Reposted in chat rather than news. Former thread is here if you wish to read comments.
I went to Yellowstone in the mid-80’s before the fire. Hardly a grizzly ever in sight.
Went again in 2011 and they were everywhere. Amazing how the population has skyrocketed.
Bear spray doesn’t work either - a guy got killed in the Tetons last year I believe and he used a ton of it.
When visiting Yellowstone, pack
there fixed it
I’ll just pack my lucky ham.
Ping!
We went to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons last summer. We saw one grizzly in Yellowstone, mama black bear and cubs in the Tetons and grizzly mama and cubs in the Tetons. We didn’t buy bear spray but saw some for rent in the cafe/gift shop area.
Old joke about telling grizzlies from black bears.
First, the ranger warned that anyone in the back country should wear a bell to give audible notice to the bears, and carry bear spray.
You tell grizzlies from black bears by the scat. Black bear scat has berries, nut hulls and small animal skins in it.
Grizzly scat has small bells and smells like bear spray.
Pack biggest revolver you can handle. (because you’ll want to get off a second shot before the bear is on your lap)
will not be going there-—too much excitement for me
Something which is well known but for some reason ignored, is that more people die from black bear attacks than all others combined.
Not sure if that is just the U.S. or world wide.
I don’t even go where there are TSA agents, never mind where there are grizzly bears. Wouldn’t go to Yellowstone without at least a flame thrower. And John McClane.
When visiting your inlaws, pack bear spray.
One major advantage of firearms v. bear spray is that with firearms, the bear is usually killed. It cannot go on to threaten and kill other humans.
Bear attacks are so rare, that if all the attacking bears were killed, it would not significantly effect the bear populations.
It would only mean less bear hunting permits would be issued.
Bear populations must be kept in check, and human intervention is the best way to do so.
“Non-lethal bear spray — carried in a cartridge resembling a small fire extinguisher — expels “a fine cloud of Capsicum derivatives to temporarily reduce a bear’s ability to breath, see, and smell,” according to the National Park Service. “
What they neglect to tell you is that bear spray won’t repel a hungry or mad Grizzly. It just won’t work.
We just came home from Yellowstone yesterday. We saw 5 bears, from much closer than the recommended 100 yards. That’s because they were all on the side of the road. The first was a young bear grazing near a bridge. People had gathered to look at him... I figured the guard rail would inhibit him if he attacked. But he just kept grazing. The second was a young adult bear on the side of the road, stalking three antelopes that were on the other side of the road. I tried to get my camera out for the perfect shot, but he ran across the road. Meanwhile, the antelopes ran away parallel to the road, and by the time the bear got across the road, he seemed to have lost sight of them. We didn’t stick around to see if he would find them again—while watching a hunting bear would have been exciting, we were also part of a traffic jam. A bit further along the road, there was a mama with two yearling cubs, right by the road. We got nice pictures, then continued to drive very slowly (in case one of the cubs darted into the road). I should specify that the only time we got out of the car was to see the bear by the bridge, since we could not see what everyone was looking at. For all of the other bears, we stayed in the car with the windows up.
We could be upset because we were looking for moose and never did find any. But we saw a buffalo cow that had JUST given birth, dozens of other buffalo, several bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, elk, deer, and five black bears on that same day. So we really have nothing to complain about. (I still want to see a moose.)
