Grizzly attack

[Kattt]

https://www.yukon-news.com/news/two-dead-after-suspected-bear-attack-northeast-of-mayo/

Apparently they were experienced “bush people” but that does not mean much here.
The man shot and killed the charging grizzly prior to knowing what had happened to his family; there is no mention of what firearm he used.

It’s nature at work but this is a really sad story. I am terrified of hiking in grizzly territories and I know that instances like this are very rare but to the ones it happens statistics mean nothing.

Five years of camera trapping have taught me that in nature killing is a constant. Beauty and horror side by side, all the time.

[DAN-Y]

Never know what lurks around the next bend.

[Greg Mihalik]

Staying home is the ONLY way to stay safe.

Time to sell off all that fancy gear.

[Kattt]

Even at home one is not safe. Life is not safe.

[Kattt]

Heck I am for free range child rearing.

So often people confuse one’s unease about potential danger with one not engaging in it. They are quite different. I fear mountain lions but I am often within minutes of them and still go out every day, alone. Fear per se is completely legitimate. What one does with it is a different story.

[JCH]

My Brother-in-Law, a top Neurologist in Atlanta, used to say “Good health is the slowest rate at which we die”.  People seemed to dislike that so he stopped saying it.

You can fear all things in life that could kill you…but no matter what you do (or don’t do) there is that one that you will not be able to prevent happening.

[Tom K]

“Time to sell off all that fancy gear.”

Or simply backpack where they ain’t.

[DAN-Y]

May of this year:

[Jerry Adams]

Yeah, my strategy is to not hike in Grizzly territory

Dan, you are ruining my strategy by posting all the Mt Lion fatalities.  They’re all over.  Mt Lions that is.  Fatalities still so rare I don’t need to rationally worry

[DAN-Y]

Yes, fatalities are rare….attacks not so rare. When I watch this video I can feel the claws and teeth in my back …ouch! :-)

<b>Here are a few documented mountain lion attacks on humans:</b>

1. Spring, 1986 – Orange County, California – Laura Small, age 5, was attacked by a mountain lion in the Ronald W. Caspars Wilderness Park. The female lion attacked her head and dragged her off. Laura suffered paralysis of her right side and was confined to a wheelchair for a period of time. She has had 11 operations. Now Laura has a steel plate in her skull. Her right leg is weak, her right arm is partially paralyzed and she is blind in her left eye.

A lawsuit of $100 million and $750,000 in personal damage was filed against Orange County. Small was awarded $2 million dollars. Orange County appealed the ruling.

2. August 1986 – Justin Mellon, age 6, was hiking in Ronald W. Caspars Wilderness Park. He was attacked and mauled by a female lion. Mellon suffered bites to the head, leg and stomach. His injuries were not as severe as that of Laura Small. Note: Due to the lawsuit over the Laura Small attack, the Board of Supervisors for Orange County decided not to allow minors into Caspars Wilderness Park at all. (Information compiled from Ronald W. Caspars Wilderness Park, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, Sacramento, California and various news reports.)

3. 1989 – Evaro, Montana – Jake Gardipe, age 5, was killed by two or three mountain lions (possibly a female with two kittens) while riding his tricycle in his front yard. The boy was dragged from the yard and the body was found nearby several hours later. The boy’s home was 100 yards from U.S. Highway 93 just outside of Evaro. (Associated Press, September 13, 1989)

4. 1989 – Apache Junction, Arizona – Joshua Walsh, age 5, was mauled by a mountain lion near Canyon Lake, some 30 miles northeast of Phoenix. Without warning, and near a parking lot and boat dock filled with people, the mountain lion attacked Joshua, bit him on the head and began to shake him with its jaws and drag him away. Tim Walsh, Joshua’s father, leaped down a 20-foot embankment, grabbed a rock, threw it and hit the lion on the head, scaring it. The lion dropped the boy. Joshua was air-lifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital where it took 100 stitches to close Joshua’s head wounds, including re-attachment of his right ear which was nearly severed in the attack. (Phoenix Gazette, May 1, 1989, page A-1)

