My son and daughter in law live in Seattle and love to hike. Couple of weekends ago they were camping on an island somewhere nearby. Hiking up the mountain, they came across a 3' rattler that seemed very angry in the trail. Decided the mountain swim wasn't worth it so headed back down . On the way they came across a pile of bear scat that wasn't there a few minutes ago. They picked up the pace. Later they spotted another rattler. They decided the campground was a great place to spend the rest of the weekend.

As previously mentioned, life can change in a blink of an eye. My heart goes out to that young man and his family.

quote:

Originally posted by Alpine79830:
And we are NOT diminished, the herd has been thinned.

Perhaps you got confused and posted this in the wrong thread?

No, he's just trying to get attention. That's all it is, plain and simple- a bid for attention. Alpine has something he'd like to say but can't seem to get around to it. That must be very frustrating for you, Alpine.

quote:

Originally posted by TBH:
My son and daughter in law live in Seattle and love to hike. Couple of weekends ago they were camping on an island somewhere nearby. Hiking up the mountain, they came across a 3' rattler that seemed very angry in the trail. Decided the mountain swim wasn't worth it so headed back down . On the way they came across a pile of bear scat that wasn't there a few minutes ago. They picked up the pace. Later they spotted another rattler. They decided the campground was a great place to spend the rest of the weekend.

As previously mentioned, life can change in a blink of an eye. My heart goes out to that young man and his family.

Very weird to encounter a rattlesnake on one of the islands, since we do not have them in western Washington. They're all on the east side, in the desert.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
Looks like he did not tread well.

I see what you did there.


On a side note I'm with the others. Generally black bears aren't a threat. He must have startled it or ran across a mother with cubs.

Bears don't understand running so I'm sure it thought he was trying to attack it.

Such a sad story.

I've heard over the years that black bears account for more deaths than any other type of bear. Don't know if it's true or not but I have a feeling it is.

We used to go camping and fishing in Northern Minnesota, the area that later became the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and met up with black bears two of the three times we were there.

It was exciting for a couple young teenaged boys (my brother and myself), not so much for my father and great-uncle, even though nobody got hurt.

After the second run-in, we decided to push further north into Canada and camp on an island that was, we hoped, too far for a bear to swim out to. That worked for us.

Looks like Alaska has had a second black bear attack/killing.



Patrick Cooper had already turned around after reaching the halfway point in a popular mountain race in Alaska when he somehow veered off the trail and became lost. That's when the 16-year-old Anchorage boy encountered the black bear that would take his life in a rare predatory attack.

Cooper began running, and at one point he reportedly placed a frantic call to his brother, saying he was being chased by a bear Sunday in the Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb race south of Anchorage. The brother notified race director Brad Precosky, who alerted race crews to begin searching for Cooper, known as Jack.

It took a couple hours for responders to locate the teen, whose body was found about a mile up the path, at about 1,500 vertical feet (457 vertical meters). The bear was found at the site, guarding the body, Precosky said.

A Chugach State Park ranger shot the 250-pound (113-kilogram) bear in the face, but the animal ran away.

Alaska State Troopers said the boy's remains were airlifted from the scene on Sunday.

State park staffers were scouring the area Monday looking for the bear, state Fish and Game spokesman Ken Marsh said. Sunday's attack was believed to have been a rare predatory move, not a defensive action such as when a female bear will protect her cubs, he said.

"It's very unusual," Marsh said of the mauling. "It's sort of like someone being struck by lightning."

Later Monday, a second fatal mauling at the hands of a black bear was reported nearly 300 miles northeast of Anchorage. Officials with an underground gold mine reported a contract employee hired to take geological samples was killed and another injured in a black bear attack.

No names have been released. Alaska State Troopers and federal mine officials are investigating the mauling at Pogo Mine.

Matt Wedeking, division operations manager with Alaska State Parks, said the predatory behavior of the bear in the attack on the teen was not normal. Asked if there were cubs around this black bear, he said, "We don't know. There could have been. But right now I don't have any information about the bear."


