Horrifying Polar Bear attack in Alaska

[Naphtali]

A friend forwarded an E-mail to me that describes graphically a Polar bear attack on a sleeping camper. Since it was apparently some sort of mass mailing, I'm curious whether anyone else received it.

[NSP64]

no, but polar bears are supposed to be the ones to really watch.

[bobk]

Gonna be more of it, probably. Welcome to Unintended Consequences.

Bob K

[Recluse]

A. I'd hate to be camping anywhere there is polar bears. That means it's way too $%#@ cold for me. My idea of camping is to find a new hotel in a new town. Roughing it means that room service has closed for the evening and I actually have to go out for my food.

B. We were taught in USAF survival school many years ago that polar bears were even more dangerous than brown bears and grizzlies. Polar bears, we were told, had zero fear of humans. No amount of hollering, shooting, throwing things or other noisemaking would scare them off if they wanted to come check you out. Also told that polar bears would stalk humans, even for several days.

Don't know this to be fact and don't care if it is or isn't. I don't ever want to be anywhere near a polar bear.

For the record, feel the same way about sharks.

:coffee:

[C1PNR]

I seem to remember seeing an email recently, but I can't find it now. IIRC, the bear was killed there in the camp.

[bearcove]

That's funny didn't make the news in the Anchorage Daily News. I guess they didn't here about it up there

[Tom W.]

Been around for a year or two. The pictures of the guy's leg were pretty rough...

[RugerFan]

Also told that polar bears would stalk humans, even for several days.

Don't know this to be fact and don't care if it is or isn't.

From what I have read, this is true.

[405]

Not sure about this one? These tend to circulate during cabin fever cycles. Heck, the Hinchinbrook Island Brown Bear story has circulated the internet, coffee shops and gun shows for 7 years. If this is the Canada Polar Bear story it hasn't been around 7 years (only 5-6) but it morphs and grows and still has legs.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/gruesome/polarbear.asp

[FN in MT]

Several years ago National Geographic went up to Churchill Manitoba were tons of them hang around through summer and fall until the ice returns and they can finally leave.

They stuck a photographer in basically a small box that looked like a jail cell with a seat in it. The big bears walked up fairly quickly and then tried to get at him in earnest. Interesting to watch. The funny part was the photog finally getting into the vehicle after they scared the bears away. He was pretty EXCITED. "They really wanna get ya" he said!

A long time ago when I was still working for the State I was peripherally involved in a fatal grizzly attack. Got to see the scene, the bodies, etc. Pretty sobering to see a fellow human who had been killed then partially eaten by an animal. Deaths from accidents or crime are something we understand. But death on that primeval level is so strange and simply scary.

FN in MT

[Bigjohn]

I recall an email of this from a couple of years back. Gruesome!!

Didn't save it.

John.

[leftiye]

Yup, we've trained the other bears (to varying degrees). The ones that wouldn't listen were prevented from procreating (dead). With white fella, whenever they've met a human either they got dinner, or they got dead, nobody left to tell the other bears to look out for them "long pigs". Narural selection in both cases.

[Red River Rick]

I've hunted in Canada's great north and yes, Polar bears are a serious threat. They are not to be taken lightly, they are indeed very dangerous and unpredictable.

Just this past fall, while on my caribou hunt, when we arrived in camp to set up, a polar bear had been thru the area earlier. Evidence was all over the place, claw marks spanning 10" and foot prints to match.

A couple of years ago, one of the other camps shot a polar bear within a mile of their camp. A few hunter's that were staying at the camp spotted the bear the day before, but he vanished (scary), only to show up the following day. The camp owner's took no chances and shot the bear immediately, they then notified Natural Resourses, who then came and took the bear.

Up there, you hunt in pairs, and are always keeping a watchful eye for anything white (or brown) that moves. A 12 gauge slug gun is a useful tool to carry for backup, just in case, and I carry one with me all the time when I'm up there.

The guides always made sure that when dressing a carcass, there was someone keeping post. Those bears can smell blood for miles, and will cover great distances to get to food. As far as the bear is concerned, your just another "Fat Seal", and will make due until the next meal.

