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Bear Mauling and other Bear Stories

Monique

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@Sibhusky , wow, terrifying! I'm glad that (I gather) your loved ones are mostly okay.

Everyone else, I don't know how Sib feels, but I'd just as soon not see this turned into a guns vs spray thread, which is the direction it's going. Maybe I'm wrong, but this thread seems more appropriate for giving :hug:to Sib.
 

Don in Morrison

I Ski Better on Retro Day
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@Sibhusky . Maybe I'm wrong, but this thread seems more appropriate for giving :hug:to Sib.
Yer not wrong. What he had worked, and the outcome was about as good as could be hoped for under the circumstances. Gratitude that everyone is still with us and that healing can begin, with hopes that there will be no lasting injuries.
 

crgildart

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@Sibhusky , wow, terrifying! I'm glad that (I gather) your loved ones are mostly okay.

Everyone else, I don't know how Sib feels, but I'd just as soon not see this turned into a guns vs spray thread, which is the direction it's going. Maybe I'm wrong, but this thread seems more appropriate for giving :hug:to Sib.

Agreed, but bad advice on the topic needs to be and has been debunked so as to help others better their/our chances of surviving similar terrible endeavors. I agree any more disputing that overwhelming evidence already presented, and by SibH herself, needs to happen elsewhere.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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@Sibhusky - did you post the follow up article? I didn't see this one until this morning, for some reason
http://flatheadbeacon.com/2016/10/25/haskill-basin-closure-lifted-bear-attack/
Hadn't posted it, but that's how I learned there are at least SIX back there. (Six more than we'd been aware of.) Need to build more garages for all these vehicles we have so we're not getting surprised as we come home from a movie. I guess the endangered species efforts worked. There's been talk of delisting them. I might have to join the other team. On the other hand this immediate area is the subject of a new 3000 acre conservation easement, so maybe the increased traffic of bodies and bikers will encourage the bears to move on. Hope all these citizens are packing bear spray and not thinking it's Disneyland.
 

Sibhusky

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Just in case you're wondering, we are surrounded by logging lands and School Trust lands. Our house is the blue. Roughly due east of the house is the logging road where it happened. As you can see, to get to it (or home from it) involves walking on forest trails not visible from above. The trails used that day run just off the property line, running North/South, to get to the logging road. I'm just guessing where they were. They back tracked that route to get home, because they couldn't explain what to tell rescue personnel about their location. You can't bushwhack straight back, too many downed trees, it's un-walkable.

Screenshot_20161027-151528_1477603330803.jpg
 

DanoT

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Hadn't posted it, but that's how I learned there are at least SIX back there. (Six more than we'd been aware of.) Need to build more garages for all these vehicles we have so we're not getting surprised as we come home from a movie. I guess the endangered species efforts worked. There's been talk of delisting them. I might have to join the other team. On the other hand this immediate area is the subject of a new 3000 acre conservation easement, so maybe the increased traffic of bodies and bikers will encourage the bears to move on. Hope all these citizens are packing bear spray and not thinking it's Disneyland.

As I mentioned on the other forum, relieved to hear that your family is OK.

I would be more concerned if those additional bears in the area where black bears because even though the Grizzly is more ferocious it is also less interested in human contact. Black bears are just more likely to be sniffing around for garbage and way less wary of humans. There are also rouge black bears that will hunt and eat people whereas Grizzly attacks are almost always defensive moves as a result of a surprise encounter.
 

Sibhusky

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We have definitely seen an increase in black bears on my trail camera this summer.

13734871_10154281936122488_8801363392419353899_o.jpg

13691104_10154281942337488_3929204802207984251_o.jpg

13920508_10154334721537488_2415030554822502939_o.jpg


Normally, the camera catches one a year or less. I thought I'd just found the "best spot" for the camera (aside from the fact that deer park themselves in front of the camera and munch for twenty minutes straight of selfies.)
 

babanff

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Is that a motion sensor camera? Very cool. Glad to hear your family is okay, insanely scary. I'm curious, did the dogs flee when this all went down? I've always wondered what my dogs reaction would be to something like this (not that I ever want to learn the answer to that).
 

Monique

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DanoT

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Is that a motion sensor camera? Very cool. Glad to hear your family is okay, insanely scary. I'm curious, did the dogs flee when this all went down? I've always wondered what my dogs reaction would be to something like this (not that I ever want to learn the answer to that).

I'm thinking that every dog would react in his/her own way. My 15lb. Shih-Tzu X would probably run right between my feet and look for me to pick her up.

