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U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- There has been a spate of bear vs people conflicts in Idaho from July through September of 2021. Three of them happened near Island Park, which is in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). A sow with at least one cub mauled a hiker on July 10, 2021.From ksl.com:Although the bear that Whitney estimated between 350 and 400 pounds began to swing its claws and biting him, he lay in the fetal position and covered his head and neck. The bear’s cub stayed a short distance away from the attack.“All I could hear is the growling and I honestly...

As part of AmmoLand’s investigative journalism, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed this bear attack which happened in Wyoming, in 2010.On 14 August 2010, in the Union Pass area, on Forest Service Road 693 near Fish Creek in west-central Wyoming, a family group was camping. One of the children reported they had seen a dead calf near the creek.Two members of the group armed themselves to investigate. The creek was about 300 yards from the campsite. They were unsure if the calf were dead or merely sleeping. If the calf were dead, they would need to keep the...

On the evening of 22 September 2005, a hunting guide and his hunter, who was from Ohio, were attacked without provocation, by a grizzly bear in the Shoshone National Forest in the northwest corner of Wyoming. The details of the attack were found in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response to AmmoLand. This correspondent has not found any other published account of this attack. The hunter had been drawn for an archery tag for elk, with his friends. The hunter had been assigned a guide by the licensed outfitter. On the morning of 22 September, the guide had decided...

While searching for events where pistols were fired to defend against bears, I came across several references to an event that happened to Larry Kelly of Magnaport fame, in Alaska. The event was described by him in full, first-person detail. There were several variations online. Some claimed the event showed how ineffective pistols were for defense against bears. Several claimed the ammunition was at fault. Here is an example from thefiringline.com:Several years ago I read a story about Larry Kelly, owner of Magna-Port and hundgun hunter Hall of Famer, has told a story about having to share a hunting cabin...

A 55-year-old man was mauled to death by a wild bear in the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, a senior official said on Wednesday. The incident took place on Tuesday evening in the forest near Bagoha village, said the reserve's field director Uttam Kumar Sharma.

Montana wildlife officials shot and killed a grizzly bear early Friday morning that was believed to have dragged a woman from her tent in Montana earlier this week and killed her. The bear was killed less than two miles from Ovando, a Montana town of fewer than 100 people and the place the woman was killed Tuesday morning. “Last night, the Powell County Sheriff’s Office took a report from a resident who came home and found her door ripped off and large claw marks were present,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook Friday. “A short time later a male grizzly...

A local resident in the city of Sapporo, which is due to host the Olympic Marathon and Olympic Race Walking events at this summer's Tokyo Games, first reported sighting a bear on a road in the early hours of the morning. Soon after, Hokkaido police tweeted they were on the lookout for the bear, writing that since the sighting, many others had reported seeing the bear and that people had been injured. Local police said the bear attacked three men, one of whom was seriously injured, and a woman in her 80s, according to NHK. At around 11 a.m., the...

On the East Fork of the Wind River, near Lander, Wyoming, three bow hunters were walking to their hunting grounds, bows in hand. An old boar grizzly suddenly charged them from a few yards left of their approach. The bow hunters had set up base camp the day before at the East Fork trailhead. The next morning, they rode horses six miles up the trail, turned west, and rode uphill until the terrain was too steep for the horses. At about 7:30, they dismounted and continued up the steep slope of the trail on foot, in line.Wind River Peak from...

TRIMBLE, Colo. (KDVR) — Colorado Parks and Wildlife said a woman was found dead off U.S. Highway 550 after a suspected bear attack on Friday. According to her boyfriend, the 39-year-old victim was believed to have gone walking with her two dogs earlier Friday, La Plata County Sheriff’s office said. Her boyfriend told police he got home around 8:30 p.m. and the dogs were present but his girlfriend was not there. After searching for her, he found her body around 9:30 p.m. and called 911. When CPW wildlife officers responded, they found signs of consumption on the body and an...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On the afternoon of 15 April 2021, Carl Mock was attacked by a grizzly bear near Baker’s Hole Campground in Gallatin County, Montana. The campground is a few miles from the town of West Yellowstone, near an entrance to Yellowstone Park. Mock was able to dial 911. Several agencies responded to the call at about 3:42 p.m. The first responders were able to find Mock after about 50 minutes of searching.Mock had “sustained significant scalp and facial injuries” according to the Gallatin County Sheriff Search and Rescue Facebook page. Localnews8.com gave more details of the injuries:Authorities say the...

