Replies

A bear attack in Alaska

The following pictures are of a guy who works for the Forest Service in Alaska. He was out deer hunting. A large world record Grizzly charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy unloaded a 7mm Mag Semi-auto into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The monster was still alive so he reloaded and capped it in the head. It was over one thousand six hundred pounds, 12'6" high at the shoulder,14' to the top of his head. It's the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world. Of course, the game department did not let him keep it. It will be mounted and put on display at the Anchorage airport (to remind tourist's of the risks involved when in the wild).

Think about it. You would be level with the bears belly button when he stood, he would look you in the eye when walking! This bear on its hind legs could walk up to the average single story house and look over the roof at eye level.

The bear had killed 2 other people. His last meal was the poor fellowon a nature hike. The Forest Service found his 38-caliber emptied. He shot6-times and hit the grizzly 4(they found seven 7mm slugs and four 38 caliber slugs in him) but obviously only wounded him since it was estimated to be 3 days prior to the bears death by the Forest Service man.

OMG... Wow, what a story... and those pictures!

Well, my bear story isn't as interesting as your Bear Attack in Alaska story in #18... We live in a fairly rural area in northern Connecticut. A black bear walked right by the windows I'm facing now back in March 2001. I was sitting here at the computer - surfing FR (what else?) - at about 2AM, and the bear just walked by me. It was black, with a brown snout, around 200lbs. Most of our neighbors have seen the same bear, or have seen the destruction it has left behind.

"Our" bear made a return visit last July. I had a suet cake for birds hanging from a heavy L-shaped wrought-iron hook mounted about 7-8 ft high outside. Also on that hook was a bird feeder filled with birdseed. In the morning we first noticed birdseed all over the deck (birds, squirrels and chipmunks were having a feast!). Then - we couldn't believe it - the heavy wrought iron hook was bent down and twisted in a shape that no human could've made. The suet cake and container was gone, and the bear's paw prints were all over the side of our light-colored house. Days later, I found the empty suet cake container at the edge of the woods.

I like gardening, but now I jump at the slightest sound in the woods around our house!

This email tale, circulating constantly in one form or another since November 2001, seems to grow taller year by year. Ironically, the first two snapshots — the ones showing the hunter posing next to the carcass of an incredibly large bear — are authentic. We know where and when they were taken, and by whom. The origin of the third photo purporting to show the remains of the behemoth's last victim is unknown. It was attached to the already-circulating email by an anonymous prankster in late 2002. In real life, the big grizzly measured 10' 6" from nose to tail and weighed in at an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 pounds — unusually large for the vicinity, says the USDA Forest Service, but not quite a world record, nor even an Alaskan record. It was killed on October 14, 2001 by U.S. Air Force Airman Theodore Winnen on Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound. The photos were taken by his hunting partner, Staff Sgt. James Urban. Both were stationed at the nearby Eielson Air Force Base at the time. Though the bear was within 10 yards of the hunters' position and moving towards them when he fired the first shot, Winnen says, it did not charge them, contrary to what the email claims. "I don't know if the wind was in our favor or what," he told the Anchorage Daily News. "We were dressed in camouflage. He might not have seen us." Winnen's weapon was a 338-caliber Winchester Magnum, not a 7mm semi-automatic as alleged. The first bullet pierced the bear's brain but left it standing; five more in the chest finally brought it down. Was the bear a man-eater, as claimed in the email? No, says the Forest Service, there is no evidence of that. When asked by the Anchorage Daily News to comment on the horrific image of what appears to be a partially-eaten human victim, spokesman Ray Massey admitted he hadn't even looked at it. "I didn't want to see a photo of the body," he said. "I know it's bogus."