Bear kills woman in Ovando, Mt.

[bakerjw]

This really hits close to home.
The Tour Divide mountain bike race for the most part follows the Great Divide Mountain bike Route. I've ridden most sections of it in Canada as well as the majority of the upper parts of Montana. In 2018,my son and I finally pedaled into the small town of Ovando. It is a speck on the map but the guy who runs the Blackfoot Angler fly Shop started catering to cyclists by stocking bicycle repair components. As a point of interest, in long distance cycling, we use satellite trackers which report our position every 5 to 10 minutes. He also has a webcam so people following the racers dots on a map can see them come through town. My son and I stopped and waved at the webcam before we went into his shop where I bought some trout spoons for use here at home. Gotta help the small businesses.

My wife told me about the woman being killed but hadn't read the part where she had been on a long distance cycling trip. Us long distance cyclists have lost one of our community.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/grizzly-bear-pulls-california-woman-tent-montana-kills-her

[badguybuster]

I was near there a month ago looking at a farm. Makes me kinda glad I didnt buy it

[myg30]

Sorry to hear about the attack. It’s a shame that some folks go out into bear country and have no protection. Glad some of them at least had bear spray and ran him off and didn’t become the 2nd course. Why they moved food away from their tent after the bear woke them is sad too.
You always hang your food high and away from your tent, right ?

Mike

[cwtebay]

Sorry to hear about the attack. It’s a shame that some folks go out into bear country and have no protection. Glad some of them at least had bear spray and ran him off and didn’t become the 2nd course. Why they moved food away from their tent after the bear woke them is sad too.
You always hang your food high and away from your tent, right ?

MikeDid you read the article? The attack was sudden enough to happen before anything could be done. And it also happened next to the post office in Ovando - not 15 miles from the trailhead.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[scattershot]

Sorry.

[starnbar]

They were camped near the post office not next door to it and the bear woke them the first time through. The campers then decided it would be wise to move their food out and away from the tents what they should of done to start with not after. The bear came through twice the second time cost a life after the first time there would of been a roaring fire going for the rest of the night and me and a couple of my boys would have been spelling each other on watch.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

When a bear decides that he will make a meal of you, options diminish in a hurry. Cyclists, being very careful of the weight they carry, are not likely to be armed. And town bears who exist on garbage are not particularly wary of humans. Bears who visit town should be put down. Being in town, they most likely had let their guard down. Awful way to die.

[DougGuy]

From a reply posted to the article in the OP's link:

MoseyPCT writes 2 hours ago:


I was riding with her on the Great Divide Trail that passes through Ovando. Leah was my best friend and she lived in northern Idaho for many years before moving to California for a job. I'm a Montana native but have also lived and worked in California. I now live in Eureka, Montana near the boarder. During our trip from the Canadian boarder to Ovando we camped in different settings from campgrounds to wilderness camps and Leah was very bear aware. One night, in a wilderness camp, she and her sister, cooked well away from their tent and then hung their food about 3 hundred feet away. Other nights, in campgrounds, we used food storage boxes that are provided in some campgrounds. She didn't have any food in her tent the night she died. Know, that she was out doing what she loved and that she was a loving person, a friend, a daughter, a sister and a nurse, who at one time may have helped someone you love. The community of Ovando is devastated at this time but on the morning of the bear attack all I saw there was love and compassion for myself, Leah's sister and all who were present. So, have some compassion and let us mourn for the loss of our friend.

The bear has not been located and will be killed.

FWP wardens and bear specialists will continue to monitor the area closely, and efforts to find the bear are now focusing on traps near Ovando, they added.

"At this point, our best chance for catching this bear will be culvert traps set in the area near the chicken coop where the bear killed and ate several chickens," said Randy Arnold, FWP regional supervisor in Missoula.

DNA from the bear was also collected at the scene of the attack and will be analyzed, wildlife officials said. They added that if the bear is caught in one of the traps, DNA can be "quickly" compared to determine if it was the same animal.
_____________________________________

I am going to speculate and say there is now one less democrat who is obviously smart enough to know better than to go into the wild without a firearm. You can't teach these people NOTHING they know all they need to know already.

