Posted on 07/25/2011 8:28:15 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
A grizzly bear sow with a cub attacked a group of teenagers on a month-long survival-skills course Saturday night in the Talkeetna Mountains, causing severe injuries to two of the hikers, according to Alaska State Troopers.
(snip)
The group was on the 24th day of a 30-day backpacking trip, school spokesman Bruce Palmer said by phone from Wyoming. It was the group's first day unaccompanied by adult instructors, Palmer said.
"For the last bit of the course, we would have them travel as a student group without the instructors, utilizing the skills that they've learned over time," Palmer said.
(snip)
The seven group members were in a line, calling out to make noise as they crossed the creek, Palmer said. The first hiker had apparently made it out of the water and was out of sight of the others when he began screaming, Palmer said.
The grizzly mauled the teen, attacked another group member, then returned to the first victim, Palmer said.
"It sounds like it was moving around within the group," Palmer said. The hikers carried three canisters of bear spray, but there was no initial indication that the hikers used the repellent, Palmer said.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Hey man, get you some of that spray and you will never hae to be scared again!
LOL! I’m sure those warnings on the can, telling the user to discard leaking cans and not to spill it around camp, is because it makes good bear bait. (Especially the user)
I hear what you’re saying and agreed with two other posters about either an adult being present or at least one or two of the kids being armed. The ones not under attack could have shot the bear when it went after the next person, etc.
As far as would bear spray help once an attack is under way?
The answer is yes, it has been documented on at least 3 separate occasions, all with grizzly bears. On one of those occasions the two men were armed with rifles. One was attacked when they came upon a grizzlies cache, the other got behind a tree and tried to take aim.
He couldn’t get a clean shot lined up. The guy being attacked managed to get his bear spray out of it’s holster on his belt and spray the bear. the bear left immediately.
All these attacks are considered “defensive”, a bear protecting it’s cache or cubs or just getting upset that people are to close.
Most predatory attacks by brown bears on humans happen at night in camp. I would not want to try and spray a bear in my tent as I would surely be a victim of the bear spray myself!
As for Psycho and friends, who refer to studies on ballistics and bears but not bear spray. Well in Alaska especially there is a stigma attached to bear spray due largely to the work of animal rights wackos “defenders of wildlife” and their absurd push to convince hunters to use bear spray instead of bullets when in the wild.
Anyway, thanks for a thoughtful and intelligent response. I appreciate it.
Eska, I believe everything you wrote about your encounters with black bears. I would love to see the pics.
But the Poconos is the best habitat on earth for black bears.
They grow them big here because there are no brown bears to compete with or get killed by, and because the the fruit and nut crop is so damn good to go along with the great forest cover.
Studies suggest that predatory black bears are more common in remote areas where they are less familiar with humans.
We both know PA isn’t remote.
Anyway I have yet to encounter a predatory black bear.
Priceless....I’m gonna print this and give to my Park-roving wife (been trying to get her to ‘pack’ here) when hiking.
Hell. Your talking about it scares the crap out of me.
I remember when my Sons were very little, I would have recurring dreams about a hugh polar bear stalking us around a playground, and my desperate attempts to get away from it with my boys.
Nope. Them bears can keep their area. No problem.
Photobucket has a little box below the picture with the HTML coding ready to copy and paste. Just scroll over your desired picture, and the list will appear. Just copy & paste in to your reply.
Bump and mark for later.
AWWWW SO CUTE!!
(But, I wouldn’t want to be ‘round them for feeding time)
I hate to say, I understand that quite well. Liberals have biased me horribly on any number of things they advocate for. If a Lib told me the sky was blue, I'd double check it.
Seeya around, and go Palin!
I guess not. Thank you for the info.
That sounds like a handgun and shot gun are inadequate.
375 H&H is pretty hefty. How about a .45/70?
BS. I lived in Alaska.
Show me one picture from Alaska with grass as tall as that.
Just look up the pictures of the fool that was living with the bears, they ate his ass.
Nobody was mowing this meadow.
Just show me one picture with grass as you described.
I cannot open the flick picture (blocked at work).
The tobinphoto shows bear cubs with grass up to their shoulder. That is not grass above a man’s head.
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