I was camping one fall in Jasper National Park in Alberta and a bear that had apparently been raiding the campground all summer walked right into camp in mid afternoon while we were all sitting and standing around a campfire. A tiny dog immediately raced up to the bear and started yapping and dancing around in front of the bear causing it to stand on its hind legs, meanwhile a large German Sheppard went behind the bear and took a bite of the bear's Achilles tendon. That was all the bear could handle as it hurried out of there as fast as it could go. This whole thing with the two dogs that had just met happened immediately with no instruction from anyone. It was steak dinner for those two dogs that night.
 

Sibhusky

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Is that a motion sensor camera? Very cool. Glad to hear your family is okay, insanely scary. I'm curious, did the dogs flee when this all went down? I've always wondered what my dogs reaction would be to something like this (not that I ever want to learn the answer to that).
The dogs were on leashes. This may have been a factor in the bear's decision to take on my husband instead of continuing with my daughter. It also may have been a factor in her inability to reach her bear spray, as she had a leash on each wrist. Neither of them remember a thing about what the dogs were doing. The dogs had sensed the bear before the attack, and they were talking about what had the dogs all alert. But the dogs didn't do their "bear bark" (deeper), they were just sniffing and alert. In truth, my family thought there were hikers or mountain bikes approaching.
 

Monique

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This whole thing with the two dogs that had just met happened immediately with no instruction from anyone. It was steak dinner for those two dogs that night.

Before my friend's dog passed, our three dogs would clearly act in a coordinated fashion to "guard the perimeter" on every hike. The three dogs only ever interacted when we were hiking a few times a year.

I've also gone camping with various dog combinations a few times, and it's amazing how quickly they form an impromptu pack, complete with territorial behavior, ie, barking savagely at small children hiking past 200-300 feet away.
 

4ster

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Wow, Vibes to you @Sibhusky & family!

No Grizzlies in Tahoe but lots of black bears. I regularly have them cruising through my yard & the natural balance is way out of whack. 25yrs. ago there where no bears in the Tahoe basin, maybe an occasional sighting in the wilderness but never in town. The bear huggers around here seem to think they are harmless & have become very complacent. Many of them seem to think that a black bear has never attacked a human. I used to be very scared of them & have realized that I need to re-learn that emotion. I was "bluff" charged by one last year, he made one lunge toward me & then took off at a much higher speed than you would think a lumbering bear could go. Luckily, to a bear I look like the badass that I really am. It's just a matter of time till something bad happens.

There has been talk in California of re-introducing Grizzlies!!!
 

Lorenzzo

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Wow, Vibes to you @Sibhusky & family!

No Grizzlies in Tahoe but lots of black bears. I regularly have them cruising through my yard & the natural balance is way out of whack. 25yrs. ago there where no bears in the Tahoe basin, maybe an occasional sighting in the wilderness but never in town. The bear huggers around here seem to think they are harmless & have become very complacent. Many of them seem to think that a black bear has never attacked a human. I used to be very scared of them & have realized that I need to re-learn that emotion. I was "bluff" charged by one last year, he made one lunge toward me & then took off at a much higher speed than you would think a lumbering bear could go. Luckily, to a bear I look like the badass that I really am. It's just a matter of time till something bad happens.

There has been talk in California of re-introducing Grizzlies!!!
Interesting. When I lived in South Lake Tahoe about 30 years ago we weren't aware of any bears until one day we hiked up to Burnside Lake from Hope Valley. On the way back we realized an adult black bear was about 75 yards away. For a short while it moved when we moved, keeping equidistant.

I remember reading bears were not naturally indigenous to that altitude but were invading Tahoe and Mammoth because of readily available food from humans.
 

4ster

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Interesting. When I lived in South Lake Tahoe about 30 years ago we weren't aware of any bears until one day we hiked up to Burnside Lake from Hope Valley. On the way back we realized an adult black bear was about 75 yards away. For a short while it moved when we moved, keeping equidistant.

I remember reading bears were not naturally indigenous to that altitude but were invading Tahoe and Mammoth because of readily available food from humans.

Makes sense. My brothers theory is that the bears in Tahoe started showing up when they drove them out of Yosemite. From what I've read Mammoth has done a pretty good job of dealing with the problem & has locked up their garbage. I can't say the same for Tahoe with their very transient population & every other dwelling being a vacation rental.

Tahoe has never had a mountain lion problem either, not to say that there aren't any but we are beginning to see the occasional deer & you know who is just behind ;). My niece moved to Coloma in the foothills a year ago & they have tons of deer on their property & now have a pretty scary mountain lion hanging around.

BTW for others clarification, Burnside lake is not in the Tahoe Basin.
 

4ster

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I guess it comes down to realizing how powerful the natural world is & being prepared for its potential. Thankfully, Sibhusky's family was aware & prepared!
 

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