On the other hand, isn't that kind of cycling a bit extreme for someone 65 years of age? I mean, what is left to prove at that age? So at first you wonder why she (or at least one or two others in the party) didn't have a gun, and then you back up and wonder why was she even out there in the first place?

Sorry, just thinking out loud...

[bakerjw]

In the years that I have passed through these areas, we are ALWAYS bear aware. Bear spray is a must but as we've flown into Canada, carrying a firearm is not an option.
I am surprised that Ovando doesn't have bear boxes. Most places where I've stayed have them and we use them every time. When my son, myself and a friend rode through in 2018, we camped off of the WigWam river in the heart of grizzly country. All food went into a bag way up the air away from camp.
They likely felt that they'd be safe in town.
Very sad.

[myg30]

I’m very sorry I stand corrected ! I read the artical but did not see what Doug guy posted.

My limited interactions with “Sum” cyclers made me jump to a wrong conclusion!

Mike

[Graybeard96]

Bear Attacks are extremely fast and violent. I know. I searched many wounded Grizzlies and Black Bears during my Guiding Career.

In Bear Country I always carry a powerful Gun. If I Tent, if at all possible I will set up a Bear Alarm trip wire (Bear Banger type) and hang a LED Light up a Tree all night so I be able to see when TSHTF during nighttime.

Never ever ever cook in the Tent you are sleeping in, avoid smelly Foods and store your Food high up Rope suspended at least 15 Ft. high between 2 Trees at least 100 feet away from your Tent

Cheers

[Three44s]

This is predictable.

We can either hunt these animals to create the fear they need to avoid us under benign circumstances (not a momma and cub issue) or expect much more examples until the common sense the good Lord gave new born babies kicks in .......

I will stick with powerful wheel guns and avoid areas where personal self defense is restricted in the mean time.

Three44s

[Geezer in NH]

Did you read the article? The attack was sudden enough to happen before anything could be done. And it also happened next to the post office in Ovando - not 15 miles from the trailhead.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using TapatalkI read it it was not a surprise as at 3 am the bear was scared off and then they removed food from the tent and went back to bed.

The must all went to bed and left no watch and moving the food was way to late as it shold never been in the tent in the first place.

[Idz]

We have bears all over town that come in from the national forest that surrounds us. They love the garbage that the stupid people leave out in the trash bins. I always tell visitors to not put out garbage until collection day and if they must then pour some clorox on it to discourage the bears. Bears are getting bolder, we had one in the front yard on Monday evening before sunset. I yelled and and threw rocks at him but he ignored me.

[DougGuy]

I read the artical but did not see what Doug guy posted.

Mike

Above the solid line is pasted from the article below the solid line is my own text, not part of the article.

[waksupi]

This was about a hundred miles from my cabin. Ovando lies right next to the Clearwater Wildlife Refuge and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and it is a known bear corridor. Upslata Lake is a notorious area for griz, just a few miles away. I had never heard of bear problems right in Ovando before, but it has probably happened. For people living around bears, it is just a part of life you deal with. Always be armed and aware.

[trebor44]

It's a bear, you are food! Bears have been eating folks for a long, long, time. Dumb people behavior, food in a tent, really?

There are so much info on what a human should do when traveling in 'bear country' (which is most of the USA) that this is really worthy of a Darwin award.

[MT Gianni]

Lots of transitory bears near Ovando. A few miles east is a long corridor heading up to the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wilderness areas. W of there hunters have been stalked and killed near the Blackfoot drainage. Ovando has about 40 frost free days a year, bears eat what they can find. The town dump is a ways out of town, IIFC about 5 miles south. No hard vehicle to get into or store things, stuff happens.
What isn't mentioned is that MT is full up with squatters these last two summers. Every turn out you see in the hills has outsiders staying there. Water sells out at Costco as fast as it gets in. What these folks are doing with their garbage and waste isn't being checked. There are hardly any places for working folks to camp as the invaders have taken all spots to squat in for the summer. Bears are becoming accustomed to human food.

[megasupermagnum]

It's a bear, you are food! Bears have been eating folks for a long, long, time. Dumb people behavior, food in a tent, really?

There are so much info on what a human should do when traveling in 'bear country' (which is most of the USA) that this is really worthy of a Darwin award.

