Rail Conductor Says There Are Too Many Drunk Grizzlies On Train Tracks

Cowboy State Daily ^ | 11/23/2023 | Mark Heinz

[DFG]

As odd as it might seem, a train conductor confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that grizzly bears and other wild animals frequently get intoxicated on fermented grain spilled from rail cars, and too many of them end up getting killed as a result.

Paul Summers told Cowboy State Daily he’s seen it with his own eyes.

“Especially in the summertime, it’s common to see bears, including grizzlies, drunk on grain. You will see them wobbling,” he said. “You will see them staggering.”

In fact, he said the bears’ own stubbornness often works against them, as they don’t want to move off the tracks despite warning horns from approaching trains. It can essentially be a game of chicken between the grizzlies and trains, with the bears losing every time.

Nothing Funny About It At first, the notion of drunken bears stumbling along railroad tracks might seem humorous. But such drunkenness, as well as the general danger of the rail lines, kills numerous wild critters, said Summers. He worked on BNSF Railway trains as a conductor from 2013-2022. He now lives in Seattle and works for Amtrak.

During his tenure with BNSF, Summers said he was frequently on a roughly 500-mile stretch of track running between Havre, Montana, and Spokane, Washington. Part of that runs through prime grizzly habitat over Marias Pass in Montana near Glacier National Park and other vast wild country.

He loves wildlife, and said it still troubles him to think of all the animals he saw killed by trains.

“We’ve been on trains that have probably killed every type of large animal that lives in the state of Montana,” he said.

As bad as it was in the mountains, Summers said it could be worse out on the prairies, especially with antelope herds.

[Vaduz]

You thing grizzly bears are mean now wait until you see one after a AA meeting.

[17th Miss Regt]

True. And then there are the drunk ghettopotami. They will just raise hell!

[lurk]

Fentanyl. They’re fentanyl bears. They get it from the MookMook cartels.

[freefdny]

High and Low

by James H. Cousins

He stumbled home from Clifden fair
With drunken song, and cheeks aglow.
Yet there was something in his air
That told of kingship long ago.
I sighed — and inly cried
With grief that one so high should fall so low.

He snatched a flower and sniffed its scent,
And waved it toward the sunset sky.
Some old sweet rapture thro’ him went
And kindled in his bloodshot eye.
I turned — and inly burned
With joy that one so low should rise so high.

[DouglasKC]

Drunk Grizzly sounds way worse than cocaine bear.