Bear Attack in the High Arctic
- Thread starter Boomer
- Start date
Gatehouse said:
The thing that annoys me about bear attack statistics is that some of the noted experts (many are excellent bear biologists but not realistic in respect to bear defence) spew facts like "very few people are attacked by bears every year and even fewer are killed, and most attacks end in the bear leaving"....The problem is that they can inflict terrible damage in seconds.
As someone who lives, works and plays in bear country, I for one do not plan to end up looking like that fellow or any of the other poor people who have been badly mauled. The fellow in this attack got lucky in that the bear didn't appear to rip at his face, we had one local fellow mauled this past fall (and another one a few years back) who lost their ear and a lot of scalp to a grizzly attack....but I guess according to those particular experts he was fortunate and has to better learn to avoid bears
(Rant off)
Cheers
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Ike said:The thing that annoys me about bear attack statistics is that some of the noted experts (many are excellent bear biologists but not realistic in respect to bear defence) spew facts like "very few people are attacked by bears every year and even fewer are killed, and most attacks end in the bear leaving"....The problem is that they can inflict terrible damage in seconds.
As someone who lives, works and plays in bear country, I for one do not plan to end up looking like that fellow or any of the other poor people who have been badly mauled. The fellow in this attack got lucky in that the bear didn't appear to rip at his face, we had one local fellow mauled this past fall (and another one a few years back) who lost their ear and a lot of scalp to a grizzly attack....but I guess according to those particular experts he was fortunate and has to better learn to avoid bears
(Rant off)
Cheers
Good point Ike!
Bears are patient feeders - they don't kill their prey with the speed of the big cats - for a human victim this not good news. You'll end up with a big paw planted in the middle of your chest and the bear will slowly pull off or chew whatever is flopping around. Chances are you'll loose limbs before you are killed. In numerous accounts of bear attacks I've read, I am amazed by the number of victims who had their heads chewed, but then the bear began to feed on another part of the body before his victim died. Recoveries from these attacks are terrible ordeals, and more than one bear attack victim has gone insane as a result. All species of bears are capable of this sort of damage, and a black bear who sees humans everyday could be far more dangerous than his larger cousins - and yet many of us do not take him very seriously.
I hope filmbeargun finds this thread. I had several conversations with him pertaining to bear security in the arctic, both on this forum and in PM's but I'm afraid he didn't get it. Too bad I didn't have these pictures earlier.
Boomer said:
Hi Boomer,
I was just referring to the strength they have as related to the damage that they can cause when attacking and mauling a person, but the damage they do when they eat you is also relavent
If you watch bears fighting or challenging each other they use their teeth and jaws to 'mouth and bite' at each other on the face and head, bears have enough hair and thick skin that they are not usually seriously hurt but for us thin skinned humans we tend to get seriously damaged when under that type of attack. It is just the way that bears defend/attack/challenge and a human will not stand up to that type of abuse.
As far as eating their prey, generally grizzly bears will bury their food for a few days to 'tenderize' it but black bears are more likely to eat their kill right away (I am not knowledgeable on polar bear habits since we don't have them where I live)..that is the reasoning behind the old addage of playing dead with the g-bear and fighting a black bear...however now with the recent increase on opportunistic attacks by grizzly bears aome are starting to rethink the play dead theory as well.
It would be interesting to hear the details of this incident.
Cheers
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Yikes. I've never had a bear encounter myself, but I think I'd be shooting first if I had the chance. No playing dead for me (no bear would believe I'm dead anyway when I'm filling my pants and whimpering "Please don't eat me...please don't eat me...please don't eat me...")
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Ike said:Hi Boomer,
I was just referring to the strength they have as related to the damage that they can cause when attacking and mauling a person, but the damage they do when they eat you is also relavent
If you watch bears fighting or challenging each other they use their teeth and jaws to 'mouth and bite' at each other on the face and head, bears have enough hair and thick skin that they are not usually seriously hurt but for us thin skinned humans we tend to get seriously damaged when under that type of attack. It is just the way that bears defend/attack/challenge and a human will not stand up to that type of abuse.