Before I graduated from high school, I overheard the older brother of a close friend talking about shooting a bear. The bear had been discovered in a den, during the Wisconsin deer season. As I recall, in 1968, such a harvest would have been legal.The older brother was a Vietnam veteran. He approached the den with another vet. The brother suggested the other vet poke into the den to see if the bear were still there.The other veteran said no, he would not do it. The brother said, well, in Vietnam, you went into holes to get Charlie.Whereupon, the other...

Grizzly BearKen Ledeau is a semi-retired trucker who rented a cabin near Dupuyer, Montana. He loved the area, the views, and the wildlife he would see while walking for exercise. He would walk up and down a finger ridge on one side of Dupuyer Creek drainage. The land was mostly open on the ridge, while the creek had dense stands of willow trees and other vegetation.Ken was 59 years old when the bear attacked him.Neighbors in the Dupuyer area had warned him about the dangers of grizzly bears in the area. He had taken their advice and was carrying a...

A black bear attacked a woman and her two dogs in Collier County on Christmas Eve morning. Kathleen Boyle said Friday that her two dogs, one ironically named Bear, and her other pup, Robin, helped save her from a bear they ran into on their morning walk in the Fiddler’s Creek community. “It wasn’t until probably 11:30, 12 o’clock that I stopped shaking,” Boyle said. “Because it was that trauma, ‘I can’t believe this just happened.’” Boyle’s two Westies are show dogs, but they didn’t worry about manners when a bear approached them and their owner. “So here you’ve got...

While researching pistol uses in self-defense from bears, I noticed the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) bear mortality database listed a self-defense killing on 8 August of 2009. The database did not indicate what kind of firearm might have been used. Years later, Bridger Petrini gave me a lead to the person who had been attacked and had defended himself with a .41 magnum single-action revolver.Tanner Allen, who lives in Wyoming, is an accomplished hunting dog trainer and dog breeder. His hounds are sought after by big game hunters to improve their packs. They are noted for their ability to trail...

“An Investigation of Factors Influencing Bear Spray Performance” was published on 1 October 2020 in the Journal of Wildlife Management. The lead investigator was Tom Smith, of Brigham Young University.Tom Smith is well known for his publications on bear spray and firearms effectiveness when dealing with bears.Tom Smith graciously supplied me with a copy of the full paper, which shows all the results of the study. The study provides useful information, which can help in choosing between bear spray and other systems, such as firearms, as well as in understanding some of the limitations of bear spray under different...

Image screenshot of a video from wfla.com, by Keith Parker 1 September, 2020 Lake Tahoe, CA. Cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten Large black bear entering convenience store. Not the bear shot in the story. The above picture was taken about 25-30 miles from where a black bear was shot by the homeowner in Galena, Nevada, a bit South of Reno. That is an easy day travel distance for a bear. The bear pictured is not the bear that was shot.On June 19, at about 2:30 a.m., a homeowner in Galena, Nevada, just south of Reno, head noises as if...

In the 23 years Bill and Stephanie Williams have owned a cabin in Creede, Colorado they never had any problems with animals on their property. But that all changed on the night of July 23 after an encounter with a 250-pound black bear that crashed into the Conroe couple’s cabin. Bill Williams was able to bring down the bear with a rifle but it was a harrowing night they won’t soon forget. The Williams have lived in Conroe for 27 years. Stephanie Williams is a watercolor artist and in the 1990s she met fellow watercolor artist Stephen Quiller who was...

Most conflicts between bears and humans are not reported to the authorities. Of those which are reported, only a small number are reported in the local or national media. Of those reported in the media, many do not include information about the firearms used. A few months ago, Editor-in-Chief Fredy Rehl of AmmoLand News and I were discussing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests which might result in information of interest to AmmoLand News readers. I suggested FOIA requests be submitted to agencies dealing with bear attacks. Fredy's persistence and hard work have borne fruit. A FOIA request to the...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On 29 July, 2020, Daniel Schilling went to clear trail about a mile from his cabin in Alaska. His dog returned home without him. His wife was very concerned. Searchers found his body, killed by a bear, where he was working. An empty can of bear spray, with the safety off, which had been discharged at the site, was also found. From adfg.alaska.gov: August 6, 2020 (Anchorage) – Employees of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) responded to the location of a fatal bear attack that occurred Wednesday, July 29, near the community of Hope, to...

Stephanie Blais, 44, was killed on Thursday after she was attacked by the black bear outside the cabin at McKie Lake, near Buffalo Narrows . Blais had been on the phone with her father, Hubert Esquirol, at the time of the attack. Her nine-year-old son watched horrifically from inside the cabin . A conservation officer said that the bear attack was unprovoked. They also said the bear was not hungry and had a stomach full of berries. A Canadian woman was fatally mauled by a bear while outside her family's cabin while on the phone with her father, and to...