Pretty pathetic, for all involved..
Sandy
]________________________
Victim in Mont. grizzly attack was shot by friend
By MATTHEW BROWN - Associated Press
Fri, Sep 23, 2011..BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A hunter attacked by a wounded grizzly in a Montana forest was killed not by the bear, but by a gunshot fired by a companion trying to save him, authorities said Friday.
Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe said an autopsy determined 39-year-old Steve Stevenson of Winnemucca, Nev., died of a single gunshot to the chest. The cause of death was determined by a medical examiner with the Montana State Crime Lab.
The shot was fired by 20-year-old Ty Bell, also of Winnemucca, as he attempted to stop the bear's attack. No charges are expected, Bowe said.
The autopsy found bite marks on Stevenson's leg caused by the bear.
"We're fairly convinced it was obviously an accident," Bowe said. "But the county attorney will review the final report once we're done."
Bell and Stevenson were on a black bear hunting trip with two other people in a thickly-forested region along the Montana-Idaho border when the attack occurred Sept. 16.
The foursome had split into two-member teams, and early in the day Bell shot and wounded what he thought was a black bear, which are considered less aggressive than grizzly bears.
Bell and Stevenson waited about 15 minutes until they thought the bear had died, then tracked the 400-pound grizzly into thick cover, according to Stevenson's mother, Janet Price.
When the bear turned on the men, Stevenson yelled at the animal to distract it and keep it from attacking Bell, Price told The Associated Press last week. When the animal instead went after Stevenson, Bell fired multiple shots trying to kill the animal, Bowe said.
It was unclear how many times the bear was hit, or whether the bullet that killed Stevenson had first hit the bear. Bowe said that possibility was under investigation.
The bear also died.
It is illegal to kill grizzly bears in the lower 48 states, where the animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act, and the case is also under investigation by federal wildlife agents.
Grizzlies were largely exterminated across the lower 48 last century, but their population has rebounded dramatically in recent decades.
The grizzly shot by Bell was one of about 45 of the animals that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates live in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem Area in northwest Montana and northern Idaho.
Ron Aasheim with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the case underscored the potential danger hunters face when pursuing wounded animals.
"Anytime you follow a wounded animal, but particularly a predator like a bear, you have to be very careful," he said.
..
Posted by Garry Revesz on September 25, 2011 at 1:42 PM
I had not heard of this incidence Sandy, and I'm not surprised at the outcome. I, like I'm sure all if not most of us in this forum, are lovers of wildlife. And in particular, I am a lover of bears. I have studied them, tracked them, and photographed them for several years, and been 10 feet away from them with no fear of personal harm. See image above. When you have 4 idiots with guns go into the forest with the intent of illegally killing bears, what do they expect the bears to do... play nice? There are some circumstances where unfortunately, the only choice left is to kill the bear, but if you look deeper, you'll see that it was never the bear's fault in the first place, it was humans that caused it, and the bear was only being a bear. How sad.
The reality is bears are not aggressive to humans by nature, including Grizzlies. Bears, like most animals, can interpret intent, body language and voice and will respond accordingly. I just returned from an 8 day excursion in the Great Bear Rainforest along the coast of British Columbia. We were in search of the Kermode bear, otherwise known as the "Spirit Bear". It's estimated there are only 400-800 of these beautiful creatures which are a sub-species of the Black Bear. Our guide was Tom Ellison, also known as the "Bear Whisperer", and amazing man and bear lover who has been tracking them for over 30 years. We hiked in the forest everyday with only cameras and bear spray, no guns, and we set ourselves up along Riordan Creek where the Spirit bears were known to frequent for the salmon this time of year. We were lucky and able to photograph both Spirit bears and Black bears with cubs, and on my occasions, I had a bear not more than 10 feet fishing. She would look up at me and then continue fishing - an exhilarating experience - when you know that if she wanted to attack and cause harm, she could have covered that distance in half a second - before you could say "where's the spray". However, the difference is we always remained calm, moved very slowly and talked to them in a low calming voice. They don't mind the sound of cameras clicking and when they sensed we posed no threat to them or their cubs, they kept on playing and fishing in front of us, even ignoring us; and we were rewarded with experiences few people in the world will ever have.
I am disgusted every time I hear a story like this, not just for the person(s), but more so for the bears. They don't stand a chance against a man with a firearm shooting for "sport". Bears were decimated in the lower 48 during the last century, like you said, but they are making a comeback, thanks to regulation and conservation efforts. But there are many government, hunting, firearms and other organizations that would have you believe that bears are extremely dangerous and must be killed, because it serves their purpose to have the public in a state of fear rather than educated. Grizzlies require 100 sq mi of forest to survive and thrive, but of course our human model of progress is to expand decimate natural forests and wetlands to build and pour concrete on, and it doesn't matter where we take it from; and 'bears are dangerous anyway so what's the harm...' We seriously need rethink our priorities and learn to live with nature, not in spite of it.
Stories like this get me on my soapbox so sorry about the lengthy response. Hank, a frequent contributor on these forums, hails from Alaska and has bears all around him, I'm sure he may have something to say as well
It IS disgusting. I lived on a boat in Alaska for 3 summers and encountered plenty of grizzlies. We hiked on shore every day to pick berries, fish inlets, etc and never had a bit of problem - we went about our business and the bears did too. We often saw bears and many were within 50-100 feet when they popped up out of the brush - we simply backed off and they could not have cared less. We were especially careful in the spring when there were cubs around and made lots of noise as we thrashed thru brush, but I was never very worried.
