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Grizzly bear myth

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5K views 59 replies 23 participants last post by  freestoneangler 
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#1 ·
Few people live or play in grizzly bear country. The only grizzly in California is on their State flag. Many people are curious about these bears and there is plenty of misunderstanding about them. My favorite:

"If you are attacked by a grizzly, run down hill."

What dream whip for brains came up with this one?

Grizzlies are fast uphill or downhill. How fast? Well, the fastest human, and I'm referring to Olympic sprinters, can only run 25 mph, and then only for a very short distance. The typical in-shape human tops out at 11 mph.

Grizzlies are 30 mph sprinters.

You do the math.

Brown bear Carnivore Kodiak bear Grizzly bear Plant
 
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#4 ·
Adult Grizzlies can also climb trees IF there are decent branches like shown in your photo. They can also get quite a ways up a tree by just running and jumping. Most experts agree you need to be at least 13 feet off the ground and in a tree without a bunch of "ladder" branches to be safe. Of course those sorts of trees are pretty difficult for humans also.

Black bears can climb a smooth barked trees amazingly fast with no problem, so if you piss off a brown colored black bear and mistake it for a griz, you aren't out of danger by climbing a tree.
 
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#8 ·
Gene, while funny as hell, someone is going to quote you and declare the statement fact! They'll declare " I know it's true! I read it on the Internet!"

That hump, as you well know, is a mass of muscles that aid the bear for digging.
 
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#19 ·
Treadwell made a bunch of mistakes, but his biggest one was thinking that the Bears' tolerance of him was forever and applied to all bears. His eventual demise was predicted by many real bear experts, but the unfortunate part of the story is his girlfriend was killed because she believed Treadwell's BS.
 
#24 ·
Yup... after watching the documentary about the guy, it was obvious that he was an idiot and it was just a matter of time before he ran into hostile bear. And it was indeed a tragedy that his girlfriend become involved. According to the documentary, they had a rifle in the tent but for reasons never explained, she didn't use it when she heard Tim screaming when he was attacked.

Maybe she had no idea how to operate a firearm... it was never really explained.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Few people live or play in grizzly bear country. The only grizzly in California is on their State flag. Many people are curious about these bears and there is plenty of misunderstanding about them. My favorite:

"If you are attacked by a grizzly, run down hill."

What dream whip for brains came up with this one?

Grizzlies are fast uphill or downhill. How fast? Well, the fastest human, and I'm referring to Olympic sprinters, can only run 25 mph, and then only for a very short distance. The typical in-shape human tops out at 11 mph.

Grizzlies are 30 mph sprinters.

You do the math.

View attachment 105982
Not sure about Grizzlies......but I have heard that story about bears not running well downhill.

I had ONE bear running across a meadow directly at me on the level. It was an "out of body" experience. I distinctly remember looking down and thinking "that guy is going to get run over by that bear".

As Trapper says......bears run real fast. Mine was not a Grizzly. And I managed to finally let out a "scream" and he ran by about five feet away.

A peak life experience. May it never happen again.
 
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#30 ·
Not sure about Grizzlies......but I have heard that story about bears not running well downhill.
Vladimir, that's all it is; a story. It's complete bullshit. Bears can run just as fast downhill as on the level or uphill. The notion is that a bears front legs are shorter than their back legs, thus they can't run down hill.

It's simply not true that you can out run a bear if you run down hill. What will happen is the bear will chase you and knock you down.

No one forgets a close bear encounter. It sounds like you've got yours in the same part of your brain as I have mine. It's impossible to describe accurately to anyone who hasn't had one. When you can smell a bear's breath, you are way too close to it.

Encountering a grizzly while having a horse under you is also a memory that doesn't go away.
 
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#29 ·
Trapper,

Always enjoy your posts. I'd be curious to know what goes through your mind when frying up bacon in Griz country.
When I was up in the Alaska bush, in 5 weeks, I cooked 45 pounds of bacon. I wear an apron so I don't get my clothes coated in bacon grease.

I probably have gotten a bit complacent about bears in camp. I keep a clean camp and in some camps have a 7000 volt electric bear fence. I also keep a tactical Mossberg pump 12-gauge shotgun close - 8 rounds of slugs and buck shot.

One day in Alaska I walked down to where we hung the meat. There were 4 moose and 1 caribou hanging in this meat shed. There was fresh snow on the ground and when I got down there I could see where a grizzly had made a few laps around the building.

I'm standing there thinking. "OK, moron, you've got a tactical shotgun, a .45, and the outfitters .375 in the cook tent, and you head down to the bear bait with a butcher knife and a pan. Really?"

I slowly backed off while scanning the area around me. I returned to the meat shack with the 12-gauge.

I really worry more about Black bears tearing up my cook tent than grizzlies. But both have done it.

