This hunter was initially reported as lost. After three days of searching, his body was found...

A hunter whose body was found near Sundre was attacked by a grizzly bear, said the medical examiner's office in Calgary. (Alberta, Canada)

The man, tentatively identified as Don Peters, 51, had been missing since Sunday. His body was found in a heavily wooded area of the Ya Ha Tinda Ranch region, more than 175 kilometres northwest of Calgary.

Full article here.

The RCMP should know better than to make comments before a case is fully examined. Did the grizzly attack the hunter with premeditation, or is it a case of self defense? This is nature, not the trendy streets of Kitsilano. " Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you."

Considering there was a 3 day search for the man, I think they have no choice but to tell people what they found.

They did say "That weapon was discharged but we're still looking into exactly how it all fits into the situation" and any half way intelligent person should understand what that means: it means they don't know what happened.

Man had weapon, bear took him out. End of story. It's hard to blame a bear for acting like a bear.

Sue

What he shoot the bear with?

What ever it was wasn't big enough, or he missed it just said the gun was discharged not that he hit anything.

He may have discharged his gun at a deer or other prey, and then been attacked while field dressing it.

Or maybe he didn't even shoot at the bear. The story said he was a hunter. Maybe he shot at something else and was later surprised by a bear. Who knows?

The search itself took 3 days, but how long was he out there before a search even got started? For all we know, he could have been skinning his kill, bear jumps out, kills man, takes man's kill. I don't know.

The first bear they find in that area (assuming they find any that haven't bedded down for the season) is gonna be labeled as the bad bear. Oh, why must all this profiling continue? Don't they know, not all griz are man-killers. Only the darker, unshorn ones are bad...


Hmm, I also smell a Darwin Award honorable mention here.

I don't agree benjammin. Bear attacks aren't that uncommon in central Alberta. It's not like the bear broke into his house...more like the other way around.

The real clue that they don't know what happened: We don't know enough to comment on what they don't know.

Check this out:
http://www.udap.com/images/video/MarksStory.wmv

Oh I agree, I was just being facetious.

I still think, though, that if you are gonna wander around in known bear country, you should arm yourself accordingly, meaning taking something that will stop a big bear, having it ready to use, and knowing how to deploy it properly. Even then it might not work, I guess we'll have to wait and hear more of the details first to see if this truly is a Darwin Award candidate or not.

Wow we have to get rid of those bears! Murdering psychopaths!(Sarcasm)

Seems like we hear of this kind of thing every year or so. Humans continue to encroach on these bears territory. Seems to me just part of the risk folks take hunting in these areas. I have a friend in New Mexico and he has bears eating out of his garbage cans.

Obviously this being a Grizzly; that would be pretty dramatic. I cannot imagine the horror of this guys death.

We aint got no bears down here in Texas! :-)

Actually, bears have been returning to both the forests of east Texas and the mountains over in Big Bend. A friend even claims he saw one near Spring/The Woodlands but I'm pretty sure it was just a feral hog.

-Blast

Aren't those Texas feral hogs large and aggressive?

They are coming back in the northern part of the state too. My best friend lives in southeastern Oklahoma just north of Sherman Tx. and they have black bears in the area.

It would be better to run into the bear

Blast your friend; does he drink a lot? Bears in the Woodlands! Thats funny!

Back in the early 1970's my grandfather said he saw a small bear in a rural area on Lake Livingston. Thats only a stones throw from The Woodlands; so I guess its possible.

Yes those feral hogs are pretty aggressive. I have family near where Blast is decribing and they are a problem.

Mountain Lions have even showed up in SE Lous-anna. I seen 2 dead ones on th side of I-12. The animals are migrating again.

Yes. My biggest scare in the woods so far was when I encountered a group of nine pigs. We were able to scare them away by waving our walking sticks and feeling at the tops of our lungs. They didn't run off, they just slowly melted back into the woods and for the rest of the hike we'd catch glimpses of them pacing us off about 30 yards off the trail. The largest one seemed as big as our couch!

