Wapo: …story of two fatal grizzly bear attacks that changed our relationship..

[BC Bob]

The true story of two fatal grizzly bear attacks that changed our relationship with wildlife
Washington Post
By Karin Brulliard August 3

[David Thomas]

Thanks for the history lesson.  I remember watching National Geographic TV shows about the Whiteheads and their grizzly research in that era.

Intriguing how a single memorable event can really shift public perceptions.  These two women’s deaths on the same day (at the same young age) must have made it stand out in people’s minds more.  A few years later, a particular horrendous hitch-hiker story shifted the public’s idea of the safety of the practice (and interstates made it much harder than slow-speed, town-to-town highways).  Freakonomics Podcast did an episode on the demise of hitch hiking.

After 6 deaths from black bears in 130 years, Alaska had two human deaths in two days in June.  I haven’t noticed a change in the public discussion, other than more people now being aware that it ain’t all about grizzlies.

[Dena Kelley]

I re-posted that article on FB. My community of Eagle River, Alaska is seeing a greater number of bears roaming our neighborhoods and even downtown. The reason is 100% garbage, and the fact that the community is surrounded by a State Park where hunting is banned has resulted in bears having zero fear of humans. I have been concerned that nothing would be done (about the bears OR the uncontained garbage) until someone was mauled. Your WaPo story pretty much drives that home. I’ve been increasingly concerned over the summer months, with kids being on summer vacation, that it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that a kid would be hunted by one of the bears. Easy prey, so to speak. The local police and authorities don’t care and are doing nothing. IMO, they should immediately pass an ordinance requiring garbage to locked up. Currently you only get a fine if your garbage is gotten into, and even that is sporadic and pretty much requires someone to report you. I also think the garbage bears either need to be deterred (I’m all for the rubber bullets and such mentioned in the article) or killed (harsh, but garbage bears are incurable and always return to human communities seeking garbage). I suspect nothing will happen unless/until someone is injured or killed. Then the bears will die, humans will lock up garbage for a while, and then they’ll stop again and the process will repeat itself in a few years. :(

[Bruce Tolley]

Chapter 4 of Stephen Herraro’s Bear Attacks, “The Dangers of Garbage and Habituation.”

[jscott]

Lake Tahoe.

However, there, over generations bears seem to have learned not to attack humans. Bears are habituated and bold, but never predatory. This may be because violent bears were all shot or removed years ago, and bears with relatively compatible behavior with humans were ‘selected’ to succeed.

Here’s something from the Sierra Sun:

“Bears that become habituated to human sources of food must be killed. Relocating habituated bears does not work. The bears ultimately return to the same neighborhood or another populated area and continue their bad habits — scavenging through trash cans, breaking into homes and even attacking domestic animals.

Although there have been no documented human fatalities from black bears in the state’s history, attacks have occurred.”

so, hmmm…
<p class=”STND-STND BodyText”>I</p>

[BlackHatGuy]

I remember as a kid in upstate NY, we used to go to the local dump and watch the bears scavenge. No one got too close, but it was a local thing, many people did it. Crazy stuff.

[Bruce Tolley]

@Jeffrey

Herrero (2002) studied 20 recorded black bear attacks and found that black bear predation showed a very different pattern from Grizzlies in that the black bears that attacked humans appeared to be not habituated to human food. He concluded that the black bears were after the humans as prey.  There are probably more recent studies since 2002.

[edward b]

“I remember as a kid in upstate NY, we used to go to the local dump and watch the bears scavenge. No one got too close, but it was a local thing, many people did it. Crazy stuff.”

I remember doing this as a little kid in the sixties while car camping with my parents at Fish Creek Ponds in the Adirondacks.  Always at least a dozen cars with their headlights on.  The bears showed up like clockwork.  Others setup lawn chairs but we always had to stay in the car.

[Gary Dunckel]

The greatest show on earth back in 1965 was the bears feeding at the West Yellowstone dump every night. By 7 PM there would be 15-20 black bears of varying sizes/ages rummaging through the day’s garbage. Then right after dark around 10 PM here came the grizzlies – 8-12 of them. They took over completely, swatting the black bears out of the way and even flipping old car bodies over to get at whatever was under them. The garbage pit had a 10 foot dropoff where 8-10 cars would line up like at a drive-in movie (remember those?). Folks would bring lawn chairs, beer coolers, and food to enjoy the show. Eventually one or more of the griz would wander the perimeter and get up to where the cars were to see if they might get some goodies there. That’s when the cars fired up and got out of there, fast. They shut down the dump after Glacier’s Night of the Grizzlies, ending the nightly event at West Yellowstone.