Some of you are so ridiculous, no compassion for a person who made a mistake. A small portion of the corners of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho are the only places you will find brown bear in the lower 48 states. Sometimes they wander a little farther, and I've heard of them just over the border into Washington. Of course they are all over Alaska as well. Most of their range is in western Canada. They used to be through most of the western and central USA, but the Europeans couldn't live among them like the native Americans could, so they killed every last one of them, right along with the wolves.

I'm not a tree hugging hippie, but they deserve to live, same as us. A hunting season would be a good start at stopping any more expansion of their current range. It won't give them any fear, no matter how macho you think you are. Realistically how many tags would be allowed? 10 per state? It would be an extreme trophy hunting gig, probably mostly resident only, maybe a single non-resident tag. Nobody is going to burn their once in a lifetime tag on the local garbage stealer.

It really sucks that people will not accept what happened, and move on with their lives in a positive manner. Instead, now there is a giant trapping operation involving DNA testing to kill a bear. If the bear is not around anymore, let it be. It isn't evil. It's just... a bear. It didn't have a disease or a bad attitude. It wanted food, and it got food. The mistake this woman made was being in the way of the food, and not being the slightest bit of a deterrent.

Don't corner animals, don't stand in the way of the food they want, and give them a reason not to be messed with. That solves 98% of the attacks ever by all animals. Over 1% more could be solved by shooting and killing them. There will always be a small portion that will get someone anyway. Drowning in your own fluid on a hospital bed (pneumonia) is a horrible way to die. Bleeding out inside of your skull in a hospital bed is a horrible way to die. Being burned alive is a horrible way to die.

Being clobbered, and eaten by a brown bear is not that bad of a way to die.

[FISH4BUGS]

On the other hand, isn't that kind of cycling a bit extreme for someone 65 years of age? I mean, what is left to prove at that age? So at first you wonder why she (or at least one or two others in the party) didn't have a gun, and then you back up and wonder why was she even out there in the first place?


My guess is you are one that sees exercise as something you try until the urge goes away.
If you have to have it explained about cycling, then I would suggest you just sit in your recliner, eat your chips and wash them down with a beer.
I know people in their 90's that still cycle and are probably in better shape than you are.

[bakerjw]

I am going to speculate and say there is now one less democrat who is obviously smart enough to know better than to go into the wild without a firearm. You can't teach these people NOTHING they know all they need to know already.

On the other hand, isn't that kind of cycling a bit extreme for someone 65 years of age? I mean, what is left to prove at that age? So at first you wonder why she (or at least one or two others in the party) didn't have a gun, and then you back up and wonder why was she even out there in the first place?

Sorry, just thinking out loud...

She was actually from Idaho and recently moved to California so no assumptions can be made that she was a liberal.

In 2018 when my son and I arrived in Helena, we met Candace. IIRC, she was 67 and had spent the previous 3 to 4 weeks cycling up from Antelope Wells N.M which was in the range of 2,000 miles. She eventually finished in Banff at 2,800+ miles. I say kudos for anyone that can put in that kind of mileage and doing it solo no less. If they are older, then even better.

Every trip up there, I have only had my bear spray. Were I to fly directly into Montana, I'd probably bring along a handgun; however, bear spray would be my first choice. Put a cloud between you and the bear and it is very effective.
285789

[dverna]

Just a sad story and should serve as a wake up call for folks. I am a firm believer in being armed in bear country if you can do so legally.

[gpidaho]

This is exactly why I don't support the transfer of more Grizzly bears into central Idaho wilderness so the Greenies can have a more balanced ecosystem. If they want the bears, put them in there back yard. Gp

[cwtebay]

Lots of transitory bears near Ovando. A few miles east is a long corridor heading up to the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wilderness areas. W of there hunters have been stalked and killed near the Blackfoot drainage. Ovando has about 40 frost free days a year, bears eat what they can find. The town dump is a ways out of town, IIFC about 5 miles south. No hard vehicle to get into or store things, stuff happens.
What isn't mentioned is that MT is full up with squatters these last two summers. Every turn out you see in the hills has outsiders staying there. Water sells out at Costco as fast as it gets in. What these folks are doing with their garbage and waste isn't being checked. There are hardly any places for working folks to camp as the invaders have taken all spots to squat in for the summer. Bears are becoming accustomed to human food.You ain't just whistling Dixie!!! Where we run our cows has had dozens of permanent squatters since last May.
We finally took it upon ourselves to clean up the heaps of trash left - and it continues to be a problem. I do believe that the past year will affect bear behaviour for years to come.
The bears that have formally been transients are figuring out that these places are a lot easier place to make a living.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[david s]

