Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Guide and hunter mauled, guide missing

With all due respect, grizzly bears are apex predators. When hungry, any of them may choose to attack a person messing with what they've determined is their next meal.

With all due respect, a man with a gun is at the top of the apex. Most grizzlies comport themselves accordingly; those that don't need to be eliminated from the population. If not they will continue and in this case teach their offspring.

None of them will comport themselves by your standard, given similar circumstances to the present case.

You may as well launch cruise missiles into the lake every time someone drowns in it. Makes just as much sense.

Now, the case of a bear who has been habituated to eating human offerings, or from garbage cans, is a different case, and the only solution in those cases may well be destruction. But there is no evidence that this was the situation in the present case. These bears were in their own habitat, just doing what grizzlies do, tragedy though it may be for the human victims.

+1 in this case the Sow taught the cub that killing a man was warranted. That's why the cub was eliminated as well.

You're operating under the assumption that bears are ordinarily born with the belief that humans are always off limits.

Keep in mind that the Grizzlies in the lower 48 were on the federal endangered species list at the time I talked to this warden. Those in alaska were not listed so I doubt guys up there have to deal with the feds after a problem. Now that they're delisted here it might be less of a legal battle after a run in. All I know is it's terrible that that guide died and left his kids behind. The last thing I want to do in a situation would be to hesitate because of worrying about the feds. I wish that warden wouldn't have tried to get in my head with that crap.

Bb

Most places where you would hunt elk and encounter a bear are pretty remote, if a man were forced to shoot a bear to protect one's own life, I don't think I would be in to big a hurry to tell anyone about it, in a day or so another bear will be feeding on that carcass anyways.

No , that cub was killed because it learned how to kill a man by its mother. Do I have to repeat that again? I tell you what why don't you ask someone in Wyoming F&G why they did that.

You are under the assumption that you have a clue. News flash, you dont.

Bullsh**. Avoiding humans is 100% a learned behavior, and it can be unlearned. Both by individual animals and generationally.

I hiked, climbed and hunted in Mt., WY., and Idaho for >30 years before seeing my 1st Griz outside of a National Park. In the last 5 years my wife and I have been w/in 100 yards of grizzlys 3 times while dayhiking in Wyoming and Montana and have seen 2 more while driving FS roads. We were south of Yellowstone's South entrance in May and watched a sow griz w/ 2 older cubs from the road for over an hour before they walked past us and about 50 other people who had retreated to their cars and showed no fear of humans at all.

Not a statistical absolute but it would seem that there are more griz outside of the extreme back country and they are less skittish around humans. I am now much more 'Bear Aware' than I was 5 years ago. We are Headed to Jackson in 2 weeks and I find comfort in my Glock, Guide Gun and the fact that I can outrun my wife since her knee surgery. Be safe out there.


mike r

10-4, Shrap I am myself not awful with my 37 ounce 44 with most any loads. I don't shoot it double action, I guess I need to practice that.

I would guess you might be a defense attorney, your logic is so skewed. Depleted Uranium has nothing on you for being dense...

I’ve read several reports but did not read the hunter’s perspective on the whole thing that was linked here; regardless, it’s a tragedy for too many and also really not completely preventable short of having no grizzlies prowling about. And I would not want that either.

It seems the guide had a Glock that was found somewhere nearby and apparently the hunter had a handgun also — so there were two handguns that were not put into action, or, did the guide get off any shot(s)? I can fully understand if not, and even if so, two very experienced DG guys carrying 458’s could be ambushed and one killed in seconds in some scenario.

I’ve also read that there was “bear spray” present but I don’t know if it was used. Regardless, does anyone believe, or want to bet his life, that this apparently very motivated grizzly, that attacked two guys probably in seconds, then returned to the first and killed him (was he already deceased?), before dragging his body off almost a quarter of a mile, would have been deterred by some pepper spray?

I’ve already speculated a bit, but even if there is the time to reach for something, I’m not reaching for any bear spray.

I think you're right. No wonder the jails are so crowded.

I've heard no word on if any shots were fired, but the Fish and game guys said that the sow was found to have bear spray residue on her, and the guide was reportedly caring bear spray.

Some of the posts here are surprising and lot of arm chair quarter backing. Until you live here and deal with the bears here it is easy to say "should have, would have and could have". We have one grizzly in town here in Cody within the city limits that the game and fish are trying to trap. There has been 3 maulings so far this year and every year for the past several there are at least that many. The bears can come so quickly you don't have a chance to use your pistol or bear spray or what ever. Who ever said the guide didn't do his job doesn't have a clue. Especially for not being there, you don't know if he had a pistol on his hip or not or any other circumstance. I am sure he had a sidearm and if not bear spray.

There are so many bears now it is crazy. A guy at work drew a sheep tag this year and filled it opening day. He went scouting at least 6 times and every time but one he saw at least 5 grizzlies. He went to a different drainage every time till he found the sheep he was looking for. A large percentage of the time you encounter a bear it runs off or at the least ignores you. This story is one of the time they didn't. Animals are conditioned to be scared of humans. In the past week there have been two people in Mammoth in Yellowstone that have gotten attacked by the bull elk. People are all around watching them and this one elk is so aggresive that he attacks people. Granted people in the park are really stupid but if you are hunting elk in the wild and calling them in to archery range I have never heard of one attacking a hunter. Ever one I have seen splits so fast it is amazing if they see, smell or hear you.

The story sounds a little fishy to me with the hunter leaving him and throwing a pistol to the guide, then getting flown out meanwhile leaving the guide and then flying back to Florida before the guy is even found. I don't know if his flight was scheduled for that day or what but it just seems strange to me. I wouldn't be surprised if more comes out of this story.

If they are anything like dogs and wolves, certainly individual bears must vary in personality, aggressiveness etc. much of which behavior is inherited (compare your average golden retriever to your average Jack Russel for example). I'm wondering if, back in the days, those grizzlies innately less fearful of people were more likely to be targeted, at least in retaliation, by humans. Even surviving getting stuck with arrows might seriously impede the subsequent survival of the bear.

In modern times it could be that this selection pressure against "problem" bears has decreased. I am not aware of accounts of guys being actively challenged for their kills much by grizzles in historic times as seems to regularly happen to hunters today, and while there are a few accounts of bears charging Indian camps back then, can one imagine the problems we would worry about if one set up an arch-typical Indian or Mountain Man-type camp in bear country today, especially if grizzlies today were as common and widespread as they were back then.

On the main topic, I'm inclined to view any large predator that doesn't turn and run at the sight or scent of humans as a suitable candidate for elimination, much more so for those that have already "crossed the line".

I am going to go out on a limb and say that grizzly populations were evenly disbursed in the good old days. There are accounts of them on the great plains .

Maybe the fact that the injuns and Mt. men were mostly illiterate could account for the lack of stories about bear attacks in historical times. I'm not a history teacher so that is just a guess on my part.


mike r