5. 1991 – Nevada Test Site, north of Las Vegas, Nevada – Mary Saether, was attacked by a 120-pound female mountain lion. She suffered minor cuts and received 21 stitches on her head, right arm, and back. The cougar crept up on Saether and two male companions and attacked before they were aware of its presence. The two men beat the lion with their cameras forcing it to release Saether. A Wildlife Services Specialist arrived the next day. As he was doing a preliminary check, he heard noises in a tree and turned to find the lion charging. The man had only enough time to draw his handgun and shoot the lion at point blank range. The lion was found to be in good health. (U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services, Reno, Nevada and various news reports)

6. 1991 – Idaho Springs, Colorado – Scott Dale Lancaster, age 18, was killed by a lion while jogging near his high school. Lancaster was attacked by a 90 – 100 pound female cougar and dragged some 60 feet away. When asked how severely the boy was mauled by the lion, Undersheriff Dave Graham replied, “Bad!” It took authorities two days to find Lancaster’s body. (Clear Creek Courant, January 16, 1991, page 1)

7. 1991 – Riverside, California – Searchers found evidence that Travis Zwieg, age 3, of La Quinta, California, was possibly attacked by a mountain lion. Shoe prints thought to be Zwieg’s were found a half mile from where the toddler disappeared. The prints stopped at a rocky overhang where mountain lion prints were found. “Where the shoes stopped, there was a slide area and what they believed to be drag marks,” said Sgt. Craig Kilday. (Associated Press, February 26, 1991 – Note: We found no record of the boy being found.)

8. 1992 – Gaviota State Park, near Santa Barbara, California – Darron Arroyo, age 9, was attacked by a mountain lion as he walked along a park trail. Darron was hiking with his two brothers when a lion rushed from the bushes and attacked, attempting to drag him off in the brush. Steven Arroyo, Darron’s father, was walking about a hundred yards behind the boys. He heard the screams and saw the lion dragging Darron. Steven rushed toward the cat, picked up a rock, threw it and struck the lion between the eyes. The lion dropped the boy and left the area. Darron sustained bites to the face and head and scratches to the chest. (Information compiled from Santa Barbara News Press, Gaviota State Park and California Department of Fish and Game, Sacramento, California.)

9. 1992 – Wenatchee, Washington – Jessica Vanney, age 5, suffered cuts and puncture wounds when a 60-pound mountain lion attacked her as she walked along a path through trees at a 100-site campground in Lake Wenatchee State Park. Her father, Michael Vanney, witnessed the attack. “Jessica was 4 or 5 feet in front of me. She walked between two trees and I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. Then I saw the cougar run around a tree and jump on her. Its front paws just wrapped right around her head and shoulders.” Vanney grabbed his hunting knife and attacked the animal. This is the third known lion attack in the state. (Associated Press, June 18, 1992 – Note: What if this was a full grown lion weighing 150 pounds? What if Jessica was walking that path by herself?)

10. 1992 – Vancouver Island, British Colombia – An 8-year-old Kyuquot Indian boy, Jeremy Williams, was fatally mauled by a mountain lion in the village of Kyuquot. The boy’s father and a dozen youngsters witnessed the attack. Jeremy was attacked as he sat on the grass in the elementary school playground. The cougar rushed and attacked the freckled, red-haired youngster as other children ran for help. Kevin Williams, Jeremy’s father and a teacher at the school, hurried to the scene and watched helplessly while children screamed in panic. The school’s janitor shot and killed the 60-pound lion. Richard Leo, a Kyuquot Indian chief, said angry parents accused the school board of ignoring the danger of wild animals. (Associated Press, 1992)

11. 1994 – Auburn Lake Trails, California (near Sacramento) – a 40-year-old vocational rehabilitation counselor, Barbara Schoener, was attacked and killed by a mountain lion. Schoener was jogging in the popular Auburn Trails area when a cougar attacked her from behind. The force of attack caused Schoener off the trail. Schoener made two strides before falling 30 feet. Schoener then stood up and moved another 25 feet down the slope where the final attack occurred. Wounds on Schoener’s forearms and hands showed attempts to defend herself, but the 5-foot-8-inch, 120-pound woman was no match for the lion. The lion dragged Schoener 300 feet downhill and, after feeding on her, buried her with leaves and debris. Schoener received two fatal wounds – a crushed skull and bites to the head and neck. (Sacramento Bee Final, April 27, 1994, page B1 and B4)

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/daul/robitussin-honey-window-bear#

[Buck Nelson]

I know that instances like this are very rare but to the ones it happens statistics mean nothing.