As you travel east on highway 200 from Missoula Mt. to Orvando if you turn left down the forest service road called Montoure instead of right into Orvando after about 7 miles you'll come to a drainage called Dunham/Lodgepole. This drainage has the highest concentration (not the highest number but more per square mile) than any where else in the lower 48 states. When hunting during the early season rifle control elk hunts in September on Two Creeks Ranch about 4 miles from Orvando down Montoure road you'll be told that when you get an elk don't go out and gut it but go get the ranch manager and he'll take you out on there tractor to get your elk and help keep an eye out while you gut it. Your told this because there will be a grizzly on your downed elk in 15 minutes or less. The last fatal grizzly attack was about 15-20 years ago about 20 miles west on Boyd mountain by the Clearwater junction turn off of highway 200. A bow hunter had killed a cow elk and was dragging it to his rig when he was attacked and killed be a sow with cubs. This whole area isn't Alaska but there are more than a few grizzly in the woods here.

[popper]

yrs ago @ molas lake I met a couple on their honeymoon, cycling. Couple back met a guy cross country cycling from Vermont IIRC on his way to Ca. via Tx. Mid 60s. Not my style but hey, their life.

[Gator 45/70]

Hey in the free state of Louisiana we have no limits on grizzlies and no season so that means its 365 days open season on Grizzlies.

[david s]

Montana's tapir seasons open year round no limit either.

[bakerjw]

As you travel east on highway 200 from Missoula Mt. to Orvando if you turn left down the forest service road called Montoure instead of right into Orvando after about 7 miles you'll come to a drainage called Dunham/Lodgepole. This drainage has the highest concentration (not the highest number but more per square mile) than any where else in the lower 48 states. When hunting during the early season rifle control elk hunts in September on Two Creeks Ranch about 4 miles from Orvando down Montoure road you'll be told that when you get an elk don't go out and gut it but go get the ranch manager and he'll take you out on there tractor to get your elk and help keep an eye out while you gut it. Your told this because there will be a grizzly on your downed elk in 15 minutes or less. The last fatal grizzly attack was about 15-20 years ago about 20 miles west on Boyd mountain by the Clearwater junction turn off of highway 200. A bow hunter had killed a cow elk and was dragging it to his rig when he was attacked and killed be a sow with cubs. This whole area isn't Alaska but there are more than a few grizzly in the woods here.

In 2018 after leaving Seely Lake, my son and I climbed onto a plateau up that way and took it parallel to the highway. Ranches and stuff up there. It's sights like that that make me love Montana.

[david s]

If you get up around Seely again take the Cottonwood road (it ties into Montoure road) out of town to the Cottonwood lakes, there's a forest service road between the first two Cottonwood lakes off to the left (can't remember the name at the moment) that takes you up to a fire look out cabin. From up there to the west you can look down on whole Seely/Placid lake area and to the south east it looks out over the whole Blackfoot Valley area. It's a pretty amazing view.

[Krag 1901]

Well, I don't think the woman was foolish to think she could sleep in so close to town unmolested. That was just her luck, bad, but her's. It might have been good for her to have bear spray, but she probably didn't have time to find it and use it if a 400 pound Grizz was dragging her out of the tent.
Stuff happens.

[david s]

There use to be an old video like VHS/VCR old video of a teen doing ranch irrigation work in an alfalfa field on an ATV just outside of Orvando during the early spring. The video follows the kid on the ATV as he rides along and shows animals out in the field grazing like cattle. Except there not cattle the alfalfa field is full of grizzly bears. The bears don't pay any more attention to the ATV than the kid does to the bears. For the life of me I can't find it. Every time you type ATV and bears into a search engine you get the Yamaha Grizzly ATV. It's an interesting video though.

[1hole]

Wilderness living has gotten so protected and tame in the last hundred years that it seems like an entirely different planet. It's sad that some bears haven't gotten the word.

