Posted on Saturday, 08 August 2015 in Grizzly Bears
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DO NOT LET THE GOVERNMENT KILL THIS BEAR:
We need to honor this hiker and let the mother bear roam wild. The reason: Mother grizzlies never intentionally kill humans; they don’t care about us, only the safety of their cubs. The hiker surprised the sow grizzly. We will never know exactly how but likely she was on a day bed and he got too close. The hiker had wounds on his arms, indicating he probably fought back, an understandable but bad reaction to a mother bear to whom resistance means her cubs are still in danger. We don’t know why she made contact; close proximity possibly made worse by running. Running or trying to climb a tree after a mother grizzly with cubs is the worst choice, followed by fighting back. Apparently, the hiker’s body was cached and fed upon. This most disturbing of consequences needs to seen in context of the natural world of the bear. Anything dead out there is Yellowstone this time of year is seen as a most valuable food source during the lean times of summer. Witness past bison carcasses in Hayden Valley where humans got too close, then in turn were eaten too. Once dead, a human is like any other animal. If several grizzlies are around, the most dominant animal, often a big male, will appropriate the carcass. So if a mother bear killed a human in perceived defense of her cubs, that doesn’t mean she cached or fed on the body. The salient point here: This mother bear is no more likely to repeat this most natural of aggressions–kill, or consume a human–than any other mother grizzly bear in the world. The feds are more nervous about litigation and bad press than public safety. The only way to totally protect the public from wild bears and insure safety for park visitors is to kill off all the grizzlies. the federal agencies don’t want that any more than we do. Help them clarify their thinking. This was a defensive natural act for a wild grizzly. It will probably never happen again to this mother bear, though of course it might–and that is the great value of wilderness and their risky animals. The hiker was experienced, knew the area well and loved to take this hike. His now missing opinion is what would have mattered to me: What would he have wanted for the fate of this bear?
Doug Peacock
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Exposing the Big Game 
Timothy Treadwell, the “Grizzly Man” didn’t make the best decisions in regard to his own safety and the bears. But he didn’t want any bears punished if one should kill him: “If they ever come to pick me up and find me dead, I hope they just bury me and don’t say a word.”
Interesting how many (even caring humans) comment that “grizzly bears are dangerous.”–a purely humanist term, for in Nature there is no such thing. One is either eaten or eating another–no judgement, no cruelty in Nature. As the Grizzly might say, in her mind, “its nothing personal, just business.”
Humans are the only ones who repeatedly kill for food. Leave the bear alone. There is no evidence that she is a vicious people hunter.
Why are they telling the public that it isn’t normal behavior? The 2011 incident the bear fed on the carcasses too. In every bear/human conflict in the park – hasn’t it always been a female and cubs? That is significant to me. I don’t know why the Park is giving misinformation, bears are predators. It also will continue to give visitors a false sense of security and not encourage them to keep their distance.
Or bear/human fatalities I should say – and there have only been four in the past seven years – have been a mother and cubs, and human error? With all of the people that are pushed through that park, it’s amazing that number is as low as it is. I’ve also heard that the relentless hazing of her had her agitated. There’s so much we don’t know, as we stumble along killing everything in our way. When I read some of the abject stupidity in comments on this across the Internet, it really is a terrible thing that humans rule the world.