FWIW.
RRR

[Down South]

Polar Bears are the only bears in the world that are all carnivorous (Strictly meat eaters). Humans make a great appetizer for these bears. Grizzly, Brown, Kodiak, and other bears have a higher tendency to eat fruits and greens. The Polar Bear is most likely the most dangerous bear to people.

[Phil]

I found the pix of that incident. Gruesome indeed.

(:>)

Phil

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b88/twoprops/PolarBearAttack.jpg

[Cherokee]

Thanks Phil - the pic is great, but when he grows up it'll be different.

[Bret4207]

With all the talk of Polar bears drowning and what not due to "Global Warming" a radio host from Canada I listen decided to check it for his book. His research shows that, in the Canadian Arctic anyway, Polar bear populations are going through a large increase and there's no sign of any bears drowning, etc.

Considering the source for the drowning bears stories, I tend to believe the Canuck that disputes it.

[hammerhead357]

Phil the picture of the little one is cute but when the bear is 1 year old it will weigh about 150 to 175 pounds or there abouts and won't be any fun to be around if it doesn't get its way.
Even polar bear cubs raised by humans are dangerous, they just don't know their strength and are equipped with very good weapons.
I just saw a show on some animal channel today about this. My 13 and 9 year old childeren were watching it. The bears could change attitudes in the blink of an eye.......Wes

[copdills]

crap those are some wild pics . he must be one tough guy, looks like alot of Pain to me

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I bit a "POLAR BAR" ice cream sandwich from the Food Lion yesterday. Definitely better than an "Eskimo Pie". BvT

[bobk]

Baron,
I scream when I hear that sort of thing.
Bob K

[Ivantherussian03]

Yeah, polar bears are changing their behavior. last year, or the year before, a polar bear raiding the Alaskan village called Arctic Village, in the middle of winter and generally stirring up trouble. The men gathered up and hunting him down thinking he was a brown bear polar bear mix, because this was the middle of winter. Polar bears dont den up in winter, and neither do those mixed bears. Anyway, they thought it be a mixed bear so fish and game came out and did tests. It was a polar bear, which is significant because Arctic village is about 1000 miles inland. Polar bears are never found more than 25 miles from the ocean.

Bears are scary....period. They hunt people. Every year there is bear attack and rarely do they end well for people.

Any more I carry a high powered rifle on the snowmachine when traveling. We are strange reports about polar bears sightings and even cougars too in Alaska now, neither of which den up in the winter.

[Suo Gan]

I lived in a small village outside of Nome, AK. I camped on the tundra for the entire summer for several years. The bears that I saw were hungry for sea bird eggs around the myriad small lakes. I saw Nanuk, and saw his footprints crossing the beach many times, making a bee-line from the ocean, to the mainland. But bears are bears, and some will invariably try to eat you if you let them. The vast majority, polar, griz, or black will avoid man at all costs. I don't think I would lose too much sleep about being eaten by a bear, like the boogeyman their reputation precedes them. Personally, I was more concerned with the mosquitoes. Too bad about that leg though.

[BruceB]

Our home in the Northwest Territories was about 15 miles from civilization. We left the area in '97.

The following spring ('98), a young man (20-ish) was killed in his sleeping bag and then partly eaten by a healthy black bear...less than one mile from' our' house. Yes, it can happen.

I killed one or two bears per year in our dooryard, because I valued my then-infant daughter much higher than any damned bear. An ounce of prevention, one might say. Shoot, shovel, etc.

I think the most-important thing I learned in over fifty years' living in "bear country", is that we simply can NOT predict what any given bear will do in any particular situation. Be alert!

I agree with previous comments on polar bears.....splendid creatures, and VERY serious about what they do.

I always ALWAYS carried a .44 Mag when out of the house or camp (with cast bullets). Thankfully I never had to use it on a bear, but one day there was this mama griz and her yearling cub...at fifty yards my S&W was REALLY sweating, but fortunately they went the other way. Phewwwww.......