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Old 07-30-2006, 05:48 PM   #1
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At the end of my otherwise pleasant weekend at Heart Bar campground this weekend (Nope, it didn't burn!) ....This morning, I was tasked with some unpleasantness at the request of the forest service and camphosts. I had a digital camera, and they did not.. they wanted some pictures of an illegal doing up the road, and Fish and Game was nowhere to be found. They wanted pictures of a "crime scene" before it was over run by onlookers.

Up the road from the established campground, there are 14 dispersed sites. They are not necessarily remote, all are within sight of the road, but they are "out there" beyond any established areas. Only a fire pit and table.. everything else, you haul in. RVs can fit in most of them.

On the "Yellow Posts" which mark each site, there is quite clearly a BIG sign warning folks that the area is frequented by bears. The usual "Keep food away from sleeping areas" notes are added to them. The camphosts patrol and speak to everyone in these sites and warn them about the comminality of bears. It's a nightly and sometimes daily occurance to see them.

So, Bears should be NO suprise to anyone in the area. I see them almost every trip into the established campground.. they have a party every nite looking for forgotten tidbits and playing games to get the dumpsters open. I even saw a bear friday nite, as did a campmate who decided to step out the door of his toy hauler for a smoke, only to see Yogi standing under his awning. The bear high tailed it and ran. As did the campmate, who screached and slammed his door shut. It was all of maybe 5 feet away when he saw it.

The pic below shows where the killed bear lay in relation to the dispersed site it was found at. Most of the wounds were in it's backside (IE: it was running AWAY from the site) and one near the heart, on it's side (I will spare you the gory pics) No prints were found in the site itself, or below the bear. It slid DOWN the hillside. Where the pic was taken from, I was standing by the picnic table.

Bottom line, if a bear is this far away, and not charging you, it is no threat. Enjoy it as seeing a wonder of nature. I have done so myself many times, keeping in mind the danger of doing any more than that. And always having an escape route, even if its just getting into my car and running. (He can have my cookies and Dr Pepper.. I know where to get more)

I was welling up with tears as I stood so close to this beautiful beast, closer than I have ever been before. I think the forest service told me it was a California Brown Bear.

This was very senseless, and just wrong. And the folks that did it know it was too. They packed up thier trailer (I saw it yesterday as I was exploring near the site) and took off. It is a jailable offense to discharge a firearm in the forest in an undesignated area. And killing a bear in a protected area.. even more illegal.

There is a special place down below waiting for these folks, no doubt. If they felt justified in doing this, why didn't they just report it to the camphost down the raod and get it over with, hoping that they would be forgiven because of a real threat to thier lives.

This was no threat.. it looked more like sport to me. But.. we will never know just exactly how it happened, only how it ended up. It's just plain sad.
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Old 07-30-2006, 06:06 PM   #2
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It's very sad to know there are folks out there that will kill an animal for "sport".. I can't believe there would be any reason to shoot the bear in the back (or for that matter - shoot him at all).... I only wish these folks could be located - they know that what they did was simply awful... and then they turned their back and ran...
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Old 07-30-2006, 06:16 PM   #3
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I don't think it was a brown bear. I am no expert, but in looking up pictures to identify it, it looked more like a black bear.. in size and shape. But it WAS brown.

Unless there is a sub species.. I can't find it. The "California Brown Bear" is only identified in my search as a grizzly. They are extinct here. This one had a whitish muzzle, like a black bear.

Maybe I heard him wrong. It was small. I have seen much bigger.

Yeah, I hope they don't sleep for like... the rest of thier lives.
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Old 07-30-2006, 06:36 PM   #4
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I don't think it was a brown bear. I am no expert, but in looking up pictures to identify it, it looked more like a black bear.. in size and shape. But it WAS brown.

Unless there is a sub species.. I can't find it. The "California Brown Bear" is only identified in my search as a grizzly. They are extinct here. This one had a whitish muzzle, like a black bear.

Maybe I heard him wrong. It was small. I have seen much bigger.

Yeah, I hope they don't sleep for like... the rest of thier lives.
In the 48 states there's only two species of bears. American Black Bear, and Grizzly Bears. There are several so called "phases" of Black Bears. Meaning differenct colors of brown and black. I think if you look up American Black Bear you'll all you ever wanted to know about them.
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Old 07-30-2006, 06:43 PM   #5
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I have to agree. thats very sad there are 'morons' in this world that get a kick outta
killing an animal for no reason....
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Old 07-30-2006, 06:59 PM   #6
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It was a Black bear.. this is like what I saw, just a different color. "mine was a bit plumper. No doubt was the same bear that was seen under the awning. The camphost thought it was anyway. She sees the regulars daily.


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This is "the" bear. mostly brown. Don't worry, I cleaned it up so it is not as ugly. I am not having a good time editing these pics to email off to them. I didn't have a CD to burn them onto, and I was not going to give them my memory card.
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Old 07-30-2006, 07:34 PM   #7
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At my parent's cottage in Manitoba, bears were a common sight.

One idiot (son of neighbour across the road) decided to climb up a tree after a baby bear that had climbed it, armed with -- a Machete!