The Woodlands (a high dollar, master-planned community) has hired a full-time trapper to try and keep things under control. He lures them into hog traps using a mix of diesel fuel and corn as the bait. I forgot how many he said he catches each week. Small ones get sold to farmers, big one go straight to the meat processing plant.

-Blast

Interesting. Apparently the feral hog meat is also prized by high-end restaurants willing to pay top dollar for it. I never imagined there were so many of them, over 1.5 million in Texas alone! From the Texas parks and wildlife website:




http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/nuisance/feral_hogs/#harm

Wow, I didn't know there were any bears in TX. Now, as far as one in The Woodlands area, I'd have to see the results of a drug test before I'd believe that.

The feral hogs do get big around here. An aunt and uncle of mine have a fairly large ranch and they are everywhere out there. One day he's out riding checking a field for dove hunting and surprised a couple of dozen feral hogs. He always had an SKS with him and as he grabbed it they took off running. He lined up on the one in front, and also the largest and shot him. Then he lined up on the second largest and shot it. On the third pull of the trigger the SKS was jammed.

The first, largest hog got up and ran into the brush. Virgil tried to unjam the SKS, but it was a bad jam. So he went back to the house, got another rifle, a Ruger revolver in .44mag, and my aunt, and went back. The second hog was down dead, so he found the blood trail for the first one. The trail disappeared into a hole (tunnel) in some very thick brush. After looking around a bit, he convinced my aunt (I kid you not!) to take the handgun and CRAWL INTO THE HOLE IN THE BRUSH TO FIND THE HOG!

She did find the hog, 18 feet in and dead. Anyway, AFTER dressing the hog out it still weighed better than 300 pounds. My freezer was full of sausage that year.


Another animal I didn't think was in Texas (except far east TX) is Beaver. A couple of weeks ago I saw 2 dead beaver on a county road just west of Belton. So to hear that bear are making it back is pretty cool.

I've had beaver swim along my canoe in the San Jacinto river, Spring Creek, and in Lake Charlotte. They are groovy dudes and in real life they can be somewhat intimidating.

-Blast

Didn't it say that they didn't know if he was mauled by the bear before or after his death? In other words, the bear may have not been the cause of death - heck he could have keeled over from a heart attack in the excitement of bagging his deer for all we know!

I've been in that area. My brother's friend had a trapping line at that locale and he casually pointed out some grizzly bear rubbings on a tree by the little cabin. Gord tried his hand at hunting deer once but an experience with a pack of wolves got him skittish while he was dragging the carcass back to his truck. He hasn't been back.

New info here suggests the hunter was killed by the bear.

Bears don't attack corpses and they don't eat human.

??? There is nothing in the article l seen that suggests what you are saying...

Hmm, I don't know if you can say that categorically.

My understanding is that it's very, extremely rare for a blackie or a griz to attack a human with predatory (as opposed to defensive) intent. But it is not unknown. A young or desperate or starving bear may sieze any opportunity that presents itself. The fact that we humans have modified head-parts and a rather good opinion of ourselves doesn't diminish our caloric value.

As to corpses, animal or human-animal, I believe bears will indeed scavenge if need be. Again, it's nothing more than a free meal in a tough landscape.

There was the case of the woman who was treed by a 200 lb undernourished adolescent grizzly outside Canmore a few years ago. It is believed she climbed a tree to get away from it but small grizzlies can also climb. She either fell or was pulled out of the tree by the bear. The fall killed her, the bear did not. When found by authorities, the bear was chewing on her dead body - whether it was for feeding or biting her just out of curiosity isn't known.

You are right. It's not unheard of...but it's uncommon.

Bears are walking garbage cans. They will eat anything they come across, dead or alive, animal, vegetable or even occasionally mineral. They will eat carrion, and will often return to a kill to feed on it. Delicacy is not one of their trademarks.

Why would bears NOT eat humans??? Meat is meat.

