears associate them with food. The conventional wisdom is that if one is going to sleep outside, sleep very far from the residential area.

[Anonymous]

I haven't seen evidence the BPL cares about your political affiliation. We talk about sleeping bags… hehe : )

The no defensive wounds thing sounds really weird. Maybe the bear got lucky "critical strike" first (throat or head). My first suspicion was alcohol or drugs as well, not sure if the fiance would have told the rangers if the latter was involved. My sympathies to the family either way.

Fiance said no food was left out, but proper bear safety includes sleeping ~100 feet away from where you cook/pee/dump water. Was he doing all of this? No point in criticizing, but root cause analysis is a professional method of future risk mitigation.I like to cowboy camp, maybe I shouldn't. A tent provides a visual barrier for the bear where he doesn't know how many man-animals are inside.

Bears are part of the mystery, beauty and sense of adventure in my backpacking trips. In Andy Skurka's post-bear encounter video, he looks so exhilerated after surviving a Grizzley charge. I don't want to taunt bears, but I don't want to hike in disneyland either.

[Cayenne Redmonk]

When we look at bear induced fatalities, there is a very disturbing and obvious trend.

100% of bear related fatalities were from captive black bears in the 1930s.
40% from captive black bears in the 1950s.
30% from captive black bears in the 1970s.
5% in the 2000s.

It seems clear that captive bears are becoming tamer and wild bears are becoming killers.

[BlackHatGuy]

"I don't want to taunt bears, but I don't want to hike in disneyland either."

You don't think there are bears in Disneyland? Sadly mistaken. I wonder how many other Disneyland backpackers are under the same false impression.

[Dave P]

"Fiance said no food was left out, but proper bear safety includes sleeping ~100 feet away from where you cook/pee/dump water. Was he doing all of this? No point in criticizing, but root cause analysis is a professional method of future risk mitigation.I like to cowboy camp, maybe I shouldn't. A tent provides a visual barrier for the bear where he doesn't know how many man-animals are inside. "

That was my thought as well. Many of the stories regarding bear predation or bear aggression I have heard about don't really involve hikers, but people who voluntarily live in semi-permanent living situations. So that basically mean the person is much more laxed in where they eat, defecate and so on.

Of course, on popular trails and in provincial, state or national parks, authorities are better trained dealing with problem bears; and wilderness hikers and backcountry hunters tend to keep their campsites moving every day or every couple of days. But with wilderness traplines and vagabonds, the responsibility falls entirely on the person staying in those establishments.

The number of people who choose to stay in one area for 3 to 6 months of the year, alone independent of a family group, is so minutely small, they wouldn't really register in any meaningful statistics.

If people living in the wilderness keep their residence like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioKCN4LPanY

Footage taken from a YouTube channel hosted by a Metis wilderness trapper.

Or like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq0rZn8HFmQ

Notice how close the outhouse and campfires are to the place of residence?

Then no wonder why they have frequent stories.

Most situations I am aware of which involve nomads and aboriginals relocate their camp every second or third week. They usually have packs of dogs (not just one) with them as well, and they live in family groups not alone or with another person. Not only that, but a lot of them have special caching sites to keep the meat far away from the encampment.

Well, that, and some of them (eg. Nenets people) have this shamanistic belief that if a bear takes a reindeer, it's a form of tribute or taxation inflicted upon them by nature in exchange for safe passage into the wilderness.

[Dave @ Oware]

"the truth comes out as the fire burns low
it comes to light as only embers glow
the whiskey talks, the west wind moans in the night

the deadfall's gathered and the branches are cut
kindling crackles and the smoke curls up
the small sticks catch then the bigger stuff will burn

chinook dies down as the dark descends
pine has burned, the ash has cleansed
the message smolders, is lost, but finally sent

connie says she's never seen the cougars so bold
they're comin in the yard and they're stealin young colts
they drag em in the brush with the claws sunk in their nose

the weather's been funny thirty years or so
the winters got warm, not as much snow
hear the big cats comin cuz there's nowhere left to go

you gotta look out for bear when you’re fishing on lee’s creek
they’ll come round the bend and they’ll make your knees weak
there’s grizzlies where there was no grizzly bears before

half heard voices from the ghosts, from the graves
the grandfathers tell us at the mouths of the caves
only old chiefs older than jesus can save us now, if we're lucky

white man light a big fire, stay cold
the red man's warmer, but the old man's old
the antelope seeks the buffalo in the night

the antelope mourns the buffalo in the night "

Corb Lund & The Hurtin Alburtans

[Anonymous]

Willie:
"It seems clear that captive bears are becoming tamer and wild bears are becoming killers."

Heh, wanted to send you this one Willie:

From a webcomic:
"Just to be safe, until we see more data I'm going to assume that cancer causes cellphones."

http://xkcd.com/925/

[Greg F]

Annecdotely it appears that predetory bear attacks occur in the spring. This makes sense as Bears are just coming out of Hibrination, Hungry and food sources may not yet be available depending on the snow melt. Also the inhabitable area is less in spring, and the inhabitable area is closer to human impacts increasing opportunities for conflict.

The Suncor bear attack was in May last year (or two years ago) as well.

I havent read the Herraro paper in a while but I don't remember him discussing season of bear attack. It would be interesting to take a look at.

[Author]

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