Fortunately, there were many humans there to shout at the beast (I mean the guy) and he eventually backed off.

Here in northwest BC we have "Black Bears" (of whatever colour) that can be scared off with the shouting and the waving of arms and ringing of bells and singing while hiking and so forth.

We also have Grizzlies (big hump on back of neck) where, I am informed, you avoid contact, and if find yourself face to face, curl up into a small unthreatening ball and do not so much as whimper.

Of course, the Mother Bear of any species, if you are accidentally between her and her cubs, will possibly harm and even eat you. A while back a Conservation Officer near Jasper said of a bear-killed human, "Actually, I am surprised this doesn't happen more often. Humans are, after all, small, available, and nutritious."
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Old 07-30-2006, 08:11 PM   #8
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Humans are, after all, small
Thats a good way to describe this guy.
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Old 07-31-2006, 07:44 AM   #9
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There is no accounting for idiots like that! Wolves and bears are hated by humans based on legends that have carried down through the years that are wrong. These animals don't hunt down humans and kill them upon contact. But who am I?

Now as someone said already, we only have two species of bears in North America, the black bear and the grizzly. I don't know where all the confusion comes from. For instance, the black bears can even be white but they are still black bears. What is confusing about that? Look up spirit bear or kermode bear.

When black is white!
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Old 07-31-2006, 03:54 PM   #10
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That is terrible! Unfortunately there are a lot of people who don't care if they kill animals - to bears, wolves, deer or even a squirrel or baby ducks crossing the street.
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Old 07-31-2006, 05:13 PM   #11
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I hate idiots with guns. That bear was worth 10K of the kind of human scum who would do that. Unfortunate that you have to share camping space with such morons.
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Old 07-31-2006, 05:21 PM   #12
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I hate idiots with guns. That bear was worth 10K of the kind of human scum who would do that. Unfortunate that you have to share camping space with such morons.
It not only th idiots with guns that kill the bears. It's also the idiots with food that kill bears. When bears are given or let to have human food, whether it's garbage cans thrown out for them, it's like signing a death warrant. When bears loose their fear of humans somebody gets hurt. Once a bear has hurt a human, it's killed by the authorities. Usually the person hurt is NOT the one that's been feeding the bear.

It sounds like this bear was getting pretty used to humans probably would have to be killed sooner or later. So maybe by wanton killing a favor was done.

There's always more than one way to look at things.
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Old 07-31-2006, 07:53 PM   #13
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Bears in this area are so common you could say the hills are crawling with them. I have witness MANY in the area. Like dogs, they are each individuals, and can usually be identified as individuals. I have seen many individuals go dumpster diving. Frankly, I am not sure why they try, the dumpsters are locked down. I have even seen them knock them over.. and get.. nothing.

I doubt that this one was a rogue trying to steal aggressively, or attack anyone. Say "Boo" to these things and they run for the hills.

Fish and Game called me today to get a report on who I had seen in the site the day before. I could not give them much info other than they had a truck camper or small trailer. All I saw was one upper rear corner. White. That describes thousands of stickies and campers.

This was not a protection shooting. Fish and game had the animal and told me all wounds were the ones I photgraphed, none were in the front of the animal. This was a sensless shooting by a coward, or someone having a little misguided sport.

You don't shoot things in the behind. Thats as low as one can get. Especially when it is running from you.
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Old 07-31-2006, 09:50 PM   #14
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I have no problem with hunting as long as the game is used for food.

Killing like this, whether for sport or from fear, is no good at all.

Sorry you had to get involved, Gina.
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Old 07-31-2006, 10:52 PM   #15
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I too don't have a problem with hunting. I don't like poaching of any kind. However, I'm not sure that "campground bears" aren't a problem. If a particular "campground bear" isn't a problem today he/she will be tomorrow. As Gina pointed out, you say boo and they run, which is good. That's the reaction we want. As time goes on and he gets more used to being around people without getting hurt he forgets that man is the king of preditors. That bear begins to think he's the king preditor. Then somebody gets hurt and man has to assert himself as king preditor and destroy that bear.

I have no concern about bears in the back country. They've not gotten used to being around man, but that's likely to change when everytime a bear becomes a problem they move him into the back country. Pretty soon they'll loose their fear of man and many will have to be killed to re-establish the proper pecking order.

There may be other ways than killing to keep the fear of man alive and well. But that fear has to be maintained and will be maintained either before or after people get hurt. Notice I didn't say people get killed, that's not likely though possible.

Don't feed the bears, if you see them in a camp ground make a lot of noise and scare them away. Don't let them come close to getting the idea that they are king preditor.

OK off my soapbox now.
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Old 08-30-2013, 03:35 PM   #16
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Unhappy My take

Why are there so many bears? What is their natural food?
As far as the human, most people live in cities where they have practically no connection with wildlife. They hear anecdotal stories and develop a fear. This fellow was probably reacting to his fear and didn't stop to think the bear was running away.
Or he could be an idiot. The world is full of them.
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Old 08-30-2013, 04:24 PM   #17
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Must be a slow news day Roger, you dug up a thread that's more than seven years old since the last post....
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Old 08-30-2013, 04:59 PM   #18
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let this rest in peace,closed thread
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