Brown bear killed by Kodiak bunny hunter

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I was watching the National Geographic Channel last night and saw a documentary about opportunity feeders. In one scene a brown bear chased down and caught a deer. I can't outrun a deer, so I suppose it follows that a bear could easily outrun me.

Bears are amazing animals.
 
I actually give the hunter credit for holding fire.

Sometimes, a bear will do a "bluff charge". If it hasn't turned away and breaks the 15 yard limit, it's not bluffing.

It's gonna try to eat you.

10 yards sounds about right, it sounds like the decision to fire was made at about 15.
 
You watch, it'll be a 22. Then everyone can SHUT UP about caliber wars.
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Not likely. I don't know of anyone who takes a .22 pistol out in the woods with them. The rifle was probably a .22, considering his prey, but not the pistol.
 
The Only close up experiance I've had with Bears are the two occasions when Black bear have made a run at me.
On both occasions the Bear ran out of steam very quickly.
One was a small adult no bigger than i, and the other was pretty close to the supposed maximum size for a blackie, well over 300 lb and closer to four hundred pounds. Rarely they get to 600, thats about the record.

Neither bear was any faster than I was over a short distance. The Larger Bear seemed to rethink the situation after he ran through a stream that was between us.

Supposedly the Black bear is nearly as fast as a Brown bear but I seriously doubt it based on those I've seen.

Living where I do I've done a lot more fast moving on hillsides than most people, must be in the genes.

One thing to consider is that bipeds have several advantages when it comes to hillsides.
Waliking along a hillside isn't that hard but for a Four Footer they have to extend the legs on one side while shortening the extension on the uphill side.
Their legs just aren't as well designed for that as ours are.
Ground that supports us easily can give way under them.

Also we can climb rock faces and leap from rock to rock that is too small for a bear to even get a grip on much less stand on.

Also if you are sure footed you can run across deadfalls they'd have to clamber over.
After a bit of that they get more PO'ed with the situation than they are at you and decide to quit wasting daylight on primates and get back to the Berry patch or whatever else they were doing.

PS
Just remembered an encounter with a Grizzly at the Knoxville Zoo years ago.

There was a tiered section with cages for animals not yet trusted to be released to the main populations.
Walkways let you observe the animals very closely in their small enclosures.

My lady friend in those days and I were on an upper tier looking at some big cats.

The young lady was a bit pensive and had turned to look out over the view from that elevation. She then began to walk towards what looked like the edge of the trail with brush all around it.
Unfortunately the brush obscured the fact that she was walking on a wide board layed on top of the grizzly Bear cage directly below.
The Bear made a leap for her and if not for the several layers of cross hatched rebar laid over the cage might well have gotten her feet.
As it was the Bears claws extended a couple of inches past the wire and rebar.
Scared the BeGezzus out of her.

Bears are very irritated by the presence of human females, especialy at their time of the month.
 
Bears are very irritated by the presence of human females, especialy at their time of the month.
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Wow. We really do have a lot in common with the animal kingdom.
 
am I the only one that chuckled at the pluralization of Chuck Norris by our own Cosmoline? :)

Even the big ones can move like a mix of Jesse Owens with a few Chuck Nori thrown in for good measure.
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I thought he simply missed the "s". Besides, you can't pluralize Chuck Norris. The world couldn't survive the resulting clash for supremacy. There can be only one.
 
I worked at our local zoo for awhile and know from personal experience that a full grow grizz can cover almost 40 feet from a standing start in less than a second. And this from an overweight, out of shape bear.

Amazing animals.

Biker
 
After a short time they are barely moving trying to conserve energy.
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They don't really need to conserve energy if they're getting ready to have a big meal. ;)
 
I used to live in Kodiak and remember a close call with Bears along the Buskin river when I was a kid. A hungry Kodiak bear is scary even from a distance and I wouldn't have wanted to be in this fellows shoes that day. I have a great deal of respect for wildlife, but a justifiable shoot protecting ones life is not high on my list of things to get indignant about. I'm glad the hunter made it out of that situation alive.
 
The Only close up experiance I've had with Bears are the two occasions when Black bear have made a run at me.
On both occasions the Bear ran out of steam very quickly.
One was a small adult no bigger than i, and the other was pretty close to the supposed maximum size for a blackie, well over 300 lb and closer to four hundred pounds. Rarely they get to 600, thats about the record.

Neither bear was any faster than I was over a short distance. The Larger Bear seemed to rethink the situation after he ran through a stream that was between us.
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The animals were obviously bluff charging you and stopped once they knew you were no longer a threat. Black bears can move FAST if they want to.

One thing to consider is that bipeds have several advantages when it comes to hillsides.
Waliking along a hillside isn't that hard but for a Four Footer they have to extend the legs on one side while shortening the extension on the uphill side.
Their legs just aren't as well designed for that as ours are.
Ground that supports us easily can give way under them.
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They same physics apply to a biped. You have to extend the lower foot and shorten the upper when standing perpendicular to a slope. Also, pound for pound, a quadruped will actually have an easier time move on unsecure terrain because the weight is distributed to four points, not two. I.e. in a comparison between a 250 pund man and a similarly sized bear, the man will put 125 pounds of pressure on the ground under each foot, while the bear will only exert 62.5 pounds.
 
