Aggressive bear shot in Denali National Park and Preserve

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner ^ | July 6, 2008

[george76]

An aggressive black bear was shot and killed in a remote section of Denali National Park by park staffers on July 4...

The black bear had threatened the life and safety of three park employees ...

Three seasonal National Park Service technicians were conducting a botany field study along the remote river when a sub-adult black bear approached their camp ...

The three tried to scare it away by yelling, waving their arms and throwing objects at the bear. After being chased off into dense brush, the bear circled back to the camp three or four times. At one point, the animal destroyed a tent. On its final approach to the camp, the bear charged the three researchers, hissing and pouncing at the ground.

An attempt to divert the bear with pepper spray was ineffective.

One of the researchers, who was authorized to carry and use firearms in the park, shot the bear when it charged within 20 feet of the team. The bear was hit in its mid-section with a 12-gauge shotgun slug. Despite considerable blood loss, the wounded bear moved into dense vegetation and out of view.

[RightWhale]

The bear would be moving and the closer it is the faster the angle changes. Aim for the center of mass, don’t even try to place shots. You’ll be lucky to track the center of mass. Be ready to shoot from the hip because that might be the only shot you have.

[Notasoccermom]

The bear must have been overheated in its fur coat.

[CaliforniaCon]

Overheated in fur coat, indeed! Perhaps that’s what ails my crazy dog, who is really out of sorts lately with the heat here in L.A. She’s more aggressive than usual towards just about anything/anyone.

[blu]

The bear must have been overheated in its fur coat.

Silly bears! Didn't they get the memo about only wearing synthetic furs?!

[LibWhacker]

Okay, thanks, RW, that sounds like good advice. I know you’re an Alaskan, so I’ll take your word for it!

[chessplayer]

“The bear was hit in its mid-section with a 12-gauge shotgun slug. Despite considerable blood loss, the wounded bear moved into dense vegetation and out of view.”

It`s a game preserve. They could have gotten the hell out of there instead of gut shooting it. Now the bear will probably die a slow, agonizing death.

[RightWhale]

A polar bear was killed in Fort Yukon a few months ago. The one who finally got it had an AR-15 and the bear came on so fast that there was not time to bring the firearm to the shoulder and aim. 10 rounds were fired from the hip as fast as possible, which is prety fast. Wouldn’t hurt to try this technique some day when nobody else is at the firing range.

[sec.density]

Thanks for correcting AAM. The ranger gut shot the bear, I bet.

[LibWhacker]

They kick people out of the firing range I used to go to (down by Half Moon Bay) if they catch you practicing your rapid fire techniques. Ticks me off because when I was growing up in the midwest I could go out on the back porch and do all the rapid firing I wanted to without asking anyone's permission. Now they act like you're some kind of insane maniac if you do try it. God, for the good old days!

Must admit, bears scare the crap out of me, especially the big'uns, grizz, the big browns, and polar bears. Don't even want to mess with them! Heck, I won't even mess with the so-called "tame" ones!

[LibWhacker]

insane maniac if you do try it ...if you try it.

[TigersEye]

So you were the one in real danger eh? lol

[allmendream]

Those hot Chico women and that cold Chico beer (Sierra Nevada) can be a dangerous combination! But less scary than a seven foot tall bear who can run a hundred yards crashing through thick brush with a broken shoulder and no heart or lungs to speak of.

[TigersEye]

I’m not so sure about that anymore. But I’ve always felt more comfortable in the woods than in a bar. ;^)

[Stonewall Jackson]

Many, many moons ago, my dad and I were hunting whitetails out at Fort Knox and my dad hit a spike buck three times in the chest and neck with 12 gauge slugs and the deer kept on going for a quarter of a mile. Field dressed, he only weighed in at 85 pounds.

I hate to think of what a grizzly that weighs 850 pounds could do to you, even after taking three slugs.

[proud_yank]

1. Undergunned. 12 gauge is a great tool for aggressive humans. It ain't enough for aggressive black bears. This guy needed one of the heavy rifles, loaded alternately with partition bullets and solids. I'm partial to the Old Reliable, .375 Holland and Holland Magnum -- but most professional hunters are now carrying one of the big Winchester or Weatherby magnums.

Are you serious??? A 12-ga loaded with 2 3/4 lead slugs is more than sufficient for black bear, and they're quite often hunted with a lot less. There are guides on Kodiak Island who recommend a .375H&H for brown bear there, but plenty of large brown bears and polar bears have been taken with less (.338 win mag, .300 & .340 weatherbys).

2. When you wound game, you always follow it up. . . . unless you're a park ranger. If the bear had lost that much blood, it wouldn't have been difficult to track. I suspect that these sometime hunters were reluctant to head into heavy cover after a wounded bear. To avoid this situation, see item No. 1.

This is not the first time this has occurred, btw. Back when my dad was in his 30s, he was hunting with a Game Warden who gut shot a deer. They tracked the blood trail for awhile, but the warden got tired and left my dad to track on alone. He followed that deer for FOUR HOURS, found it dead, and packed it out.

Bears are difficult to kill immediately, even with a clean heart or lung shot, and they can travel a fair distance before collapsing. The last thing you do is walk out to them if it walks off especially if you have to take a less-than-ideal shot (as this case suggests). You have to give them sufficient time, a wounded bear is extremely dangerous.

In Denali, and much of alaska, the shrubs and alders can grow extremely tall and thick. Very difficult to walk through, and visibility from the air would be as difficult as from the ground.

My guess is that a team of rangers will conduct a search for this bear, provided a grizzly hasn't gone away with it.

[proud_yank]

I was told it was a cross (polar/griz). Don’t know if its true or not, didn’t look into it.

[allmendream]

It was only a single slug, but it hit into the thoracic cavity from the shoulder breaking the shoulder bone and shredding the heart and lungs.

And that Bear could have killed a man with a single swipe. It tore through thick brush like it was tissue paper.

[george76]

Thanks.

After this, any local talk to legally allow CCW people to enter parks armed ?

[Stonewall Jackson]

I'm glad he didn't head in your direction.

We are starting to have a fairly large black bear population here in Central Kentucky. There have been a number of human-bear encounters, but so far they have all been "friendly". The state is getting ready to have the first bear hunt in decades (probably next year) over in Eastern Kentucky.

There have also been several reported mountain lion sightings here in Hardin County over the past couple of years. The game wardens initially dismissed these sightings as dogs or maybe bobcats, but a farmer in Eastview who'd lost a couple of cows to this animal set up a motion-activated camera in one of his fields and actually took a couple of pictures of it. The game warden now says that it was probably an illegal pet that somebody released when it got too big.

[proud_yank]

Don’t know and doubt it’d have any influence. Denali is different than most parks too, you need to get permits to go backpacking and hiking any distance inside it.

A few weeks ago in Anchorage, a young girl was mountain biking (inside a park) and was attacked by a sow griz. She lived, but was torn up. They decided the bear shouldn’t be shot.