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017...in-extreme-race.html

quote:

Originally posted by airsoft guy:

quote:

Originally posted by TBH:
My son and daughter in law live in Seattle and love to hike. Couple of weekends ago they were camping on an island somewhere nearby. Hiking up the mountain, they came across a 3' rattler that seemed very angry in the trail. Decided the mountain swim wasn't worth it so headed back down . On the way they came across a pile of bear scat that wasn't there a few minutes ago. They picked up the pace. Later they spotted another rattler. They decided the campground was a great place to spend the rest of the weekend.

As previously mentioned, life can change in a blink of an eye. My heart goes out to that young man and his family.

Very weird to encounter a rattlesnake on one of the islands, since we do not have them in western Washington. They're all on the east side, in the desert.

Yeah, unless that island was in the middle of a lake east of the Cascades I think this story is a bit embellished.

quote:

Originally posted by airsoft guy:

quote:

Originally posted by TBH:
My son and daughter in law live in Seattle and love to hike. Couple of weekends ago they were camping on an island somewhere nearby. Hiking up the mountain, they came across a 3' rattler that seemed very angry in the trail. Decided the mountain swim wasn't worth it so headed back down . On the way they came across a pile of bear scat that wasn't there a few minutes ago. They picked up the pace. Later they spotted another rattler. They decided the campground was a great place to spend the rest of the weekend.

As previously mentioned, life can change in a blink of an eye. My heart goes out to that young man and his family.

Very weird to encounter a rattlesnake on one of the islands, since we do not have them in western Washington. They're all on the east side, in the desert.

Yeah, very weird if true. I think they may have run into a Bull Snake or something similar. Having lived in the east side most of my life, I have only run across rattlers a couple of times.

Jim

Sometimes non-rattlers will attempt to deceive possible predators by shaking their tails, pretending to be rattlesnakes. You can't trust snakes. They speak with forked tongues.

You can hate on him for sending the text but I sure as hell would. You are unarmed, tired, and running from a bear. Help coming is about the only thing that would save you if possible.

Despite what's being posted locally in the Anchorage news...as todd pointed out...this ISN'T that uncommon.

I can't understand the rationale of running through bear country.

Despite the other post on the first page....this is NOT remote or rural. It's the Seward highway. It sees 70,000-80,000 vehicles a day during this time of year. The trail is used by hundreds of people a day. This past fall a similar incident took investigators weeks to figure out who killed the runner. They ended up blaming a moose after initiating a manhunt for a knife attacker...the poor shredded runner did not have a quick death. This poor child likely did not either.

It is very sad. It is also very hard for me to understand how running is somehow worth this risk. It appears, to my understanding, to be a monumentally stupid thing to do. I'm very sorry for the boy's loss and his family's grief they must be suffering.

For those giving their opinions on bears in the lower 48...bears here are not the same. Moose here are not the same. It does not surprise me in the least that the bear survived a 12 gauge slug to the face. I put 5 rounds of 300 win mag into a black bear, heart and lung shots and watched it live nearly 10 more minutes.

Black bears here are big, and tough. They don't play by city rules, and they don't care about city folk's trails through their territory. Anchorage to Girdwood is full of some pretty stupid city folk.

You forgot to add how fast a bear can run. Definitely faster than a human being, and faster than some horses, from what I've heard.

Trail running for sport in bear country seems a foolhardy thing to do, even from where I'm sitting, 3,700 miles from you.

I'm not "hating" on this kid, either. A 16-year-old, unless raised in bear country, just doesn't know. I was about that age when my two encounters happened, and I was too naïve to realize the danger. Thank God we didn't panic and run, or we'd have been bear scat.

quote:

Originally posted by newtoSig765:
You forgot to add how fast a bear can run. Definitely faster than a human being, and faster than some horses, from what I've heard.

Trail running for sport in bear country seems a foolhardy thing to do, even from where I'm sitting, 3,700 miles from you.

I'm not "hating" on this kid, either. A 16-year-old, unless raised in bear country, just doesn't know. I was about that age when my two encounters happened, and I was too naïve to realize the danger. Thank God we didn't panic and run, or we'd have been bear scat.

Black Bear populations have increased dramatically in the last few decades. There are estimated to be over 300,000 in the United States. Running is a sport,just like cycling and hiking. I carry a firearm when I am out and have encountered some Black Bear before.Luckily they went in the opposite direction.

