Dangerous Bear News For The End Of The Millenium

I have heard some disturbing news lately. There were no less than SEVEN deaths due to grizzly bears last year, all in the Western Canada/Southeastern Alaska region and at least three fatalities that I know about this year (the reports were from Alaska). It is truly extraordinary to have ten deaths like this in less than 2 years. Can you imagine the furor that would erupt if ten surfers had been munched by white sharks the last two years in California? Five of the deaths last year were attacks on fishermen. One was a predatory attack on a hiker in Alberta in broad daylight, a M. O. more characteristic of a black bear or a polar bear. The three deaths this year I have heard about in Alaska were attacks on armed hunters and the bears were apparently first wounded before they killed.

I have received news that the Pacific coastal region was under severe environmental stress this year and possibly the year before. There has been a serious drought in B.C. and the salmon runs have failed (there is all sorts of finger-pointing on this one, including accusations of over-fishing by Americans and Japanese). Starving grizzlies have been moving into human settled areas to look for scraps and a lot have been shot. The bear population is thought to be in a state of crisis. I wonder if this has anything to do with the exceptional number of acts of serious violence against humans?

I have not heard anything about problems with black bears, other than a large male attempting to prey on two boys fishing by a lake. The boys jumped into the lake when the bear charged them. The bear followed them, but he was at a disadvantage in the water and the boys whacked him with large sticks. The bear soon gave up and left. This is another illustration of the importance of fighting back when attacked by a predatory black bear. As the saying goes, "Play Dead = Play Dinner". Even if the attack was not originally predatory, it may become so if you are too passive. This advice does not apply to attacks by mothers defending their cubs or to most grizzly attacks. Usually, in such cases, the less fuss you put up, the better.

The mother of the Texas woman who was killed at Liard Hot Springs a couple of years ago went back there this year and she says nothing has changed. Since there was a non-fatal attack by a predacious black bear at Liard only a couple of years before the one referred to above, don't be surprised if you hear of yet another tragedy at Liard in the next couple of years.

The local black bear population at Liard is carefully monitored and they are actually pretty nice bears, not much different from their equivalents in U.S. national parks. The bears that have attacked people have been recent arrivals from the deep wilderness that had never seen humans before. If you think about it, if you saw all these defenseless, stupid, unaware, plump, succulent bipeds bumbling around, you would probably think that they were the perfect prey too. The thing that is so SCARY about predacious black bears is that they are so coldly LOGICAL about it, they are not some mindlessly ferocious eating machine like a tiger shark. They resemble those lions in turn of the century Africa that preyed on the railroad workers. (By the way, a fully grown black bear can easily kill a fully grown lion, don't underestimate how powerful these animals really are!)

This is why I recommend such strong precautions if you go into the wilderness in B.C. or adjecent areas (southern Yukon and western Alberta, or along the Alaskan border). Although the great majority of the black bears there are perfectly nice critters, as mellow as any black bear in Yosemite, this is still the best (worst?) place to encounter the fearsome and deadly predacious black bear. B.C. has been averaging half a dozen serious attacks and one fatality a year from these bears for some time now, you don't want to risk contributing to the grim statistics. To have a highly intelligent and skillful hunter silently stalking you out of your sight in the deep forest, quietly observing and evaluating you and waiting for precisely the right moment to strike is a truely chilling thought! I might add that ANYWHERE along that part of the Alaska Highway which winds through northern British Columbia and the southern Yukon is dangerous, and any black bears you see there should be treated with just as much caution as if they were mean grizzlies. If you go traveling up there, be CAREFUL, and make sure to NEVER allow your kids out of your sight. I know of cases where Americans have tried to photograph black bears close up along that road, only to have the bears charge, knock them down, and attempt to drag them off into the woods for dinner. Not all of these bears are like our shy and timid U.S. black bears! Even in the official campgrounds, as the Liard incident shows, you are not necessarily safe. I have heard of problems at other places besides Liard, but, due to the obstructionist policies of the Canadian government, details are virtually impossible to come by. Hopefully somebody reading this will know something and contact me.