I've long been surprised that so few incidents occur with black bears in the Great Smokey Mountain Park and Applachian trail; there's a LOT of people and a LOT of bears.

[Mal Paso]

A small portion of the corners of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho are the only places you will find brown bear in the lower 48 states. Sometimes they wander a little farther, and I've heard of them just over the border into Washington.

And the one on South Fork Ridge in California. The photo I posted of his poo pile was my most downloaded photo. LOL His paw prints were over 8 inches. After years of just signs I finally saw him sneaking past camp. The 44 Redhawk he talked me into years before was on my hip with Elmer's full load and his #503. He was huge with a mottled coat, like he was shedding. He was stealthy but there were a lot of dry cedar branches under the oak leaves and when he put his full weight on one it would crack like a 22. I had been hearing him for the last 40 minutes and didn't know it. More familiar with deer sounds. I pulled up short when I saw him about 30 feet away, below me and headed away. He was gone by the time I got around the cabin. The neighbor says some hunters shot and left him, I'll have to ask where and see if I can find the bones. He was never a problem and there were no black bears when he was around. One of the blackies ate my dish soap last trip. One more thing to hide.

[cwtebay]

It's a bear, you are food! Bears have been eating folks for a long, long, time. Dumb people behavior, food in a tent, really?

There are so much info on what a human should do when traveling in 'bear country' (which is most of the USA) that this is really worthy of a Darwin award.(she was 65, pretty sure age already gave her that award)

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[waksupi]

From a reply posted to the article in the OP's link:

MoseyPCT writes 2 hours ago:




On the other hand, isn't that kind of cycling a bit extreme for someone 65 years of age? I mean, what is left to prove at that age? So at first you wonder why she (or at least one or two others in the party) didn't have a gun, and then you back up and wonder why was she even out there in the first place?

Sorry, just thinking out loud...

Not so extreme. A lady friend of mine is 63. In the past few years, she has hiked the full length of the Pacific Crest Trail, walked over to Montana, then hiked the Continental Divide Trail to the Mexican border. This year, she is doing the Appalachian Trail. She just loves the wild country.

As far as bears being limited to a small area, they have expanded their territory clear over to the Sweetgrass Hills in Montana.

[megasupermagnum]

The sweetgrass hills is pretty much right in where I would expect them to be, based on what I've seen of reports. They weren't there 10 years ago? Either way, you have to admit the area you will find brown bear in the lower USA is pretty small compared to the guy who said " 'bear country' (which is most of the USA)".

Northern California, now THAT is impressive, although surely one that wandered off. It always amazes me how animals can make it such distances without being seen. To get to Mal Paso's home turf, it would have had to cross the bulk of Idaho, thorough a chunk of either Nevada or Oregon, much of which is very open country, and still make it through a decent area of California.

I still stand by my first post that hunting probably wont change much, but it would be a good way to keep them in whatever range the states want them in. I'd apply for a tag for sure, I bet they taste good.

[trebor44]

I stand corrected: https://geology.com/stories/13/bear-areas/
I just don't understand why those "ghost bears" are in Boise and other 'non populated' areas! Those "experts" might know, or did they (the bears) not check on the internet where they are supposed to be?

[gpidaho]

Black bear meat can be very good if taken and prepared properly but Grizzly isn't something one would want to consume short of a survival situation. Their diet consists to a much greater extent of carrion than that of black bears and the grizzly meat is full of worms, not to mention the cysts of trichina. Gp

[megasupermagnum]

Black bear meat can be very good if taken and prepared properly but Grizzly isn't something one would want to consume short of a survival situation. Their diet consists to a much greater extent of carrion than that of black bears and the grizzly meat is full of worms, not to mention the cysts of trichina. Gp

Bunk. You do realize brown bear are regularly hunted in Alaska and eaten? Every person I've ever heard describe it, puts it as decent to very good taste. Who cares about Trichinosis? Tons of animals I eat can have it, including black bear, you simply have to cook them to 160 degrees. In pork, the new recommendation is 145 degrees. They are not hard to kill. It's the same stuff pigs get, and nobody ever worries about bacon. Even squirrels can have it.