Here is an interesting article from National Geographic on recent predator attacks on people, although it doesn't enumerate how many were eaten: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/08/0827_wirepredators_2.html

Sue

Actually that's a good point. I base my opinion on the fact that when there is a bear attack the person is almost always found (dead or alive) uneaten.

Maybe the Grizzlies are eating some of them...it's far less likely that anybody would know since there's no body to find.

Timothy Treadwell was eaten. Now, he was pretty insane and put himself in danger, but that's another story. They killed the bear and found Treadwell's remains inside the gut.

I'd consider Timothy to be an exception to the rule...he had built a relationship of sorts with these bears.

Yes. The same relationship I have built up with my morning bagel. Most of the time I dont eat it, but sometimes I do.

I hope I'm not quoting you out of context. But I firmly believe the equation is a lot more compex than that.

Humans, more often than not, project the 'body language' of Predator, not Prey. It's not necessarily about our size, or strength (physically, we're quite unimpressive). But (as one highly experienced author suggests) this protects us in a lot of situations where (based on strength and body weight) we would otherwise be obvious and easy food sources.

To that end, I think most bear attacks are in fact defensive (taking out a rival or threat, or protecting my food source) rather than predatory (mmm, easy lunch!).

Bears, like people, are individuals, and each one will do the 'mental math' of risk-vs.-reward differently. So there are always exceptions to the rule.

Some also suggest that the 'math' in a bear's head changes depending on how you act -- that is, your body language. I believe this, knowing that the right 'attitude' physically and vocally will rout a 2,000 lb. Holstein bull who is seriously p***ed off; or that my Great Danes (two big marshmallows) can tell instantly if you are 'top dog' or 'scared to death.'

This website helps to dispel many bear myths.

Also this wikipedia page lists by decade, some known bear attack fatalities. It is interesting to see us Canadians are bears most fav diet!

Having spent year outdoors in bear rich country and have had many opportunties to see and study bears up close, I must say I am not scared of bears, but have a healthy respect for them. In terms of survival while out in the wilderness, for me there are higher priorities then bear attacks to also think about.

Pretty basic, as far as bear myths go; but yeah, all valid.

I agree with you: I am respectful of bears, and walk with a high degree of awareness, but I don't stay out of the woods. In fact, their presence makes me a little more alive as I walk; I'm more immersed in the landscape and the experience. To me, wild bears are a true symbol of wilderness. If you want to visit true wilderness, expect the possibility of bears in the area. Otherwise, drive to the mall and go a-shopping.

It's worth noting that extensive efforts are taken in Canadian Parks to keep bears truly wild. I support that wholeheartedly; my camps are a model of 'bear discipline.' Bears outside the parks can be a mixed bag, since they can be exposed to sloppily-disposed-of human garbage and non-natural food sources. A habituated bear can become a very serious problem, because their behaviour is less predictable.

In Alaska, the bear researchers do carry guns.

Making yourself smaller in any bear encounter seems a bad idea from everything I have read in the past, unless already attacked by a brown bear (play dead). I take that from the myth talking about making oneself smaller in a bear encounter when cubs are nearby. That may be debateable.

In Alaska and in the SEKI area of California, some of the "myths" may not apply.

Bears are simply unpredictable. One woman (a park ranger or something, I think) walked around the curve of a trail and came face to face with a black bear. They stopped and looked at each other, the woman frozen in place (she knew not to run). The bear walked up to her on all fours, sniffed her hand, and walked away.

I agree that most bear attacks are probably caused by surprising a bear, getting between bear and cubs or between a bear and its kill.

And it depends on how recently it ate, and how much. In spring, just out of hibernation, and they haven't eaten for a few months, all bets are off. They tend to be cranky then.

Sue

I agree with Susan.

When I lived up north in a very small rural community, we would often find bears right in our backyard and in the forest and fields close by. Most times the bear would turn tail and run once they caught our scent.

Other times the bear would come in closer for a closer look and sniff then not pay attention to us at all and continue about it's business.