I recently received a classic example of the absurdity of the Canadian government's attempts to "stonewall" all the bad news about the very real problem of dangerous bears in Western Canada. In another site where I have bear articles, a woman who is a forest ranger in B.C. wrote a reply accusing me of exaggeration and sensationalism about the black bears in B.C. She says that the Canadian bears are being unfairly stigmatized and are "not so bad". For the most part, she is correct. Most Canadian black bears are as shy and gentle and easy-going as their U.S. counterparts. But the nice bears are NOT the ones I am advising people to worry about! She then said she only knew of one recent fatality in the area where she works. This involved a bear killing and partially eating a full-grown man. The bear apparently deliberately spooked the horse he was riding, then attacked and killed him after he was thrown to the ground.

She then went on to say that she herself had been attacked recently while out in the forest a hundred miles away hunting for deer. A 300 pound male black bear ambushed her in an attack that she herself recognized was predatory. It charged her completely by surprise and without warning from about 40 feet away; all she saw was a black blur out of the side of her right eye. I have heard entirely similar descriptions of surprise attacks by other survivors of predacious black bears. The beasts try to take you by surprise; if you are lucky, you see a black blur streaking at you. She was an experienced hunter and skilled marksman, well-armed with a 30.06 rifle and 220 grain bullets and ready to fire on a moment's notice. I don't think too many hunters would have managed to get off even ONE shot if they were suddenly charged from the side at forty feet, but she got off THREE perfectly placed shots, any one of which should have killed the bear instantly: One through the right ear, one in the center of the chest right through the heart, and one above the right eye into the brain. Despite these three separate mortal wounds, the bear fell only 9 feet away from her. An investigation was carried out, and the official conclusion was that the only logical reason for the bear to have attacked her the way it did was that it was trying to prey upon her.

I commend this woman's obvious courage and cool presence of mind. She was able to save her life under circumstances where I think most men would have lost theirs, whether because they were too shocked to respond soon enough, or they didn't have the gun ready to fire, or they failed to shoot the bear in a vital spot because they were too panic-stricken to aim properly. What I CANNOT commend, is this woman's downright weird logic that the Canadian bears "are not so bad". She herself knows from personal experience just how deadly they can be, and she most certainly had a really CLOSE call! I think her opinion reflects the all-too-common attitude of Canadian wildlife officials. They have made virtually inaccessible reliable information on bear attacks in Canada. It is only, as happened in the Liard incident, where there were too many witnesses and it could not be kept from the media, that they are even willing to admit anything happened. They certainly won't admit anything might be wrong. They seem to think that as long as they personally havn't been eaten, that everything is just rosy. It is as if you were at a beach resort, talking to a life-guard, and you were to be told that of course they really haven't had any significant problems with sharks. A surfer was killed and eaten recently, and the life guard almost lost his leg to a tiger shark, but was able to harpoon the beast before it got him. If you go swimming, you have a really good chance of surviving, so be of good cheer and have fun. Wouldn't that make YOU feel really good about going into the water?

I have tried to contact this woman, but as with other cases where I have attempted to E-Mail Canadian wildlife people, both the name and E-Mail address proved untraceable. Maybe I am simply being a little paranoid, but I sometimes wonder why... I wanted to ask this woman just what she think would have happened to her if she had been unarmed (the current policies of the Canadian government make it difficult for private individuals to carry guns for protection in the forest) or if instead, it had happened to an unprotected family out for a hike in the woods? Take warning from this incident! If you go into the deep woods of central to northern British Columbia, you had better go prepared. It doesn't matter if you have done so for ten years and never had problems with the bears, you had better be prepared for that one exception to the rule.

Finally, if you are EVER the target of a hostile bear incident, do NOT let the authorities cow you into being silent. Contact the news media. Even if the incident gets mentioned in the local paper, all too often it never gets any further, so try contacting a national media source as well. If anybody out there has information about bear attacks, especially about fatal attacks in Canada, I would be extremely grateful if you would contact me with the details. I will see to it that those who should know about such things are informed.