What's for dessert?
Posted on 08/28/2012 7:50:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Officials have reviewed photos taken by a San Diego man of a grizzly bear in Alaska's Denali National Park just before the animal killed him.
Richard White, 49, was standing 50 to 100 yards away from the bear that ultimately mauled him Friday, according to images found on his camera, park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said. He is the first person to die in a bear attack in the history of the park, which covers 4.7-million acres.
Hikers are typically advised to stay at least 300 yards away from a bear, McLaughlin said.
The bear, which weighed an estimated 600 pounds, was shot and killed by a state trooper as he was defending the spot where White's remains were found.
The incident began Friday afternoon when three hikers found a camera, a backpack and evidence of a violent struggle, including torn clothing and blood, along the Toklat River. They reported what they found to park rangers, who sent a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft to search for White, officials said.
Rangers in the helicopter determined that the bear had dragged White's remains from a flat expanse along the river to a more secluded brushy area 150 yards away, where it stored its food.
Investigators determined the bear had killed White after reviewing the bear's stomach contents, the images on the camera and other evidence, officials said. The pictures showed the bear foraging in the brush along the Toklat River, McLaughlin said.
"For a good [part] of that time, the bear was unaware that anyone was there," McLaughlin said. "There were no dramatic signs of aggression."
Park officials imposed an emergency closure prohibiting all hiking and camping in that portion of the park and others nearby until further notice.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Stuff and Nonsense. The photographer was simply using the wrong lens.
The proper lens for Grizzly comes in a belted case and begins at .338 although some more experienced Grizzly photographers recommend the .375 or even .416 as minimal.
Click!
Click!
Click click!
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
Flash! Click!
SILENCE!! I KEEL You!!
Click click click flash click!!!
Aaargh..
A couple of years ago, Mom and Dad went to Wyoming. Among other impressive sites, they saw herds of buffalo. Apparently, they roam all over the place out there, including across the roads.
They were stopped, and waiting for a few, including a Mother and her calves to cross the road right in front of them, when an idiot tourist family in a minivan behind them.....
......opened the van and sent their CHILDREN outside, to POSE with "cute baby buffalos".
Dad caused quite a stink when he grabbed the kids and got them into his car, fortunately before anyone was hurt. After the buffalo had ambled off (he said that the mother stopped and watched everyone until the calves were well away from the road) he let the kids out (obviously) and chewed on the driver of the minivan until he got tired of it.
The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me.
A shame that happened, but-if 300 yards is the recommended distance to maintain from the animal, there is a reason-it is a BEAR, damnit. And if you want pictures, that is why telephoto lenses were invented. Humans and wild animals were not meant to occupy the same space at the same time...
When I was a teenager, I was fishing with my dad. We were hiking out on a logging road when we came across a freshly killed bear cub. It had been hit by a logging truck (we'd seen the truck not 5 minutes before) and we knew that Momma Bear was still close by.
It was the only time I've seen my father scared, in 40-odd years. It was the fastest, and quietest, hike out that I've ever done, before or since.
My wife and I had essentially the same situation happen in Yellowstone back in 1991. We were on our way through the park coming in from the Cook City entrance, when we came upon a Cadillac stopped in the road with two buffalo standing beside it; one on each side of the car. It was obvious the buffalo wanted to move down to the stream to our left, but the car interrupted their movement, then stopped between them.
The passenger door opens and a woman gets out and proceeds to take a photo of the buffalo on her side. The buffalo couldn’t have been more than 6-8’ from her. My wife and I sat there dumb struck. Luckily, she got back into the car which drove off. We sat there until the two buffalo moved off toward the stream, Then drove off. What idiots.
Obviously those folks did not realize that even young Bison are unpredictable, temperamental and dangerous-when my brother and I were kids, an uncle had a “pet” Brahma bull that was supposedly “gentle”, but the creature chased us over fences, across pastures and up into trees every time we ventured within sight. And that was just a garden variety, domestic bovine...
Buffalo #2: "Yeah, but she was driving a nice Cadillac....didn't want to take the chance of scratching the paint."
Buffalo #1: "Yeah. Some People, hunh?"
...And so on. Sounds to me like (barring you and your wife) the Buffalo were the smartest ones there.
When I was only a little kid, my uncle had a mean old Bull that chased me out of the pasture.
The next time I came to visit, we ate him. (the bull, not my uncle).
Mom and Dad were worried what I'd think, me being only a tad. I didn't care, thought that the steak was delicious. And, it was an excellent lesson for me in how the food chain works. :-)
We were both praying real hard that the buffalo didn’t attack. We were parked about 50 yards behind the car so it wasn’t far at all. We did NOT want to see that woman gored by the buffalo, reckless or not.
I was going to post the same thing, TexasCajun. I hate how they kill these animals because some photographer was an idiot.
I didn’t’ see any either.
lol
I got one too. About 10 years ago my family visited Glacier National Park and Waterton over on the Canadian side.
Driving along one of the highways we spotted a couple grizzle bear cubs. We passed by them to about maybe 150 yards away then broke out the spotting scope. They were just upslope of the road, but eventually wandered into the ditch next to the road. A car pulled up beside us, with a family of 4 Japanese tourist- mom, dad, and a boy and girl that looked to be about 6 and 4, respectively.
To our utter disbelief, they got out of the car, the dad grabbed a camera, and the mom pointed and (apparently) instructed the kids to go pose next to the cubs for a picture. My dad intercepted them before they got there. The Japanese guy started indignantly arguing with him in broken English.
The potential argument was headed off by momma bear appearing in the brush about 75 yards uphill from the cubs and crashing her way at an angle downslope and toward us at full speed bellowing. She stopped at the ditch. A truly terrifying and intimidating sight. The Japanese couple grabbed their kids and sped off down the highway. Momma bear looked us over, then walked back uphill with the cubs in tow. If we’d been closer Momma bear I suspect momma bear would’ve taken the charge all the way- there was never any preceding show of intimidation or attempt to recall her cubs— she just went for it. Seeing her charging like that made 150 yards seem like 25.
The Asian tourists (as in actually from Asian countries) in our wilderness areas drive me f*cking nuts, specifically the Japanese ones. At Logan Pass in Glacier National Park there are some plants that are only found on the pass. There’s a network of boardwalks installed so people don’t trample the plants. There are signs in the language of pretty much every potential visitor there, including Japanese, stating that the plants are incredibly rare, cannot survive much disturbance, and that people should stay on the boardwalks so as not to damage them, nor should they do anything to them. Despite this, there was a very harried ranger who was spending literally her entire time chasing Japanese tourists back onto the boardwalks and stopping them from picking the flowers. I’ve seen them exhibit similar behavior at Yellowstone, Jasper, Waterton; pretty much any wilderness area.
I don’t know what it is, must be something cultural, but the visitors from Asia, again, especially the Japanese, don’t seem to respect our wild lands whilst at the same time back home they hold mountains to be literally sacred. I just don’t get it. They also seem not to realize that wild animals can kill you, but I attribute that to most of them only having seen them in safe environments like a zoo or a TV documentary.
Can anyone help me understand what it is about Japanese tourists and disrespecting our wild lands? Seriously, they are, collectively, the worst-behaving group I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, some are just fine, but then again don’t get me started on the guy at a geyser in Yellowstone who jumped the fence and started chipping rocks off with a hammer to take back home...
This guy died from being an idiot...the bear died from being a bear. Does’nt seem fair!!
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