Respectfully, stats don’t change past events, but they mean a great deal in assessing future risk.

 

 

[Jenny A]

Very sad for the husband and family.  Odd that the bear wasn’t hibernating yet.

I live in a town that is located on the urban/(semi-)wildland interface, and lions are common on hiking trails in the foothills as well as in town, following the deer that have found a life of ease here.  I also hike and fish solo in Yellowstone and northern Wyoming.  I carry two cans of bear spray at the ready, make noise, stay alert, and pay attention to my spidey senses.  (I have actually turned back from a hike on more than one occasion when something felt off, birds squawking, dead silence, whatever.)  I don’t have any illusions that what I do is “safe”  by the standards of most city dwellers, but I would certainly feel less alive if I couldn’t do these things.  Driving on I-25 during rush hour in Denver…that absolutely TERRIFIES me!

[Bruce Tolley]

Driving to work is arguably more dangerous that hiking in grizzly country or mountain lion country.  The National Safety Council estimates that over 40K people are killed in traffic accidents each year.

BTW How do we know that the Claws video posted above was not staged? The guy already had a 2X4 in his hand, some third person had the camera ready, and the lion was not really on his neck.  Just asking…

[Buck Nelson]

Good point Bruce, looks like it was filmed in an enclosure.

With a camera crew ready.

 

[Kattt]

You are more likely to die from heart disease than a car accident.

[Bruce Tolley]

@ Kat

I get your point.  When I enter all my data into the heart disease calculator, the two factors that can lower my risk materially are decreasing my age or changing my gender. So the only things I can do to manage the risk are keeping the other parameters in the optimal range.

But in reference to managing risk in the wild,  granted different people have do have different risk profiles based on their temperament, experience, background etc.  i lead a lot of high adventure outings for the Boy Scouts with a very suburban troop. I often get a lot of questions from the parents about the risk of X and the risk of Y during trips to the Santa Cruz Mtns or the Sierra Nevada.  My response is to walk through what we are doing to manage the objective risks and explain that the most dangerous part of the trip is driving to the trailhead. These days ticks (Lyme Disease), mosquitoes (west nile virus), and allergies to bee stings are most often at the top of the list of risks to manage.

[Kattt]

^^^ I agree

[Beendarenback]

An old timer told me years ago, “Predators either view you as a something to avoid or as a meal”

After almost 40 years of backpacking, bowhunting and doing wildlife depredation….I totally agree. It doesn’t take a genius to see the problems involved with predators that have no fear of humans.

The problems originate with the wildlife management plans that exclude controlling predators. Have a stare down with a too close  big Brownie in the alders on Kodiak….and you will be glad they have a healthy respect for humans.

[David Thomas]

“Odd that the bear wasn’t hibernating yet.”

Bears aren’t true hibernators, although their body temperature does drop and their metabolism changes completely.  Sometimes, they wake up and wander around in late Fall or even mid-Winter which can be related to mild winter temps and/or them not having enough fat stores.  There’s been at least one case of a grizzly being woken up by seismic surveying (in which explosive charges are set off) and attacking the seismic crew (so it’s one of the kinds of work that employs a bear lookout with a 12-gauge loaded with slugs).

[bradmacmt]

That’s utterly tragic. My heart goes out to this man.

All my backpacking (and annual solo fall backpack elk hunting) is in grizzly country here in the GYES. I’ve been around bears a fair bit. One year on a ranch I worked on outside Yellowstone I saw 7 different grizzlies. Some up close and personal. The most dangerous bear is a fall bear, a sow with cubs, and a bear habituated to humans. I don’t mind sharing the mountains with them, but I also don’t backpack in National Parks where far too many bears are comfortable with people.

