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Bears Don’t Care About Your Philosophy: Why Firearms Matter in Bear Country
AmmoLand ^ | April 2, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 04/07/2025 7:50:11 AM PDT by marktwain

Timothy Treadwell was a controversial figure who insisted on approaching and viewing brown bears at close range for about 13 years. He did not carry a firearm or bear spray or any deterrents. From backpacker.com:

Wes: Timothy thought he was the dominant bear in the ecosystem. I think he was past the point of accepting any input on that. I think he had convinced himself that they would never hurt him, and he was untouchable.

Treadwell was repeatedly warned about the danger. From akfatal.net:

Despite that, Treadwell refused to carry firearms or ring his campsites with an electric fence as do bear researchers in the area. And he stopped carrying bear spray for self-protection in recent years. Friends said he thought he knew the bears so well he didn’t need it.

U.S. Geological Survey bear researcher Tom Smith; Sterling Miller, formerly the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s top bear authority; and others said they tried to warn the amateur naturalist that he was being far too cavalier around North America’s largest and most powerful predator….

“I told him to be much more cautious … because every time a bear kills somebody, there is a big increase in bearanoia and bears get killed,” Miller said. “I thought that would be a way of getting to him, and his response was ‘I would be honored to end up in bear scat.’ ”

Timothy Treadwell was killed and eaten by brown bears in October 2003. His death overshadowed the first fatal failure of bear spray to stop an attack.

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Nikolayenko was a prominent Russian brown bear researcher (Asian version of the American brown or grizzly bear) who routinely and closely approached bears without a firearm. He did this for 33 years, from 1970 to December 2003. In December 2003,

(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: banglist; bear; bearrepublic; bearsrepeating; defense; russia; therighttoarmbears; thingsiworryabout; unbearable; wildlife
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Nikolayenko followed a bear which came out of hibernation in December of 2003. Nikolayenko carried bear spray. He approached the bear, the bear attacked, killed and ate him in spite of his use of bear spray. It was the first fatal failure of bear spray which has been recorded. It has not been the last.
1 posted on 04/07/2025 7:50:11 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Grisly, man.

2 posted on 04/07/2025 7:53:55 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: marktwain
He approached the bear,....


3 posted on 04/07/2025 7:53:55 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: Magnum44

I suspect this was a case of an obsession with bears combined with contempt derived from 30 years of not being mauled. His luck ran out.

There was probably a fair amount of arrogance in his belief about his ability to control the situation.


4 posted on 04/07/2025 7:59:09 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain
Wild animals are...wild.


5 posted on 04/07/2025 8:01:04 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: marktwain

‘I would be honored to end up in bear scat.’ ”


Someone make a statute of bear scat so we can honor him.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/bear-scat-identification/


6 posted on 04/07/2025 8:08:41 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: PeterPrinciple

The tricky nature of identifying bear scat comes from the spectrum of foods they eat, says Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear biologist Jamie Jonkel. Bear scats vary widely based on what food sources the omnivore is digesting. Different types of bear scats include:

Vegetation scats
Berry scats
Insect scats
Meat scats
Fish scats
Garbage scats
dumbass scats


7 posted on 04/07/2025 8:10:49 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: marktwain
The really sad thing about Treadwell incident was he brought his girlfriend with him on the fatal campout.
I've read that he was killed first, so his girlfriend watched him being killed and then watched the
bear approach her. Treadwell was a fool.
8 posted on 04/07/2025 8:10:55 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (⭐⭐To the Left, The Truth is Right Wing Violence⭐⭐)
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To: marktwain

Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear shats you out!


9 posted on 04/07/2025 8:20:43 AM PDT by BlackbirdSST (Trump or Bust! Long live the Republic.)
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To: TangoLimaSierra

You can’t fix stupid.


10 posted on 04/07/2025 8:26:31 AM PDT by paulcissa (Politicians want you disarmed because they intend on doing things you would shoot them for.)
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To: marktwain

While hunting SE Alaska mainland roughly 12 years ago I found a (huge) pile of brown bear crap. Sticking out of the top of the pile was a black bear claw, curious I dug through the pile with a stick and recovered an entire set of black bear claws.

Sat in my desk drawer for a few years along with an octopus beak I’d recovered from a very large halibut stomach.


11 posted on 04/07/2025 8:43:52 AM PDT by gettinolder
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To: paulcissa

“You can’t fix stupid.”

No, but apparently it is consumable.


12 posted on 04/07/2025 8:45:52 AM PDT by big truck ("This space intentionally left blank.")
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To: marktwain

Let this be a lesson of what happens when you’re not smarter than the average bear.


13 posted on 04/07/2025 9:09:52 AM PDT by The_Harlequin (…the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, wi)
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To: marktwain

Yeah, but the 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with brown bears.

The Founding Fathers knew that someday We The People might have to take their government back from the totalitarians.


14 posted on 04/07/2025 9:15:38 AM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: libertylover

The 2nd amendment has to with all legitimate uses of firearms.


15 posted on 04/07/2025 9:34:30 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: libertylover

If that’s the case, then why does the second amendment mention “Bear Arms”? huh?

I’ll show myself out.


16 posted on 04/07/2025 9:52:48 AM PDT by sloanrb
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To: marktwain

Actually, I believe bears are not stupid.

They would feign interest in philosopy just to get a....little closer.


17 posted on 04/07/2025 10:14:15 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: marktwain; martin_fierro

In the wilderness if you’re not at the top of the food chain then you’re on the menu.


18 posted on 04/07/2025 11:23:50 AM PDT by Towed_Jumper (Please remain seated until your civilization comes to a complete stop.)
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To: sloanrb; marktwain

Actually I think
Timothy Snackwell did have a Weapon and it was Used, A Large Cast Iron Skillet. I’m not sure if it was the girl friend or Tim.
The Audio Recording of the encounter is Very Tasty!

.
RIP
MR.and Misses


19 posted on 04/07/2025 11:33:17 AM PDT by Big Red Badger (ALL Things Will be Revealed !)
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To: TangoLimaSierra

Promised her a once-in-a-lifetime bear encounter....


20 posted on 04/08/2025 1:58:33 AM PDT by gundog (The ends justify the mean tweets. )
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