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Two people were hospitalized after being attacked by a bear in Slovakia, officials reported Sunday. The Environment Ministry may propose making the animals easier to hunt to reduce their population. A 49-year-old woman suffered a wound to her shoulder and a 72-year-old man was treated for a gash on his hand from the bear in the town of Liptovsky Mikuláš, emergency services said. Police drove the bear out of town.. A day prior to the latest attack, a 31-year-old Belarussian woman apparently fell to her death trying to escape a brown bear in the nearby Low Tatra mountains. She and...

The mere thought of scaling a mountain is terrifying enough for some, but throw a literal wild bear into the mix and the situation escalates to a whole new level of scary.. ... scrambled up enough rocky slopes and edged along enough narrow pathways to know that it requires a lot of attention. Sometimes just trying to hold a conversation without losing your balance is challenging enough, so I can't imagine what it must be like trying to fend for your own life. One person who can, and who actually succeeded in this area, is a climber who found themselves...

A Pennsylvania woman is recovering in a hospital after a vicious assault by a mother bear .. The incident reportedly took place around 8:30 p.m. just outside the victim’s house. Lee Ann Galante, 55, stepped out to let her dog, a small black Pomeranian, enjoy the backyard, ... With injuries across her arm, face, neck and head, Galante’s condition necessitated urgent medical attention, police said,.. She was rushed to the nearby hospital following the attack ... "I thought I was going to die." A woman who was hospitalized after being mauled . ... Galante shared her ordeal from her hospital...

From 2007 to the present (2023), there have been more fatal bear attacks in Japan than in the United States. It is possible there have been more total bear attacks in Japan than in the United States, but records of total attacks are not as clear. Through the end of October of 2023, there were 180 bear attacks where a person was injured in Japan. From JapanNews:Tokyo, Nov. 1 (Jiji Press)—The number of people attacked by bears in Japan between April and October totaled 180, already a record high on a fiscal year basis since the statistics started in fiscal...

A 73-year-old woman was hospitalized after she was attacked by a bear west of Glacier National Park and just south of the U.S.-Canadian Border.. KALISPELL, Mont. — A 73-year-old woman was hospitalized after she was attacked by a bear west of Glacier National Park and just south of the U.S. Canadian border over the weekend, Montana wildlife officials said Monday. The woman, her husband and a dog were in the Flathead National Forest Sunday afternoon when a bear emerged from thick brush and attacked her, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks ... The woman was flown to the...

Two people and their dog were found dead at Banff National Park on Saturday after a grizzly bear attack. A GPS device alerted Parks Canada on Friday night, indicating a bear attack was happening within the Red Deer River Valley region west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch in Canada’s Banff National Park... Due to poor weather conditions, an emergency team reportedly could not fly to the location via helicopter, so they traveled by ground during the night. When the team arrived at the scene, they reportedly found two individuals who were deceased and ... The victim’s identities have not been...

A woman was found dead after an apparent encounter with a grizzly bear near Yellowstone National Park in Montana on Saturday. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) said investigators confirmed grizzly bear tracks at the scene, adding the investigation is ongoing. The woman was discovered on the Buttermilk Trail, an area about eight miles west of West Yellowstone. The Custer Gallatin National Forest, which borders Yellowstone in southeastern Montana, issued an emergency closure of the area “for human safety.”

U.S.A. – In Italy, Andrea Papi, a young man running for exercise, was killed by an aggressive European brown bear. European brown bears are essentially the same species as American grizzly/brown bears. From Nature World News: Fear and rage spread throughout the area after Andrea Papi was fatally attacked by the aggressive bear while jogging above the town of Caldes in the Brenta Dolomites on the slopes of Mt. Peller. Papi is the first Italian reported to have died in the last few years at the hands of a bear. In Italy, bears are a protected species, and since they...

In Jasper National Park of Canada, in the Province of Alberta, a couple’s beloved pet was taken by a black bear and killed in a predatory attack. Bear spray was used at very close range, directly into the bear’s face. Then the empty can of spray was used as an ineffective impact weapon. It did not work well. The predatory black bear took the dog into the woods and killed it without remorse or thought. A bear, when hungry, is not a friend to other animals. The other animals, including other bears, are just a source of meat.From ParksCanada (facebook):Parks...

A bit after noon on February 27 at Vestpynten in the Svalbard Archipelago (administered by Norway), far north of the arctic circle, a polar bear was shot during a conflict with people and dogs. Vestpynten is a small village in the Archipelago roughly 90 miles North and a bit West of Longyerbyen.The incident report was uncovered with a Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. Individual names have been redacted. The report was translated into English, so it has been edited for readability, and fictitious names have been substituted. From the FOIA account, incident 162:The bear was observed around...