Me thinks an Idaho local is trying to scare others from applying if they ever go through with a hunting season. Yep, and our ducks eat nothing but weeds and lead shot, they taste like mud. No need to eat ducks or hunt South Dakota.:razz:

[gpidaho]

Bunk. You do realize brown bear are regularly hunted in Alaska and eaten? Every person I've ever heard describe it, puts it as decent to very good taste. Who cares about Trichinosis? Tons of animals I eat can have it, including black bear, you simply have to cook them to 160 degrees. It's the same stuff pigs get, and nobody ever worries about bacon. Even squirrels can have it.

Me thinks an Idaho local is trying to scare others from applying if they ever go through with a hunting season. Yep, and our ducks eat nothing but weeds and lead shot, they taste like mud. No need to eat ducks or hunt South Dakota.:razz: Well my friend if you can find a legally shot Grizz (maybe in Alaska) you are most welcome to feast away. Myself I'd rather eat a skunk and you can bet I'm not doing that. Even First Nation Canadians don't eat Grizzly meat and they aren't known to be picky eaters. Read up on what Alaska guides have to say on the subject. As to shooting Grizzly in Idaho. I have no love for the beast and am glad we keep distance between ourselves. Gp

[farmbif]

I got a feeling grizzly bears might like the taste of people more than people like the taste of grizzly , but ive never eaten grizzly,
ive heard someone say if they have just woken from hibernation the tase is awful.
hopefully no more bikers will get attacked

[gpidaho]

Another Grizzly attack this morning in Island Park Idaho. Early morning hiker-jogger had an unfortunate encounter with a sow and cub. He made it back to the cabin and called 911. Injuries aren't thought to be life threatening. Gp

[bakerjw]

hopefully no more bikers will get attacked

THIS... I have a lot of friends in the cross country cycling community and events like this do not go unnoticed. In the past 5 years, literally 10,000+ people had cycled through Ovando and few have ever seen a bear. A couple of years back, some young bears did bluff charges on cyclists but nothing major. IMHO this was due to people leaving garbage out that attracts them more than anything else. Every bear that I've seen on my rides has had nothing todo do with humans.
In 2018, coming over Cabin Pass in B.C. we spooked a mountain lion. Like 15' away from us. We are all keenly aware of what it means to be in the food chain.

[Doughty]

I stand corrected: https://geology.com/stories/13/bear-areas/
I just don't understand why those "ghost bears" are in Boise and other 'non populated' areas! Those "experts" might know, or did they (the bears) not check on the internet where they are supposed to be?

The map showing the location of blackbears in Montana is NOT accurate. If it is inaccurate here, it is likely inaccurate elsewhere.

[megasupermagnum]

The map showing the location of blackbears in Montana is NOT accurate. If it is inaccurate here, it is likely inaccurate elsewhere.

I think you are starting to split hairs. Based on what I have heard, brown bears are slightly expanded from that, but it isn't like they are spilling out of those states. I've never seen one in eastern Wyoming or Montana, and don't know anyone who has. I can't even find a case of a lone bear wandering into the Dakota's in the last 100 years, and brown bear used to be all over the plains according to the journals of Lewis and Clark.

Here is a map from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I didn't realize there were that far into Washington, but still, not that much different than every other map out there.

https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/species/mammals/grizzly/20201216_distribitions&RZs_website.V3.jpg

[rockrat]

Wife and I were in Island Park, ID just this past weekend. Where we were staying, we were told not to go walking late in the evening because of bears. There was a sign in the cabin that had "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, except for bears. Bears will kill you"

[Doughty]

megasupermagnum,
Maybe you didn't notice that I was referencing blackbears, while you where speculating about brown bears. Maybe that's the hair you are splitting. Blackbears are found further east than what the referenced map indicates. Enough to make me question the accuracy of what the map indicates for the southern range of the grizzly in Idaho. But perhaps this is also "bunk" based upon what you've been told, heard, read, or not seen.

[megasupermagnum]

megasupermagnum,
Maybe you didn't notice that I was referencing blackbears, while you where speculating about brown bears. Maybe that's the hair you are splitting. Blackbears are found further east than what the referenced map indicates. Enough to make me question the accuracy of what the map indicates for the southern range of the grizzly in Idaho. But perhaps this is also "bunk" based upon what you've been told, heard, read, or not seen.

What do black bears have to do with anything? I wasn't speculating. The woman was attacked by a brown bear.