Another story. I spent the summer of 1967 studying organic chemistry at Oregon State. When I was there I learned that the area had gone over 90 days without a trace of rain, rare for the PNW. The entire northwest was in a severe drought, which included NW Montana. I expect that the summer’s drought conditions might have had something to do with the grizzlies’ errant behavior that year. I returned to my home town of Choteau the last week of August (which was ~ 50 crow-fly miles SE of Glacier Park), when I learned about the griz attacks on the two ladies a week earlier. My cowboy brother asked me if I remembered how to shoot a high powered rifle, because they were recruiting hunters in the area to quietly kill griz in the Park.  They were intent on dramatically reducing the number of griz in the whole area, including the Bob Marshall wilderness. Very undercover stuff, and the Park denied it forever after.

The changes made in both YNP and GNP to better manage the griz population and minimize bear-human mishaps has resulted in a pretty good balance (in Glacier at least; I’m still not very impressed with how YNP approaches their bear population). Public education, bear food poles in the backcountry, garbage control, and relocating/euthanizing problem bears have vastly improved the safety of both people and the bears. I still believe that a limited hunting season would be prudent, to re-instill fear of the human among the bears. Before the griz were listed as endangered, there was a limited hunting season for them, and no one had much of a griz problem. Then after the listing, ranchers in my home town area started losing cattle and sheep. Very quietly many of those that lost livestock would take the “SSS Approach” – Shoot, Shovel, and Shut up.

Keep in mind that the griz were originally a plains animal, and they were forced to move into the mountains once the people moved in during the 1800s. Even now an occasional young bear will wander the prairie to, you know, see what it can see. 2 years ago I actually witnessed an interesting event. A 2 year old male griz followed the small river which led into Choteau. I could see him from the 2nd floor patio deck of my motel room. He plopped down on the grass in the shade for a rest. The thing was, that yard was at the local Forest Service office across the highway from me. Easy pickings for the FS. Half an hour later a chopper arrived, the bear was tranquilized from the air, then they dropped down and put a harness on him and lifted him up and away. I expect that they just took him back to the Bob or somewhere. It wasn’t a problem bear, just a curious one. But you really don’t want a griz to be wandering around right in town, where little kids are playing, etc. This is the reason I believe that there should be a limited hunting season on them, to educate the bears as to what a gun shot sounds like, about how mean humans can be,  and to stay well away from them.

[David Thomas]

The bigger success story, IMO, has been Denali NP.  Only one human fatality in 95 years (in 2012 a photographer got within 40 yards and snapped pics for over 7 minutes.  Bad idea.)

There are lots of rules: can’t get off the park bus near wildlife, must use approved bear canisters while backpacking, strict housekeeping rules for campers, the park is quick to close an area to minimize interactions.  Unlike Yellowstone where the people mix it up a lot with bears (more in the past) but still with bison and elk, the animals in DNP don’t care about humans one way or the other because they aren’t hurt by them nor so they benefit from them.  Mostly, they act like you’re not there.

[AK Granola]

I just now got around to reading this thread. Interesting that these posts were happening right during the days I was camping next to this guy, in Denali national park! Actually I was at the Teklanika research camp, alone in my wall tent (canvas), but with a group (in the other tents). The photo was taken by a motion camera that was located about 30 feet behind my tent, where there were loads of soapberry bushes. While I am always aware I am camping in bear country in Alaska, I’m glad I didn’t see this pic before going to bed or there would have been no midnight trip outside.

We saw the same bear (I think) the day we set out the wildlife cameras. With two other campers (neither from Alaska), we stepped from the campground trail onto the river bar, emerging from the brush, to find a grizzly 50 feet from us, munching soapberries. As we backed up the trail (with one guy taking photos), two small children ran by the bear on its other side, screaming, and putting the bear in between us! The bear glanced up at them, and we started calling to the boys to walk, not run, and waved them to come to us. Fortunately the bear resumed eating with no further interest in the kids or us. I hope the kids learned not to run or scream. Never did see any parents. Thank goodness everyone stayed calm.

We then walked back through the RV campground where someone was cooking bacon!

No matter how much I practice all the right habits, taking care with food, making noise, etc. and although I know the drive to the park is statistically more dangerous, the bears are always in the back of my mind. Sometimes in the front. It doesn’t stop me going out, even knowing a friend who has been mauled, but the risk is not zero. It just isn’t. Something could happen. C’est la vie. I would never wish for an Alaska without bears.

But I have to agree that Denali certainly seems to be getting bear mgmt down right. The bear pretty much ignored us in favor of the soapberries. Whew!

[Jerry Adams]

1960s in Yellowstone – we counted 100 bears over a week

Bears would walk through the campground nightly.  There was a parade of people following, banging garbage can lids.

Since then they manage their garbage better so you don’t see bears so much

[Author]

Posts