Grizzlies aren’t especially hard to kill, and don’t take extraordinary firepower to kill, they just usually don’t know they’re dead… and a lot of damage can ensue in that period.

[obx hiker]

Speaking of the GYES: There was also a fatal attack this September about 17 miles east, northeast of Moran Jct. or @ 45 miles NNW of Green River Lakes. This is a pretty thoughtful article about the event:

GYES Fatal Bear Attack

Regarding the use of pepper spray mentioned in the article above; another article about the official report:

Official Report Article

This report notes the spray was likely not used during the initial attack but during the second fatal attack at a slightly (50 yards?) different location. I add that in reference to Brad’s comment above  “they just usually don’t know they’re dead… and a lot of damage can ensue in that period”

A possible takeaway here for BPL readers is that the combination of a quartered elk and an on-going fight/flight plus a yearling cub combined to inure the grizzly to the effects of the pepper spray The impression I get from reading Dr.Stephen Herrero and Dr.Tom Green is that pepper spray is a deterrent that helps to change a grizzly bear’s mind about attacking. It’s not an iron-clad defense for all possible situations like getting between a mother bear and her cubs or possibly in a situation where there’s a powerful attraction like a freshly butchered elk. You can’t rely on pepper spray to get you out of every possible situation and you really shouldn’t lose focus and end up stumbling into a situation just because you have spray and therefore you are “safe”.

WRT The Yukon event; the quote below from the first article above may be relevant:

“In autumn, grizzlies are in the physiological condition known as hyperphagia when they are trying to consume as many calories as possible prior to denning.  Thus, for humans, there is a need not only for heightened awareness among all those who go into the mountains but it is critical that people consciously contemplate what could possibly happen and know how they would react.”

Their camp was really wayyy out in the backcountry. Evidently they had excellent backcountry skills to live part of the year that far off the grid,

[D M]

Very sad about the family, we keep dogs for our first line of defense. I live and hike in jaguar, mountain lion, and black bear country. A large male jaguar was filmed less than six miles from my house. I carry a .45 with Hornady ammo at all times. We also have dealt with illegals and drug runners trespassing for over 40 years. Yes, I live on the US/Mexico border, please keep your politics to yourself as will I. We own a ranch and used to have livestock and we trained colts but we feared more for them than ourselves until more recently when the drug-related crime got exponentially worse. Now we have meth labs out here and our family is leaving for a new homestead away from border issues. The area we are looking at has bears and lions and transplanted wolves but they are hunted so we actually think that area will be safer for us. When we moved here there were no animal problems, the ranchers kept the lions in check you were lucky to see a bear, and the illegals were harmless, just guys wanting to work and go home. Now it’s very different. We post cameras everywhere so we know what is out here. I have a protocol that I use when hiking such as being very aware of bird life and sounds and lack of the sounds observing terrain closely for lion hiding spots ( large rocks and overhangs, downed logs, tree cover etc…) and yes have turned back or canceled hikes when sensing that things were not “right”. I attribute our survival to just that, paying attention and making good decisions. I’ve survived enough mistakes to be thankful that I am still here to enjoy life, but fear the two-legged more than the four. This used to be a wild and beautiful place where I could ride my horses for days and not see a human and I NEVER thought I’d have to carry a gun other than for hunting. Sadly, those times are over and we are leaving as soon as we can.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Carry bear spray, a 9 mm or more powerful pistol, use your bike or hiking poles as a weapon, yell, throw stones, pick up a stout branch as a weapon, anything but run. 

DM, Sorry you have to leave your land. Hope you get a good price for it. Your place would benefit from a good steel border wall – and I’m a Democrat who wants to strictly control immigration for many reasons. I’m married to a legal immigrant I met in the Peace Corps, Philippines and my dad’s father was an immigrant from Denmark.

So I am not anti-immigration, just for good, just controls. And that means “just” for both US Citizens as well as the immigrants. Here in Las Vegas we spend a LOT on illegal immigrants for schools, medical attention, crime & extra law enforcement, etc. Getting tired of those public expenditures and problems.

Please excuse my thread drift.

[Author]

Posts