As far as eating their prey, generally grizzly bears will bury their food for a few days to 'tenderize' it but black bears are more likely to eat their kill right away (I am not knowledgeable on polar bear habits since we don't have them where I live)..that is the reasoning behind the old addage of playing dead with the g-bear and fighting a black bear...however now with the recent increase on opportunistic attacks by grizzly bears aome are starting to rethink the play dead theory as well.
It would be interesting to hear the details of this incident.
Cheers
From what I've read by Hererro, Shelton, and others - predatory black bear attacks are frequent enough that they cannot be dismissed. With regards to polar bears our collective experience is that sub adults are the ones most often involved in bear-human conflict, although that is not to say you won't have trouble with a big one. The best idea is to be armed when in bear country - any bear country be it Thunder Bay, Bella-Colla, or Lake Harbour.
Boomer said:
I hear you, a proper plan and training is the best option. Some people prefer firearms, some use bear spray ...and the others eventually get eaten
I know several people who refuse to carry anything in heavy bear country and rely on an 'undestanding' with the bears to avoid conflict....that scares me to no end and I hope they never have a problem. Personally I put my seatbelt on when I drive my car and I carry a firearm whenever I take my family into the forest to play.
BTW, did you mean predatory grizzly bear attacks? Gary Shelton had identified the concept of opportunistic predatory attacks by grizzly bears several years ago and it is now accepted as an identified behaviour classification and requires different response than other types of grizzly encounters.
Cheers
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- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
I thought the opportunistic attacks Shelton referred to was when grizzlies got in the habit of stalking hunters, knowing that the sound af a shot meant easy meat. He has also made several references to predatory black bear behavoir.
Dangerous up there
Many years ago i was working in the arctic on devon island doing bird research. We had a seperate tent for our specimens but we took turns sleeping with one guy always awake. On my shift a bear appeared way out on the frozen bay and was beelining it towards us. Luckily the wind shifted and he changed course when at about 200 yds out. I'm sure he would of come in on the specimen tent. By the way the cross hairs on my 7mm mag followed him the whole way. The camp orders were if they hit the 20 yrd line boom !
Many years ago i was working in the arctic on devon island doing bird research. We had a seperate tent for our specimens but we took turns sleeping with one guy always awake. On my shift a bear appeared way out on the frozen bay and was beelining it towards us. Luckily the wind shifted and he changed course when at about 200 yds out. I'm sure he would of come in on the specimen tent. By the way the cross hairs on my 7mm mag followed him the whole way. The camp orders were if they hit the 20 yrd line boom !
Boomer said:
Those are happening at an increasing rate, bears are opportunistic and will do something if it works to a positive outcome for them.
I was referring to grizzly incidents that start as either a defensive attack (protecting cubs etc) or one that starts as a curious bear that meets no resistance from a person when they check them out and decides to eat the person and it turns into predation. ...Scary either way
Cheers
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Yeah. To save time, i usually put the line about 3 feet behind the bear
(kidding!)Herrero identified predatory attacks in both griz and black, and differentiated between griz territorial attacks and predatory.
The thing herrero noted in his work was that while a grizzlie could be territorial or 'anger' based in it's attack (in which case play dead) OR predatory (in which case, fight back) ... Black bear attacks are almost EXCLUSIVELY predatory. So with a black - ALWAYS fight back.
Black bear attacks are rare. They're much less agressive by nature. Maybe 1 in 1000 bears is a serious potential violent bear.
Thing is - there's about 200 thousand black bears in bc.
You do the math.
One thing you'll note about black bears - when they snap, they SNAP. It's much more common for them to attack SEVERAL people over a larger area when they get going. In one instance in bc, a bear killed 5 or 6 people before it was shot, one after another. In ontario - a bear attacked several people miles apart within a day.
It's never a bad idea to have a gun handy. The odds are in your favour - but if you meet a bad'un, it gets bad pretty quick.
I had a black bear sow , who was the proud mama of three cubs, bluff charge me from thiry feet away. She was laying with her cubs in some thick stuff and I never saw her. She came to within about ten feet and stopped. Even if I had a gun there was no time to use it as she was that quick.