These fools did just about everything wrong, and paid a dear price. Sadly, the innocent bear did too.
Sandy
Discussion
2 repliesSandy
]________________________
Victim in Mont. grizzly attack was shot by friend
By MATTHEW BROWN - Associated Press
Fri, Sep 23, 2011..BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A hunter attacked by a wounded grizzly in a Montana forest was killed not by the bear, but by a gunshot fired by a companion trying to save him, authorities said Friday.
Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe said an autopsy determined 39-year-old Steve Stevenson of Winnemucca, Nev., died of a single gunshot to the chest. The cause of death was determined by a medical examiner with the Montana State Crime Lab.
The shot was fired by 20-year-old Ty Bell, also of Winnemucca, as he attempted to stop the bear's attack. No charges are expected, Bowe said.
The autopsy found bite marks on Stevenson's leg caused by the bear.
"We're fairly convinced it was obviously an accident," Bowe said. "But the county attorney will review the final report once we're done."
Bell and Stevenson were on a black bear hunting trip with two other people in a thickly-forested region along the Montana-Idaho border when the attack occurred Sept. 16.
The foursome had split into two-member teams, and early in the day Bell shot and wounded what he thought was a black bear, which are considered less aggressive than grizzly bears.
Bell and Stevenson waited about 15 minutes until they thought the bear had died, then tracked the 400-pound grizzly into thick cover, according to Stevenson's mother, Janet Price.
When the bear turned on the men, Stevenson yelled at the animal to distract it and keep it from attacking Bell, Price told The Associated Press last week. When the animal instead went after Stevenson, Bell fired multiple shots trying to kill the animal, Bowe said.
It was unclear how many times the bear was hit, or whether the bullet that killed Stevenson had first hit the bear. Bowe said that possibility was under investigation.
The bear also died.
It is illegal to kill grizzly bears in the lower 48 states, where the animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act, and the case is also under investigation by federal wildlife agents.
Grizzlies were largely exterminated across the lower 48 last century, but their population has rebounded dramatically in recent decades.
The grizzly shot by Bell was one of about 45 of the animals that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates live in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem Area in northwest Montana and northern Idaho.
Ron Aasheim with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the case underscored the potential danger hunters face when pursuing wounded animals.
"Anytime you follow a wounded animal, but particularly a predator like a bear, you have to be very careful," he said.
..
I had not heard of this incidence Sandy, and I'm not surprised at the outcome. I, like I'm sure all if not most of us in this forum, are lovers of wildlife. And in particular, I am a lover of bears. I have studied them, tracked them, and photographed them for several years, and been 10 feet away from them with no fear of personal harm. See image above. When you have 4 idiots with guns go into the forest with the intent of illegally killing bears, what do they expect the bears to do... play nice? There are some circumstances where unfortunately, the only choice left is to kill the bear, but if you look deeper, you'll see that it was never the bear's fault in the first place, it was humans that caused it, and the bear was only being a bear. How sad.
The reality is bears are not aggressive to humans by nature, including Grizzlies. Bears, like most animals, can interpret intent, body language and voice and will respond accordingly. I just returned from an 8 day excursion in the Great Bear Rainforest along the coast of British Columbia. We were in search of the Kermode bear, otherwise known as the "Spirit Bear". It's estimated there are only 400-800 of these beautiful creatures which are a sub-species of the Black Bear. Our guide was Tom Ellison, also known as the "Bear Whisperer", and amazing man and bear lover who has been tracking them for over 30 years. We hiked in the forest everyday with only cameras and bear spray, no guns, and we set ourselves up along Riordan Creek where the Spirit bears were known to frequent for the salmon this time of year. We were lucky and able to photograph both Spirit bears and Black bears with cubs, and on my occasions, I had a bear not more than 10 feet fishing. She would look up at me and then continue fishing - an exhilarating experience - when you know that if she wanted to attack and cause harm, she could have covered that distance in half a second - before you could say "where's the spray". However, the difference is we always remained calm, moved very slowly and talked to them in a low calming voice. They don't mind the sound of cameras clicking and when they sensed we posed no threat to them or their cubs, they kept on playing and fishing in front of us, even ignoring us; and we were rewarded with experiences few people in the world will ever have.
I am disgusted every time I hear a story like this, not just for the person(s), but more so for the bears. They don't stand a chance against a man with a firearm shooting for "sport". Bears were decimated in the lower 48 during the last century, like you said, but they are making a comeback, thanks to regulation and conservation efforts. But there are many government, hunting, firearms and other organizations that would have you believe that bears are extremely dangerous and must be killed, because it serves their purpose to have the public in a state of fear rather than educated. Grizzlies require 100 sq mi of forest to survive and thrive, but of course our human model of progress is to expand decimate natural forests and wetlands to build and pour concrete on, and it doesn't matter where we take it from; and 'bears are dangerous anyway so what's the harm...' We seriously need rethink our priorities and learn to live with nature, not in spite of it.
Stories like this get me on my soapbox so sorry about the lengthy response. Hank, a frequent contributor on these forums, hails from Alaska and has bears all around him, I'm sure he may have something to say as well
Garry Revesz
Toronto
These fools did just about everything wrong, and paid a dear price. Sadly, the innocent bear did too.
Sandy