[cwtebay]

I don't know what jackwagon drew that map - but they obviously are oblivious to actual bears.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[rbuck351]

I lived in AK for 32 years but never hunted brown bear. I hunted and fished a lot tent camping style and only had an issue with a brown bear once. My friend and I were fishing a remote river that we rode our four wheelers to. We spent three nights
on the bank of a salmon chocked river with no issues. When we hiked out to our wheelers , about 1/2 mile, we found both seats chewed up as well as a couple of gas cans and a few other things that we had not packed in to the river. I retired and moved to Eureka MT 5 years ago and that summer we Had three brownies staying around our house. There was a mother and two two year olds. One afternoon I happened to look out the window and saw one of the young ones about half way across the field in front of the house apparently heading for the choke cherry tree in the front yard. A single round from my 454 casull carbine in front of his nose kicked up a bunch of dust and he quickly left.

It is sad to see someone mauled or killed by a bear but it does happen and then there is always the arm chair quarter backs that say they should have done this or that but no one can survive living in the red zone there whole life.

Also, people that stay active in their older age seem to live longer and healthier barring accidents or bear attacks. It sucks to die when you still have stuff you want to do but better that than wasting away sitting on the porch watching the world go by.

By the way, my friend hunted brownies and had some of the meat turned into pepperoni sticks. It was terrible. He brought some to work and tried to find someone to give it to but after a taste, he couldn't even give it away. The eskimo ate some things that would scare most folks but I never saw an eskimo that would eat brown bear.

[megasupermagnum]

No kidding. In a country where obesity is by far the biggest health crisis causing huge amounts of heart problems, cancer, and diabetes, as well as raising your risk of just about anything. They are talking down on a 65 year old dead woman who chose to stay fit as though you are supposed to stop everything when you retire.

[bakerjw]

As an update. They located and killed the bear close to the chicken coop that it had ravaged the night of the attack. They will do a DNA check to ensure that it was the correct bear.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/grizzly-bear-shot-killed-california-woman

[Mal Paso]

No kidding. In a country where obesity is by far the biggest health crisis causing huge amounts of heart problems, cancer, and diabetes, as well as raising your risk of just about anything. They are talking down on a 65 year old dead woman who chose to stay fit as though you are supposed to stop everything when you retire.

Muscle Tone goes fast when you are over 65 like me, it's use it or lose it. I swapped out 800 lbs of batteries and plumbed 4 inch pipe This week. There are a lot of us that ain't giving up till we hit the finish line.

[bakerjw]

Very true...
When I finally leave this planet, I want my body to be like the BluesMobile...
285855

[MT Gianni]

It may depend on what you are calling Eastern MT. East of Billings, probably not, in Lewistown area? yes there are recent sightings.

[megasupermagnum]

It may depend on what you are calling Eastern MT. East of Billings, probably not, in Lewistown area? yes there are recent sightings.

Well eastern half at least. Lewiston looks to be about dead center in the state. Either way, people are arguing over discrepancies of 25-50 miles, basically a days walk for a wild animal. Lewiston is only 100 miles from the edge of their range on any map I see, not a huge surprise that one might turn up there every so often.

[trebor44]

Someone needs to tell that griz on the golf course in Hamilton MT that he should not be there according to the "map"!

[rbuck351]

Griz don't read maps and pretty much go where they want and do what they want.

[abunaitoo]

As people encroach more and more into their habitat, there will be more and more attacks.
Two solutions.
Stay out of their habitat.
Wipe them out.
I vote for stay out of their habitat.
The post office was, at one time, part of their habitat.
You think gooberment would kill off all the bears because the kill people????
It's like banning firearms because disturbed people murder.
Sad reality of our times.

[megasupermagnum]

As people encroach more and more into their habitat, there will be more and more attacks.
Two solutions.
Stay out of their habitat.
Wipe them out.
I vote for stay out of their habitat.
The post office was, at one time, part of their habitat.
You think gooberment would kill off all the bears because the kill people????
It's like banning firearms because disturbed people murder.
Sad reality of our times.

Well that's not really what is happening. Native Americans lived along side brown bears for thousands of years. Brown bears roamed the entire western half of the current lower 48. Native Americans did not farm, they did not mess with them. It is amazing to me as I've been reading a number of books on native Americans lately, how much buffalo were their lives, and how little anything else mattered.