Yep but they run out of steam quickly on an uphill run.
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Maybe quicker than a goat or sheep, but not than a man. When they stop a chase it's because they just wanted you out of there, which thankfully is often the case. No human can outrun an intact bear that wants to catch him. It's impossible. If you ever get to see a brown bear moving in the wild, you'll instantly understand what I'm saying. The times I've seen them they've been moving AWAY from me (thank the maker), but the way they move is terrifying. They're like huge hairy torpedoes, and can blast through undergrowth that would stop ten men with machetes. I'm with Clark on this one ;-) I do not want to make the Gentleman's acquaintance.

you can't pluralize Chuck Norris. The world couldn't survive the resulting clash for supremacy. There can be only one.
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LOL Granted.
 
I'm angry at the hunter for getting himself in that position. Sure, bear attacks happen, but most could be avoided by using common sense and staying alert.
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Ya ain't been huntin' much, have ya ..? :rolleyes:

You know, like sneaking around the woods looking for game? ("lowbush moose" in this case).


I never had any direct encounters with Mr/Ms Horriblus during my 2 years in Alaska, but I did have the scary experience of hiking down a very brushy trail (visibility maybe 10-20 feet at best) while noticing the dinner plate sized bear tracks in the trail. Of the 3 or us, I was the one with the shotgun, and now years later I'm kicking myself that I didn't have a round in the chamber :uhoh:
 
Reading some historical accounts of the Lewis and Clark forays and others, it was recommended to dismount and let the horse run off to be caught by the bear rather than trying to outrun the danger. The bear was more interested in horsemeat than human flesh as there is so much more of it. The horse generally got caught and eaten.
 
They same physics apply to a biped. You have to extend the lower foot and shorten the upper when standing perpendicular to a slope. Also, pound for pound, a quadruped will actually have an easier time move on unsecure terrain because the weight is distributed to four points, not two.
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Actually when you are negotiating a very steep slope you use one hand to steady yourself quite often, and that hand will contact the slope directly above the area that your feet occupy most of the time.
I've walked along a very steep loose dirt dropoff using exposed roots from the most recent slides as hanholds and with less than a third of either bootsole making contact. I guess conditions deep in these mountains are a little more rugged than people might think.
I'm getting older fast but it wasn't that long ago that I could out climb anything that didn't have hands for feet. Guess I'm looking at the situation too much from my own perspective. Come to think of it very few people I ever knew could climb as well though, this new generation of rock climbers could leave me in the dust.

PS
These big grizzly leave some mighty deep paw prints, I suspect that the surface area of their pads doesn't keep up with their weight as they get into the Forest Giant class.

Which raises a question.
Which is more Dangerous, the truly huge Bears or those little larger than men?
 
which was later killed and her three cubs shot.
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Too bad people shootings cant be justified that easily
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:-o

So people who assault others aggressively should be shot along with their children?

While I'd certainly not support such a plan, I do have to wonder: would it "work"?
 
One report says that this hunter shot "a grizzly bear on Kodiak island" ... wouldn't that make said "grizzly bear" a Kodiak bear because aren't Kodiak's just grizzly bears from Kodiak?

I'd think any other time the story would say "Kodiak Bear".

It also says "The hunter, who was carrying two weapons, shot the bear when it was about 10 yards away." That says to me he didn't shoot the bear with the .22 he was hunting rabbits with, but the .44 mag (or larger) handgun he carried for bear protection.

That or Kodiak Bunnys are real damn tough :p
 
I think the Kodiak Brown Bear is generally considered a seperate species. They are larger and have a somewhat different hump and other features compared to the classic Western Grizzly.
 
Maybe, Maybe Not....

Hmmm...isn't that what you are doing?
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Well - I wasn't there when it happened, so I'll give you that...but I was born in Alaska, lived there the first 12 years of my life, and go back every Fall to hunt moose and bear, so I will take credit for possibly having a little more understanding of the environment than you might think...

In case it's different in Illinois :neener: I'll say that in Alaska the wildlife don't segregate themselves; so when you're in areas where bunnies may forage, there's a decent chance you might encounter moose, bears, and other wildlife as well. And there are plenty of places where you can get very close to large animals and have no idea that they're around. Heck, you can do that right in Anchorage, let alone on the peninsula and Kodiak island.

Anytime you're outdoors in Alaska, you have a chance of "putting yourself in that situation." So, I'm not going to assume the hunter did something wrong, as you obviously have.
 
Hey just looked around and apparently the Grizzly is considered a "Subspecies" of the Brown Bear.
The Brown Bears that hang out on the Alaska Coastline are commonly called Grizzly but the Kodiak is considered to be "The Kodiak Brown Bear".
Probably couldn't tell them apart except the Kodiak is generally much larger. They probably interbreed and diet makes for most visible differences.

I think the classic western Grizzly has a much more pronounced hump and seems better suited to running on level ground.

Brown Bear are "Ursus Horibilus" and Western Grizzly are "Ursus Arctos Horribilus", while Kodiak are "Ursus Arctos Middendorffi".
 
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