Encounters are going to become more frequent as the bear population increases.You can't expect people to not run,cycle,hike,fish,etc because bears live there.



http://www.defenders.org/black-bear/basic-facts

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You can't expect people to not run,cycle,hike,fish,etc because bears live there.

I suppose the problem will sort itself out then, as we continue to see here.

We should genetically re-engineer bears to morbidly fear humans.

We should also use genetic engineering to drive to extinction: mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, and spider crickets. Why spider crickets? Because they are nasty.

One thing that surprises me every bear thread is the people claiming that black bear rarely kill people compared to brown bear. Here are the stats for North America:

2010's: brown bear 11, black bear 9

2000's: brown bear 12, black bear 13

1990's: brown bear 15, black bear 10, polar bear 2

I took a living in bear country class from Alaska fish & game when I first moved to Alaska. A few surprising things I learned:

black bare rarely bluff charge, but brown bear are more likely to bluff charge. In other words, if a black bear charges you're probably in for a fight for your life.

Anchorage had ~350 black bear and ~60 brown bear living in the city limits. It was kind of funny when a brown bear escaped from a zoo, and I received calls and texts from worried friends all over the country. They were shocked at my lack of concern until I told them how many bear there already were roaming around town.

the department of the Anchorage city gov't responsible for tracking bear encounters is garbage & recycling. Garbage day was the most common day for bear encounters.

don't walk your dog off leash in bear country. Bears and dogs hate each other, and a dog encountering a bear will run back to its owner with a charging bear following

if you kill a bear in defense in Alaska it'll cost you about $1000. You have to give the hide w/ claws attached and skull to ADF&G who will test it at your expense and investigate whether or not your shooting was justified.

the instructor who taught the class was a guide in McNeil River State Game sanctuary which boasts the highest density of brown bear in the world. He had been doing it for over a decade and had zero negative bear encounters despite his job all summer long was to escort photographers from camp along a low visibility trail to the falls where they could see bear eating salmon. He was required to carry a 12 gauge with Brenneke black magic magnum slugs, but had never used it.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by AKSuperDually:

quote:

You can't expect people to not run,cycle,hike,fish,etc because bears live there.

I suppose the problem will sort itself out then, as we continue to see here.

Infrequent or not, animals tend to attack fleeing prey. If you throw in hiking near bear cubs with running and cycling, AK will be proven right.

As for me, I'll remain a non-participant.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
One thing that surprises me every bear thread is the people claiming that black bear rarely kill people compared to brown bear. Here are the stats for North America:

2010's: brown bear 11, black bear 9

2000's: brown bear 12, black bear 13

1990's: brown bear 15, black bear 10, polar bear 2

I lived in Alaska 16 months, stationed at remote Clear Air Station, in the mid 1990s. I spent a LOT of time out in the woods (our base was about 1300 acres, but only about 50-100 acres of that had human infrastructure (roads, buildings, etc)). I got out every chance I got, either shooting at a local range, grouse hunting, fishing, or jogging. No cell phones, no portable radio or walkie-talkie. I honestly didn't give bears much of a thought. Looking at the numbers above, those are per *decade*. Multiply the millions of people living our vacationing in bear country over 10 years, makes for VERY favorable odds.

Also, one must consider that black bears are MUCH more numerous than browns (otherwise called Grizzlies). For example, black bears are common here in Colorado (I saw one about 50 yards from me on the USAF Academy golf course once), but Grizzlies are either altogether absent or extremely rare here. So, the fact that the brown bear killings still outnumber black bear killings means, to my limited statistical analysis, at least, that blacks still aren't that dangerous. They are still bears, of course, but in Alaska, nobody I knew of was really afraid of black bears (unless they had cubs with them).

I always took either my .44 or 12ga with me hunting or fishing (sometimes both), but I never jogged armed. It wasn't allowed (military bases are picky with when/where you are allowed to be armed). I had 5- and 7-mile jogging paths through the woods. I would be miles away from any other human, with nothing to call for help but my voice. I even jogged this route at midnight once (broad daylight in the summer months). I never gave bears a second thought.

It's not bravery; it's just the way things were.

This boy's death is sad, but it really is a statistical freak event. He wasn't stupid for running through 'bear country' (and practically 100% of Alaska is 'bear country'). He was just unlucky.