Blackbear mauling in Banff

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Hope this hasn't been posted already.

BANFF -- The abandoned mountain bike was a sign something was wrong, but it was the distant cry of "grizzly" that chilled a pair of riders and sent them scrambling for help.

Robin Borstmayer, 40, and his friend Robert Earl, 41, admit it was luck that had them biking along a popular trail in Banff Friday night that ultimately led to them saving the life of Greg Flaaten, who was mauled by a bear.

It was the thickly wooded Hoodoos-Bow River Trail the two men, and many other mountain bikers, ride frequently, except this time, Borstmayer said things weren't right. "We came across an abandoned bike and Robert was able to identify that it belonged to a friend," he said from Banff yesterday morning.

The men began calling their friend Flaaten's name. When they heard the reply, "Grizzly," they realized their friend was being mauled by a bear.

Earl noticed a black bear standing about 18 metres away, staring at them. "He didn't look agitated, he just looked intent."



The two men jumped on their bikes and went for help.

When RCMP, park wardens and others found Flaaten, he was bleeding badly from tear wounds to his chest and right shoulder.

As the rescuers tended to Flaaten, the bear lurked nearby. When it became clear the bear wouldn't back off, one of the park wardens shot and killed it.

Flaaten was taken out of the woods by stretcher and airlifted by STARS to Foothills hospital after beings picked up at Banff's Mineral Springs hospital.

He was still unconscious last night in the ICU
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I've had more close calls with moose and elk. Any wild animal (within reason) is potentially dangerous. When I was in Jasper many years ago, there was a situation of a mule deer buck mugging a pedestrian carrying a bag of groceries. The deer really wanted a salad for supper.
 
Every year fewer and fewer folks are Hunting these things:(
I really wish they would change thier status back to a FurBearer here in BC so more people would hunt them again..........
Getting to be more Blackies running around here then deer:rolleyes:
 
todbartell said:
where is Sunray?? surely he will chime in and say 'Yogi wont bother you if you dont bother him'

:D :rolleyes:
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HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Yup, take his "yogi" advice and you may as well just coat yourself in HP sauce and offer yourself up in a picnic basket....;) :p
 
How sad, I wonder when more people in that area are gonna get more bear smart, I lived in the Bow Valley for 13 years and met few people that would use common sence when heading out.
Intrestly enought it's almost this time last year that a friend of my Dad and I from Canmore got killed by a Griz in Banff National Park
 
What pisses me off is they make it sound like they shot the bear just because it kept hanging around while they were tending to the victim.

Common sense says shoot the bear on sight, hunt it down if you have too, don't even give it another chance to hurt someone else.
 
CO's seem to be biased towards interpreting the reason for an attack as "fault of victim". I think it's to keep people from arming themselves before going into bear habitat. No stats to support this. Just my opinion.
 
Republic of Alberta said:
What pisses me off is they make it sound like they shot the bear just because it kept hanging around while they were tending to the victim.

Common sense says shoot the bear on sight, hunt it down if you have too, don't even give it another chance to hurt someone else.
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x2! and let me come and hunt it for them;)
 
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