incaster
arming,
Common sense, respect needed in coping with wild enimel attacks
WEST THUMB, Wyo. - High on
a ridge in Wyoming’s Yellowstone
National Park, a hiker crosses the
timberline and enters a subalpine
meadow of waist-high grasses. Up
ahead, something moves.
It’s a grizzly bear about 100 feet
away. The bear rises nine feet tall
onto its hind legs, waves its nose in
the air, drops onto four legs, and
begins to run straight at the hiker.
There is no tree to climb; nowhere
to run, nowhere to hide, and the
hiker has no gun. What should he
do?
This desperate thought has run
through the minds of many people.
“When I saw that bear come
smoking down on me,” says
Montana hunting guide Bill Hill, “I
didn’t have any trouble deciding
who was the endangered species. ’ ’
Sometimes Both Die
Every summer, from Wyoming
to Alaska, humans and bears have
fatal encounters. Sometimes the
human dies, sometimes the bear,
sometimes both.
Visits to U.S. national parks
have nearlyu tripled in the last 10
years. More people are hiking the
trails and meeting not just bears,
but other potentially dangerous
wildlife species.
A young boy trying to feed a deer
in California’s Yosemite National
Park was suddenly gored and
killed.
A photographer in Yellowstone
was fatally attacked when he tried
to pet a bison.
A moose trampled a sled-dog
musher and his dogs when they
surprised it on a snowy trail in
cental Alaska.
A well-meaning woman found an
injured heron in Louisiana and, as
she reached out to help the
frightened bird, it whipped around
its dagger-like beak and impaled
her through the neck. She died
instantly.
<mm
‘CW
BLACK
REP
DK foREV
LT.6CEY
BROWN
CPNoe/Ne pßomes
P DaUGNTFUL PPSPA/B
ONLPRBS PNDRtVBRS.
usthte swu inppddc/ng
PCMOSMW6S 7N&
GWCSFUL SOFTP SPFB,
SU/fFTU/P7 OF 7PPNSPOR-
TrvoN. cpnobs usao pr
SVMMBP Pa SORTS PND
CFMPs (/supuy pp(/a p
MfOMTL Y ROUNDaD SOF
TOM, PND CNRVaoPmRD
PT7MB Boot/PND S7BRN.
iaturday, March 29,1986
“I remember that fellow killed
by the bison,” says Yellowstone
ranger Fred Hirschmann. “He was
trying to pet it on the head. We
don’t go around patting each other
on our heads, do we? Enough is
enough.”
Wildlife biologists contend that
fatal and injurious encounters
between people and wildlife result
from human ignorance, not animal
aggression.
“Bears aem’t out there plotting
murder,” says Kathy Jope,
resource-management specialist
at Alaska’s Katmai National Park.
“They have better things to do.
I’ve seen bears repeatedly charge
and growl at photographers,
fishermen, and campers. None of
those charges was unprovoked. In
every case the person eithe
frightened or irritated the bear. It
doesn’t have to happen.”
Jope believes that most people
don’t know how to avoid bear
encounters or how to react once an
encounter begms.
Swift Predators
“Grizzly bears are predators,”
she says. “You can’t outrun them
unless there is a safe shelter
nearby. An animal that runs
probably evokes within the bear a
predator response, so the bear
gives chase.”
Moose, on the other hand, are a
prey species. A full-grown Alaska
bull moose stands six feet tall at
the shoulders and weighs 1,600
pounds. One kick can kill a man. A
charging moose is as dangerous as
a charging bear.
“Maybe more dangerous,” adds
Kathy Jope, “since bears often
‘bluff charge,’ turning around at
the last moment, and moose do
not.”
Moose have a distinct territory
within which any intruder is
fiercely attacked, and outside of
which he is tolerated. If the m
(Turnto Page B 12)
PEACH
GREEN
LT BROWN
IT. BLUE
LT. GREEN
f 1
*V
,0 *
Dangerous competition for a hooked salmon threatens the tranquility of this scene on
Alaska’s Brooks River. Fisherman John Craighead, a dean of grizzly research, knew
enough about the huge bears to break his line and avoid a potentially hazardous en
counter. As visitis to wilderness areas increase, people with less awareness about how
bears, moose, deer, bison and even birds often react to human intrusion could be
courting injury and death.
„ r:^sr
s -//-s 5