Bears in national parks

kowalskil · Post by **kowalskil** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 8:06 am

Bears in National Parks

A recent bear incident in Alaska reminded me of our own camping episode. This happened during our long cross-country driving trip, summer of 1970. My wife Linda and I visited most National Parks. It was a great summer; we covered 11,000 miles in nine weeks. Once or twice a week we had the luxury of a motel; otherwise we camped, sleeping is a small tent. In our photo album, which Is now in front of me, i see this note, issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior:

"Like all animals in our National Parks, bears are wild animals.Because of their protected status they have lost their fear of man. While this may make them appear tame, actually in this state they are more dangereous. ..."

The episode I am describing took place near Crater Lake, in the State of Oregon. In the morning, crawling out of our blue canvas tent we discovered numerous bear footprints all around. A young Danish man, who slept on the ground in his sleeping bag, told us that he was awakened at night by a bear sniffing at his face. The black bear was also scared and moved away toward our tent. The outcome could have been very different if it were a grizzly.

The album has three pictures of black bears we encountered in Yellowstone National Park. One of them shows a mother bear with her cub. It was probably taken from the car; I would not have dared to approach them so closely on the ground.

Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)

profile==> Ludwik's books

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:00 am

A large part of my teens was spent in Montana and I saw many a bear while tramping around the woods. 99% of the time it was the north end of the south bound bear I saw as they wanted nothing to do with me. The only time I had a close encounter was when a youngster robbed me of my stringer of fish one day. I bet he was following me all morning waiting for me to catch enough to be worth stealing.

Sadly some encounters with people don't go as well. Bears don't understand that what they consider a good thrashing to teach a lesson is often fatal to people.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:50 am

Your link didn't say anything about bears, but we have had many deadly encounters every year in a few provinces.

Campers must learn the do's and don't when they know they're around but most do, however, we have had several attacks and deaths whether it be on hiking trails or their campsite.

and welcome from Canada!

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:02 am

A red deer marked our tent while we were camping on Beinn Fhada but I will concede that's not quite the same as having a bear do it.

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 1:25 pm

I was watchin "Goldrush Alaska" and was really pissed off when these guys went out and hunted down that bear and shot him.. I mean WTF??? It was that little **** who kept leaving his food out attracting the bear in the firts place, and the the bear was not in "their camp", those pack of morons were in the bears territory.

They should have fed that idiot kid to the bear.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:33 pm

mikeinie;1363687 wrote: I was watchin "Goldrush Alaska" and was really pissed off when these guys went out and hunted down that bear and shot him.. I mean WTF??? It was that little **** who kept leaving his food out attracting the bear in the firts place, and the the bear was not in "their camp", those pack of morons were in the bears territory.

They should have fed that idiot kid to the bear.

Oh my god, I had no idea, your correct, they should have fed that kid to bear:-5

Post by **LarsMac** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:40 pm

I found this a while back.

Thought it was pretty funny, can't can't speak to its veracity.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 4:11 pm

That one I like - a lot

It says all that needs to be said whilst not telling anything at all.

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:19 pm

LarsMac;1363696 wrote: I found this a while back.

Thought it was pretty funny, can't can't speak to its veracity.

British Columbia which is 4 provinces east of Ontario where I live is having havoc with bears everywhere, they have now resorted to having 24/7 patrols on guard in some towns.

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 8:58 pm

I was watchin "Goldrush Alaska" and was really pissed off when these guys went out and hunted down that bear and shot him.. I mean WTF??? It was that little **** who kept leaving his food out attracting the bear in the firts place, and the the bear was not in "their camp", those pack of morons were in the bears territory.

They should have fed that idiot kid to the bear.

What do you expect from that pack of rednecks? Hell, that show was all hollywood anyway. The only reason I watched was because I had a good time laughing at those idiots. It was fake as hell too.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 8:35 am

kowalskil;1363628 wrote: [CENTER]Bears in National Parks

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Bears what In National Parks ?