The odd occasion, a bear would be aggressive and start swinging it's head and with ears back, advance towards us. These are the bears to really watch for...they feel threatened and you need to be very careful to stay calm and give the bear as much room as possible...this also applies for any other types of bear encounter such as I wrote about above.

Picking "shot" huckleberries out on the Olympic Peninsula in the fall was always a bit touchy. You could here them, but you couldn't see them, and you had to whistle or something so they wouldn't come in too close. Inside of 50 yards dad would start throwing things at them and they would generally turn and evade, but once in a while we would have to grab our buckets and run for the VW bus.

You thought dogs was funny when they get a mouth full of peanut butter, you should see ole blackie when his chops get loaded up. First time I ever seen peanut butter foam, heh heh heh...pretty good way to get a bear to stop following you around for a while, he gets preoccupied with clearing his snout out. Mix a goodly dollup of honey in with the jar, and they'll find it a lot more irresistable than the taste of your hide.

Yep, just a few months ago in Utah, that young child was surgically removed from his tent and partially eaten a few hundred feet from the tent by a black bear.

In the Alaska grizzly killing of the couple sleeping in their tent on the banks of a river a year or so ago...someone in the vicinity after the killings was stalked by the same bear. The person was in a boat and the bear just kept following along the bank waiting for a way to get at them. Those stories are scary.

I don't know the details of either case but I have a suspicion, especially with the black bear example you mentioned, it has something to do with FOOD. Properly storing food will dramatically lower your chances of encountering a bear.

IIRC, seems to me a dbl barrel 12 ga wired for 110 with a light bulb strapped to the muzzle is a pretty effective bear stopper, or at least deterrant. Gotta make sure you either shoot em in the head or the butt, though. Never seen a bear run screaming into the night like that before.

Hummm, where have I seen that before?????

This is a good article on the attack.

Thanks for the link Sherpadog. In the article they mention bears can smell food for miles and then say they're not sure what caused the attack. Could be wrong but my guess is the boy had food on him and the bear was after it. They'll even go for an empty pack of M&M's (story I read about in Backpacker). Terrible for the family, sucks for the bear.

The boy probably did have some crumbs or something. The Alaska couple were experienced and didn't have food in or near their tent. They also had a gun in the tent and were not able to use it.

That's why your walking stick has to have a very good point on the end. Hmm, pork!

Yet another reason why I sleep in a tent with my 44 laid across my chest out in the back country. Yup, better'n a security blanket...

Javelina can be downright dangerous to be around. A sow with young'uns will come after anything that even looks like it could make a meal out of one of them. My mom's scottie dogs have learnt to leave the pigs out back (she lives in Tucson) alone, or at best bark at them from a distance, and from behind the fence. Scottie dogs cannot outrun a Javelina!

Pig sticking, now there's a job! I knew a Houston cop that would take a rottweiler and a bulldog out pig hunting. He'd put the bulldog on the pig's snout, and the rotty would grab a hindleg, and while the dogs had the pig stretched out and pre-occupied, he'd come up and poke a hole or two up between the neck and shoulder or else up behind the third rib. He said the biggest one he got was over 400 lbs, and that bulldog was having the ride of his life, but never let go, yee-ha!!!

Don was carrying a 30-06 and was watching a deer trail from a stump. He did get a shot off but we still do not know if the bear was hit, the bear has not been found and is probably in hibernation now as it has been very cold up here for the last 2 weeks. It appears the reason for the attack was the bear had a cache in the area which I can only assume that Don was unaware of as it seems like he was blind sided.

Darwin award? I can't imagine how you come up with that!

Well, an '06 is certaintly enough gun. It just goes to show that no matter what preparations you make, the possibility of getting into a jam is always present. I personally find that part of the charm of being in the outdoors. I'm sure that is small comfort to his family and friends though....

I totally agree. Every part of being in the bush is appealing even having to stay on your toes.
Thanks for your thoughts.