Cowboy Al

I'm going to watch 60 mins, it was on earilier but I was busy. Here is Alberta there is a season, but it takes 7-9 years to get drawn, and I think in some of the zones that have seasons you would be hard pressed to find a shooter. There was 73 tags given out and out of that maybe 6-8 bears will be taken. I think that the government closed some zones that had a huntable population, but I am thankful that the "anti's" weren't able to close it completely.

QTompkins2005

I'm all for putting species on the list so they don't go extinct, but when populations are back healthy they need to be removed and an intelligently limited hunting season needs to put into place. As for people being able to kill bears that walk onto their land, i don't know, it seems like you'd surely have trigger happy people that would kill 20 bears a year. Maybe if they put something into effect where you called a company or something and they came out and decided if it was a threat, and if it was they eliminated it. I don't know, its a difficult subject to find a solution for, something has to be done though, that would piss me off so bad if a bear c ame and ate my cattle and i couldn't do anything about it.

AlaskaMagnum

Not true at all. We have lots of problems with bears up here. In fact, we have already had two maulings this year, and the season is just getting under way. This time of year, we have lots of problems with bears hanging around Anchorage, Wasilla, Soldonta, etc. The moose that stick close to town are calving, and the bears are hunting the calves. Once the salmon runs start, the bears tend to congregate around the salmon streams. You can see brown bears pretty regularly fishing some of the more popular salmon streams.

My take on grizzly bears -- personally, I love hunting where there are bears. Seeing a grizzly, knowing they are around, having them come into your camp -- it just adds something to a hunt. It's just amazing. Last year we had a lot of bear problems, we lost three of our caribou to bears. I had a bear at 30 yards, and I have to say, it was pretty unerving. If she had taken two more steps, I would have shot. Luckily, she finally decided to do the right thing, we had other bear encounters though. I shot a moose right before dark, and we knew we were having bear problems. Our meat cache was between the moose and our camp, so we had no desire to walk bloody past that meat in the dark with all of the bears.

Anyway, we gutted the moose and split him open, peeled the hide off most of him and took out the tongue, intending to come back in the AM to quarter and pack him. We beached the raft and were walking (just about dusk) to camp when I spot a HUGE grizz coming up the gravel bar at us. It was a ****ty situation to say the least. The bear was about 150 yards, no cover between us, and he was big. We were just getting ready to shoot him, when our pilot who had not buzzed us for five days comes overhead. He sees the situationa nd dive bombs that bear, it was just like a made for tv movie. What a HOOT! We got up the next morning, our pilot dropped in as he now knew we were having bear problems. We told him to come back at five pm, and we would have that moose ready to fly out of there.

Grizzly bears are amazing, and everyone should have the chance to hunt in grizz country. It is something special. Unfortunately, some people do not realize that the big bears demand respect and they take foolish chances, and some people pay the ultimate price.

Red Hawk

I missed it but it would have been interesting to watch

ShatoDavis

I wouldn't put any value in anything that 60 minutes says. They have zero credability with me. The griz may need to be removed from the endagered list. But, 60 minutes isn't the authority that I would use to support my case. They are on par with the tabloid rags at the check out counter. Sensationalism is the name of their game not journalism.

QTompkins2005

Its not like they just said it shato, they had biologists and other pro's that they interviewed. Also interviewed many homeowners and ranch owners from down there. They also interviewed people who don't want them removed.

ironranger

Problem with delisting is it will take an act of god for it to happen. They've been talking about delisting the wolves in Minnesota for a few years now but nothing has been done or at least nothing that I'm aware of. When they finally get around to doing it, you can bet that every tree hugger out there and their lawyers will be keeping it tied up in the courts. In my opinion, it may be a cold day in h@ll before we see it...

ShatoDavis

I still give it no credability. 60 minutes and the cbs news in general are a joke. Just one man's opinion.

RandyA

We just don't hear about them very often!


Grizzly kills woman in Canada

Tuesday, June 07, 2005




CANMORE, Alberta (AP) -- A grizzly bear attacked and killed a woman jogging on a popular hiking trail near this Canadian Rockies resort town, just days after authorities moved the animal from another neighborhood for threatening humans, authorities said Monday.

Isabelle Dube, 36, a competitive mountain bicyclist, was running with two friends on the trail outside Canmore, about 55 miles west of Calgary in the mountainous western province of Alberta, when the bear attacked Sunday.

Dube climbed up a tree and the friends ran to a nearby golf course for help, said Cpl. Brad Freer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. By the time rescue workers got there, the grizzly had somehow gotten Dube down from the tree and mauled her to death.

Fish and wildlife officers later shot and killed the animal.

Dube, a substitute French teacher originally from Cap-St-Ignace near Quebec City, leaves behind a 5-year-old daughter, authorities said.

The same 200-pound, 4-year-old grizzly was removed from a residential area just over a week ago, said Donna Babchishin, a spokeswoman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

The bear was relocated after approaching Canmore resident Niki Davison, who was photographing wildflowers. It was tranquilized, fitted with a radio collar and flown by helicopter to an area inside Banff National Park.

Davison told CBC TV that the grizzly followed her and her basset hound for 10 minutes but did not attack.

"I heard something crashing behind me; when I looked up I realized it was a grizzly," said Davison. "When I realized it was a bear, it was kind of like your nightmare come true. I gathered my things and grabbed my dog and just backed up slowly."

In recent years, environmentalists have fought for wildlife corridors on the outskirts of the community of 13,000, where resort golf courses and mountain chalets have expanded into prime wildlife habitat.

The trail Dube was on had been subject to a voluntary closure since April to protect a corridor designed to allow wildlife, including cougars and bears, to move between habitats.

"We've kept on pushing and pushing and pushing until the wildlife has been squeezed out," said Nigel Douglas of the Alberta Wilderness Association. "At some stage, we have to say enough is enough."

Canmore Mayor Ron Casey said balancing the need for animal and nature reserves with the growing demand by residents from Calgary looking for recreation space was becoming increasingly difficult.

"If we want to try to cohabitate with wildlife, as sad as these occurrences are, they are also a fact of where we live," he said.

Dube was the first person killed by a bear in Alberta since 1998.

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climbrx

AlaskaMagnum,

Great post. It's refreshing to hear from someone who lives with these incredible animals, respects them for what they are, and realizes that we need to SHARE this earth with them. Thanks.