Sierra Club and Grizzly bears

[Redfrog]

Even an educated bear can be a problem sometimes. I knew an old guy who had a small goldmine in the Yukon. He lived by himself and liked it. One day on the way to the mine he came across a small grizzly cub. He couldn't find the mom and figured she abandoned the runt.
He packed it home with him and after a few days it settled down. He would walk the mile or so up his claim everyday and pack a bag of ore to the cabin each night. It didn't take long before the cub followed him up to the claim each morning and back each night. During the day it would wander around dong bear stuff and would always show up for the walk home.
Well the runt grew into a real grizz sized bear so the guy had the idea to train him to pack that bag of or down each day. He said it took no time at all.
They worked as a team for years. One day he went to put the pack on the bear and the bear was less than cordial. The old guy was short on patience ad after a couple tries he grabbed up a stout stick and trimmed the bear up. A couple more attitude adjustments and he was happy to pack.

After a couple more episodes on the trail, they finally made the cabin before nightfall. Imagine the look on the old guy's face when he saw his grizzly sleeping on the porch of the cabin.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

In Alberta, we have already "conditoned" Grizzly bears to respect humans. Without continued conditioning, this population personality may be become more agressive again.

That's along the lines of my thoughts on the issue as well... We are the beneficiaries of the conditioning activities of the past century or two. That is now starting to wear off.

Stinky

[landowner]

Originally Posted by Redfrog

The Karelians I've seen did a very good job and they weren't on a leash. I've also seem Maremas put the run to bears, both Grizzly and Blacks. I think a lot depends on the training/trainer and the job you want the dog to do. Different situations require different tactics. I've seen some heelers that were tougher than barb wire and I seen some who were just as smart. Mind you I've seen that with several breeds.

Do you work with borders or heelers? What part of the province is home?

Both, for bears my best luck was with a cross of the two. Smart and tough.I live in the SW.We have Grizz in crops, calving fields , and our house yards down here. The population is VERY healthy.

[cody c]

Originally Posted by artie

Well back in the sixties when I started hunting if you ran into a grizzly and he had the chance he soon took off. If it was a surprise encounter then sometimes things happened. But grizzlies seemed to know then that if you ran into a person in the woods it was trouble. It may be because at that time alot of bears were being chased around. Nowadays if you run into a grizzly he is going nowhere fast.They have learned that if they run into a human it is soon the human that turns and runs. So I would hope that by opening a small grizzly hunt that bears will be chased around again and then they would realize that running into a human is not a good thing. A mother would teach her cubs there is that smelly two legged thing and they are to be avoided. Now a mother teaches her cubs hey there is one of those two legged things lets go put the run on them.

Well, almost all the folks in the parks, especially the ice fields/parkway arent helping. Ever seen the tourists pulled over (or stopped in the middle of the road) taking pictures of yogi on the way through. That sort of interaction is where a lot of the problems come from.

Anytime a bear sees a person and gets a feeling that there is no danger from humans, can or will later become a problem. When there is lots of food to eat along the roadsides or at the dump it is not as much of an issue in terms of personal safety, quite a different story when there is no food around for them. Suddenly the bear sees the other creature who they know to not be dangerous as a food source instead of something they were willing to share space with.

I also agree with the grizzly estimate to be bogus, I suspect it helps when they tell people an exact number as if theyve been precisely counted. Likewise we should tell people there are 16,956 grizzlies in alberta, and fund a biased study (which im only insinuating) to back that number up.

And as far as the sierra club goes, I suspect it has less to do with environmental preservation than it does with donations/income. That is how alot of charities operate these days, more than we'd like to know.

I think it would be better to support a draw for hunting grizzlies in a limited area, which would be along the boundry of trails or areas where grizzly attacks have occured or may be prone and the perimeter of towns or other dense populations, but not necessarily throughout the province.

It would of course push the population back to where you cant see them so much, but non-hunter outdoor enthusiasts dont need to be able to see grizzlies in nature although Im sure many of them would like to be able to from a distance and maybe even have a sense of entitlement.

[KegRiver]

Great story Redfrog. The missus laughed till we both hurt when I read that to her.