As the research into how effective pistols are when used as a defense against bears has progressed, a startling progression has been observed. The recorded use of pistols in defense against bears has grown by two orders of magnitude in recent decades.As pistols came into common use, they were almost certainly used in defense against animal attacks. Portable, reasonably reliable pistols, which could be used as a defensive weapon against an unexpected attack, were unavailable until about 1534 when wheellock pistols became available. They were relatively expensive. Arms of the period were commonly privately owned. Some were likely used in...

Salmon on My Mind, by Francis E. Caldwell, 197 p. Lighthouse Press, 2004 They spotted a flock of goldeneye ducks and made a plan to get within range of the birds. The plan involved rounding a long spit of land in their skiff, then crossing the spit to come up on the ducks. Paul was running the outboard motor. As the skiff grounded on the beach, Frank jumped out to tie up the boat to an alder at the edge of the brush.From page 124 of Salmon on My Mind:I carried a Remington pump shotgun. Paul had a rusty, beat-up...

In 2020, Mike Becwar was, without provocation, attacked by a cinnamon black bear in Alaska. He fought back with a folding knife and survived. This is his story. On May 29, 2020, Mike was going stir-crazy. This was during the COVID restrictions. He had been pushed to extend two weeks longer than the usual period in the remote camp at Pump Station Number 5.He had to get out of the camp to relieve stress. He chose to take a run along the road to the camp airport, around the runway, and back into camp, about a 3 1/2 mile run....

In the research done by this correspondent and colleagues, much credit must be given to those who sent detailed information about bear attacks and pistol defenses. As incidents of defense against bears with pistols mounted, some did not have enough information to be considered documented. One of those was mentioned by Warden Louis Kis in “More Alaskan Bear Tales” by Larry Kaniut on page 276. In previous articles, it was mentioned as an incident requiring more information. Readers were asked to provide information. The information was presented thus:Early 1960s, North Fork of the the Flathead river in Montana, .22 H&R...

On July 20, 1993, near Paulabren, Norway, three people fought off a polar bear using two handguns. Paulabren is part of the Svalbard archipelago, under Norwegian administration, north of the arctic circle, south of Longyearbyen. This story was uncovered as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. The names of the individuals involved were redacted. The original account is a translation. Names have been added to make the report more understandable. The report has been lightly edited for ease in reading. The attack was by a single sow polar bear, on polar researchers in their camp.From...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On October 11, 2022, a Washington State resident and his wife were hunting birds on block grant land near a creek bottom, with their dogs, in Choteau, Montana. They were charged by a large grizzly bear boar. The 51-year-old doctor was hit by the bear and his lower leg was broken. The doctor defended himself with his shotgun and his sidearm, a 10 mm pistol.Block grant land in Montana is privately owned land on which the landowner has signed a contract with the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP). The contracts vary but provide access to...

The bear who attacked the Bates family was a sow about 20 years old, estimated at 350 lbs. It was starving, with nothing in the stomach but parasites. The attack occurred as the Bates family, Weatherly Bates, her husband, their 12-year-old son, Rockwell, their 10-year-old daughter Vera, and two family dogs, on leashes, were hiking on the Glacier Moraine Trail in Kachemak Bay State park.Weatherly Bates had a .40 caliber S&W in her backpack. The bear came at them at about 3 p.m., even though they yelled at it and bunched together.Weatherly Bates explains what happened:“It did attack. It was...

A 9-year-old boy was seriously injured by a brown bear while hunting north of Anchorage, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday. Troopers said the bear attacked two people — a 41-year-old male and a 9-year-old boy — near mile 36 of the Glenn Highway, at the end of Matanuska Townsite Road on Tuesday. The man and young boy came across a brown bear sow and her cub while hunting in the Palmer Hay Flats area. The bear mauled the boy, leaving him with serious injuries. The adult who was accompanying the child was armed and shot and killed the brown bear...

Detailed, official information has surfaced about the defensive use of a pistol failure involving a .22 pistol and a polar bear in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. One of the three documented cases where a pistol was fired to defend from a bear and failed was the sad tale of crew passengers from the tour/expedition ship Origo in the summer of 1995. The event, as related in a travel guide, was documented on AmmoLand. There were several other sources that corroborated the event; the details were from the travel guide.As part of ongoing research to discover documented cases where pistols...

On August 6, 2022, at about 1 p.m., a hiker In Jasper National Park was approached to within about 100 feet by a black bear. The hiker was carrying a 20 gauge shotgun. He fired a warning shot, which did not dissuade the bear. He continued down the trail a short way, only to discover the bear had stalked closer to him. He fired a slug at the bear. The bear was hit and rolled down a creek bank toward a stream. From CBC.ca:A person called Jasper Dispatch to report their friend had shot a black bear with a 20-gauge...