Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/10/i-had-a-close-encounter-with-a.html
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“They’re slow, chunky”
“ A bear can run 50 yards in 3 seconds, or up to 40 mph , faster than a race horse for short distances, and faster than any human, uphill or downhill”
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I hope MGE disabused you of that notion. They can run down deer over a short distance.
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Yes. Yes. Yes. More of this. Montana is great, but once you’re done with Yellowstone, you want to see grizzlies up close. Thanks for this report.
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Choosey bears choose Jif.
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How is that? Once I was hiking near Yosemite and I saw a fallen tree that had clearly been clawed at and I suddenly had a very very strong desire not to see grizzlies up close.
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My occasional running-path friend when I lived in Canmore, who was later run down by a grizzly on that same path, killed and hung up in a tree on the golf course didn’t find that bear particularly slow or chunky.
My planting range coworker, who was ambushed by a what was likely a grizzly, and spent a year in hospital and years in reconstructive plastic surgery found their speed adequate.
Let me guess: you didn’t grow up near the bush.
You need to inform yourself, and not put out potentially dangerous to others mischaracterizations.
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The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter.
They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge.
Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear’s sensitive nose and it will run away.
It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.
Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.
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This confuses me. I avoid hiking, because it involves going to places where bears and other dangerous wildlife exist.
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…and they can keep running for hours, even though they may weigh over a ton. Winnie-the-Pooh they aren’t.
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Kind of reminds me of a line from a film review that stuck with me.
" They thought they were making Grizzly Adams , but they came within an ace of making Grizzly Man"
http://1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewsn-z/roar.htm
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Get too close, and I’m sure those bears will feel a spiritual connection to you, too. You are, after all, what you eat.
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Good people make good food.
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Right, they are slow and chunky until they decide they aren’t.
I have a couple second hand stories about Grizzlies. After my dads tour on a boat that sailed around Vietnam and the surrounding waters, mapping the ocean floor, he served the rest of his tour in Alaska. From there he eventually worked for the Alaska Fish and Game Dept afterwards. So he has this slide show of Alaska and some of them is of bears. He has some distance shots of this one they saw often they called Old Ben (like in the TV show). But his best pics are of a female with two cubs he saw when fishing. He kept his eyes on them, but eventually lost track and assumed they wandered off. Until the mama popped out rather close. He decided to snap one quick photo… the second one is blurry because she started to come towards him and he decided to leave quickly…
The other story was of a grizzly visiting the shack he and another guy lived in and the shed that housed supplies. He had a bush dog named Pup, who was 10x braver than his size, and had to problem letting black bears know to move on. Pup didn’t feel like challenging the grizzly. In the morning the found out he bit through a gallon tin of molasses and ate most of it.
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Oh, you people! Adorable! Growl-y, scratch-y, chase-y, bite-y, eat-y, yes. But… Adorable!
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Says someone whose never stood between Winnie-the-Pooh and his honey…
The original “Winnie” was from Winnipeg…but a black bear.
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Winnipeg? Gosh! Thanks for that. I’m still right, but that came a lot closer than I could have guessed.
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I just want to say its really nice reading an article that is just good, and nice. No spin, no politics, no non-sense. Just good!
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