Posted on 08/29/2015 10:52:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Swedish man has spoken about his close brush with death when a bear he believed he had killed lunged up and launched a violent attack on himself and his hunting partner on the first day of Sweden's annual cull.
Roles were reversed at the start of Sweden's annual bear hunt on Friday when two Swedish hunters had to be taken to hospital after they were attacked by their own prey.
“I had had my eye on this bear for a week and a half, because it had been walking around eating oats in this area,” Per-Anders Wärme from Bollnäs in northern Sweden told regional newspaper Hela Hälsingland after the incident.
He and his friend had fired two shots at a bear just after the hunt got under way early on Friday morning. But when they walked up to the prey it turned out it was still alive.
Keen to exert his revenge, the 270-kilo beast lunged at Wärme's colleague, who fell to the ground. And as the 49-year-old tried to get hold of his rifle and rescue the other man the bear came towards him instead.
“I had my fist in the jaws of the bear before I managed to get the barrel in place to pull the trigger,” he said after his injured left hand was stitched up by doctors at a clinic in Bollnäs.
The other man, who has not been named, suffered severe but non-life threatening bite wounds on his thigh and groin and was taken to hospital in Gävle to undergo surgery.
“I am aware of the risks and how bears act. I feel stable now and will continue the hunt tormorrow,” Wärme told Hela Hälsingland.
VIDEO: Swedish man's roar sees off charging bear
Under Swedish law it is legal to hunt the animals between August and October and in recent years this has been actively encouraged to help control growing numbers of the creatures.
Hundreds of brown bears are shot in Sweden every autumn as part of the cull, which this year will see 226 animals killed in seven counties across northern parts of Sweden.
But the practice was met with criticism when the Swedish Species Information Centre announced earlier this year that the brown bear is once again at risk of becoming extinct, after previously dropping off the centre's annual 'red' watchlist.
The centre has reclassified the brown bear as an endangered species, citing hunting as the primary cause of the declining population.
Bear attacks on humans are relatively rare in Sweden, compared to the US, where on average two people a year die as a result of an encounter with a bear. By contrast, there have only been two fatalities caused by bear attacks over the last century in Sweden.
Bitten in his Swedish groin by a bear? Oh, that had to be just about un-bearable!!
Somewhat popular post on facebook is a genuine response from a visitor at Yellowstone complaining about not having seen any bears and suggesting the bears be trained to show themselves to visitors.
Ok perhaps it is just me LOL The heading on this thread suggest that the Swedes were attack by a Dead Bear. Are we talking about a “Walker Bear”?
Now the park's policy is the opposite, Bears are mostly kept in managed areas away from people and denied human food and food waste.
Bears are very smart, in fact, I once heard an animal intelligence expert claim that bears and pigs [which are related] are the smartest non-primate species. [She claimed the intelligence of dolphins was highly overrated.] They can be very quickly trained to show themselves to visitors, but the park service doesn't want the liability anymore.
More than the usual number of the Big Fellas roaming around up here this year. Not sure of why the larger totals of ‘em now, but they are great to view, (from a LONG distance away, or with Binos), as they cruise along thru the Mountains without a care in the world.
Zombie bears
Unfortunately. Have you?
Now I live in northern Michigan in a very rural place and we only see them now and then.
Maybe they just need more pic-a-nic baskets.
As one African hunter said it is the dead ones that kill you.
Another one said when dealing with dangerous game always pay the insurance.
Meaning shoot them again.
“Bears are very smart, in fact, I once heard an animal intelligence expert claim that bears and pigs [which are related] are the smartest non-primate species.”
And when you hunt feral pigs you have to make sure you have a pistol on the ready after you take one down because they’ve been known to play dead and attack the hunter and kill them.
I came across a momma Bear with 5 cubs a couple weeks ago she ran towards me stopped about 15 ft away and jumped [bounced actually] off her front legs while HUMPPHING [thats what it sounded like. I slowly backed away till I got to my driveway and got in my truck. My heart was racing a mile a minute.
Capstick?
Or maybe it was just constipated.
yes
The world was horrified over a dead lion why not a dead bear!
#Deadbearlivesmatter;-)
Even FRED BEAR, bow and arrow hunter, admitted he always carried a .44 mag under his coat when hunting dangerous game.
Others who hunt dangerous game have admitted they also have a rifleman standing out of sight “just in case”.
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