Later in the 1800's as farms from settlers expanded west, brown bear, wolves, buffalo, pretty much anything that stood still, was killed, either for money, or because they were not wanted. brown bear were exterminated in the lower 48, except for a few dozen deep in the mountains. Fast forward to the mid 20th century, and efforts began to expand brown bears in certain areas, I believe the ones on the map I posted earlier. Now there is somewhere around 1000-2000 brown bear in the lower 48, still generally in the same areas. It should be no surprise that as populations raise, and they begin to expand, they sometimes find their way to farmers and ranchers who are just a short walk away. In the case of this woman killed, this was a town built when brown bears were exterminated, and now they are in the heart of their current habitat.

So what you have said is all true, and all false at the same time.

Brown bear were exterminated, farms were built out of their habitat , brown bear are expanding now and finding their way into these areas again, and more and a growing human population is putting more people in the mountains with them.

So we can't stay out of their habitat, when we are already there. We killed them, built into their habitat, and introduced them again. The real question is how far will people tolerate their range in current times? Rationally, how many people do brown bear kill in a year? 2-3 it seems, and over half in Alaska and Canada. By comparison, in all of the USA, on average 41 people are killed by lighting in a year.

But hey, brown bears are big and scary, and don't back down if you challenge them.

[trebor44]

One of many that got media coverage, but there are more that did not: https://yellowstoneinsider.com/2010/07/29/why-did-bear-or-bears-attack-soda-butte/
Bears have eating folks for a long, long time and did not discriminate between native americans, europeans or folks of 'color'! If you are in tent in bear country, you are potentially food! IF you go balls to the wall down a trail on your mountain bike in bear country you can become 'prey' and then food if the bear is hungry. Written material is NOT a substitute for real life experience, just a record written by the victors! Not many accounts are written by the vanquished! NOTE: griz were pushed from the plains to the mountains, just like other critters. Davis California used to be called Davis Thickets and was the home to griz!

[trebor44]

And in the further defense of humans:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44341-w

[waksupi]

One of many that got media coverage, but there are more that did not: https://yellowstoneinsider.com/2010/07/29/why-did-bear-or-bears-attack-soda-butte/
Bears have eating folks for a long, long time and did not discriminate between native americans, europeans or folks of 'color'! If you are in tent in bear country, you are potentially food! IF you go balls to the wall down a trail on your mountain bike in bear country you can become 'prey' and then food if the bear is hungry. Written material is NOT a substitute for real life experience, just a record written by the victors! Not many accounts are written by the vanquished! NOTE: griz were pushed from the plains to the mountains, just like other critters. Davis California used to be called Davis Thickets and was the home to griz!

Its' not just tents. One of my friends was logging down the South Fork of the Flathead. He and his wife had their hard side trailer down there living in it, as it was around a one way hundred mile commute every day otherwise. They had a bear tear it's way through the side of the trailer before he dealt with the problem.

Natives did kill griz, but were quite afraid of them. When they did so they went out as a war party against a respected enemy.

There seems to be some confusion between griz and brown bears. Bears to the west of the divide in the north are considered browns, while those on the east side were considered griz. They could change their status by simply crossing the divide. In my mind, browns are the fish eaters inhabiting the salmon streams, allowing them to gain their larger size over the hard scrabble griz on the east side

[Three44s]

We all have to decide for ourselves if our life is more important than a bear’s, but personally I believe that the grizzly bear on the whole would be better off if there was a logical season.

Three44s

[trebor44]

A hard side is better than a tent BUT if there is something inside a trailer or even a building a blackie or griz will determine a way to get to it. The USFS had to resort to 'electrified fences' (solar powered) to protect it's feed sheds at their 'backcountry cabins' just north of Yellowstone Park. The bear(s) were tearing their way through plank doors and the log walls of the sheds for the horse feed. And as noted in the novel "Tough Trip through Paradise" the griz did invade their tepee! Romancing wildlife is a city slicker concept. Even the buffalo don't take kindly to tourists (been known to depants them)!

[firefly1957]

Sad story no matter what , The bear was in town at businesses also I would say it should be destroyed .