I've seen plenty of bears. I've seen more grizzlies than most people because most people don't spend much time in the wilderness areas of Montana or Alaska where grizzlies live. Some I've encountered while on foot and some on horse back. I've only been bluff charged once and that will make you suck your underwear up your butt hole. But I've never had one in my cook tent.
 
#31 ·
The guttural growl/roar will reside in your memory also. Like you Trap, 1 bluff charge by a Griz, more issues with meddling Black Bears than Grizzlies including 1 old aggressive Black that I had to shoot. I've experienced more impromptu rodeos orchestrated by Moose than anything else, but any critter-induced ruckus on the trail while on the hurricane deck of a horse is generally memorable.

Bears of either variety can flat-out cover ground and running when confronted by a predator is a poor decision.

What caliber was the pan you took to the meat shack, lol?
 
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#37 ·
Moose. I call them Swamp Donkies.

I had one horse, Willy, who was a rock during bear encounters, but went into psycho mode whenever we encountered a moose. He wanted to fight.

I was on a writing assignment in The Bob Marshall doing an article on elk hunting. I was riding Willy. The guide was in the lead and the hunter was behind me on a Halflinger. It was darker than the inside of a dead bear when we rode out of camp and just as there was the first faint hints of light, a bull moose came charging out of the alders and came right at me.

Willy pivoted quickly to face him, ears back, blowing snot out his nose. He was so tense it felt like I was riding a statue. I could feel him winding up to jump toward the moose and did my damndest to rein and kick him away from the moose who was knocking his antlers against saplings.

When I finally got him turned he shot off through the brush like a rocket. We were crashing through and leaping over deadfalls with the hunter on the halflinger right behind us.

After about 200 yards of backcountry dressage, I got him slowed down and then stopped. He was seriously sweated up and I dismounted to see if he had any serious cuts. He had a few dings, but nothing serious. My chaps still have 1/4" divots in them.

I helped the hunter dismount and he was shaking pretty badly, but I congratulated him for staying on the halflinger. He looked down at his brand new and very expensive Sitka pants, shirt, and jacket. They were so shredded it looked like he was wearing a gilly suit. I had to stifle my laughter.

He wasn't happy, but later that day shot a nice 6x6 bull and all was forgiven.
 
#32 ·
Treadwell made a bunch of mistakes, but his biggest one was thinking that the Bears' tolerance of him was forever and applied to all bears. His eventual demise was predicted by many real bear experts, but the unfortunate part of the story is his girlfriend was killed because she believed Treadwell's BS.
More data for Darwinism theory.
 
#34 · (Edited)
Bacon and bears. About forty years ago when I was young and dumb, I am old now, I was car camping in my old Ford Country Squire station wagon by a small and isolated lake. Not many people visited the lake back then and I had the place to myself. One evening while sipping some Jack I decided to cook breakfast for dinner. Bacon and eggs it was. I continued sipping the whiskey after consuming my dinner and essentially passed out in the back of the station wagon without cleaning up the fry pan. Sometime during the night I was awakened by something messing with the fry pan. I found my flashlight and switched on to find myself face to face with a small black bear. The bear and I both let out involuntary screams of surprise. Mine definitely containing elements of fear and perhaps sounding similar to a young girl's scream. The bear's sounded like bawling. I dove for the front of the old station wagon while the bear was nothing but assholes and elbows heading the opposite direction into the trees. I am not sure which one of us was more scared but at the time the amount of fear in the bear was the last thing I cared about.

After some time past and I was convinced the bear was gone I cleaned up my camp and drove down the road several miles until I felt safe. I locked the station wagon and tried to get back to sleep.
 
#35 ·
Obviously, screaming like a young girl works as well as bear spray and not nearly as expensive...

I'm primarily concerned about the traumatic experience endured by the bear and wonder what happened to the poor fellow. I hope he was able to obtain the mental health help he most likely required after the unfortunate encounter...
 
#40 ·
Willy reminds me of an old grade mare name of Jessie - she would pack anything except Moose & if you met one on the trail, Jess would point herself in the other direction quick, fast & in a hurry. I always figured that she experienced an unwanted attempt at a romantic encounter with a young bull during her checkered past. She was a pointer when it came to Elk, however & could pick them out in the densest cover.
 
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#41 ·
We packed bear on Willy because none of the mules would tolerate it. We had to put him at the back of the string though. No one ever shot a moose we needed to pack but I'm guessing he wouldn't like it.

The horses the outfitter I'm working for now have all packed moose up in Alaska and there are so many swamp donkies up there, they don't seem to react to them.
 
#47 ·
Living in AK the joke was if you're being chased by a grizzly run downhill. Because their front legs are shorter than their rear they will roll down the hill. Only problem is they just wait for you at the bottom of the hill...

20 years later I still remember like it was yesterday the day I walked into a young grizz while hiking with two Japanese tourists (I was an outdoor tour guide in AK for Japanese visitors).
 
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