Mountain lion kills mountain biker in Washington

[oosik]

In all my years up in Alaska - the only folks who would go out into the wilderness with a pistol were guys with wives waiting at home who had jiganormous life insurance policies.

Never once - NOT EVEN ONCE - did any state or federal agency send employees into the bush with a pistol for self protection. Most often used - 12 gauge with double ott buck.

 

[Doofy]

In 55 years in Alaska I have only been "Spooked" by bears on 2 occasions. First was a moose kill behind the garage that I knew nothing about, probably hit by a semi. I was sitting on a bench on the side of the garage when I saw this massive head rare up behind a dirt mound and look right at me(30' away). I froze, but as soon as he went back to feeding, I sprinted to the garage door. Whew!

Second time was a dark, rainy night in the Fall. The back of my truck was loaded with garbage for a dump run the next morning. The bear was trying to break in to the canopy on the truck so I banged on the porch door window to frighten him off. Fat chance! He whipped around and charged the house and I about crapped myself! For the next 4 hours or so he circled the house and made us very nervous. Our 4'x6' windows are very low with very thin glass.

The first week with the new tractor was spent clearing brush and removing some stumps about 40 feet from the house. Found about 10 gigantic piles of bear scat where they had been bedded down watching the house. We never knew.

They sure have my respect and awe. Amazing creatures.

 

[oosik]

A fellow - a really nice guy - was out moose hunting with his wife. Walking down a trail they happened to spook a brown bear. The bear attack the guy - wife was able, somehow, to intervene - get off a shot and drive the bear away. The guy was severely mauled - seven months in the hospital( multiple, multiple operations) then one and a half years of physical therapy.

He did survive the entire ordeal but he, obviously, was never the same physically and developed a form of PTSD.

He was a member of our four wheel drive club in Anchorage. The one thing a visiting wildlife biologist told our club - Never, NEVER - go silently out in the wilderness. Let the big and fearsome creatures know that you are there. This will give them a chance to do what they do most naturally - GET OUT OF YOUR WAY.

 

[RoyJackson]

Sometimes I think we need more mountain lions...think about that...

 

[check]

Lots of Black Bears up here at the cottage (2 1/2 hrs. North of Toronto). Used to see them at the local dump all the time. (One time there were 28 of them all at once!). Finally, they turned the dump into a transfer station with all steel bins and no more bears. Guess where they all went? Spread out to all the local cottages!

 

[check]

I’ve seen them on our property a couple of times. One time a bear walked right by the window of the basement while I was down there. He saw me and took off. By the time I got upstairs and started banging on a pot he was nowhere to be seen. Another time a big one walked right across the front of the cottage at the waterline about 70 feet away, at 1:30 in the morning. He was headed for the next-door neighbor's Cottage, where he stores his garbage in a shed. The next morning the shed was mangled!

BTW, he no longer stores is garbage in the shed.

 

[Jstpssng]

A fellow - a really nice guy - was out moose hunting with his wife. Walking down a trail they happened to spook a brown bear. The bear attack the guy - wife was able, somehow, to intervene - get off a shot and drive the bear away. The guy was severely mauled - seven months in the hospital( multiple, multiple operations) then one and a half years of physical therapy.

He did survive the entire ordeal but he, obviously, was never the same physically and developed a form of PTSD.

He was a member of our four wheel drive club in Anchorage. The one thing a visiting wildlife biologist told our club - Never, NEVER - go silently out in the wilderness. Let the big and fearsome creatures know that you are there. This will give them a chance to do what they do most naturally - GET OUT OF YOUR WAY.

Common lore is to wear a bell. I used to put one on my lab in springtime to give all of the nesting birds advance warning that she was around. One day we were walking down a winter road when a black bear came up out of the ditch about 20 feet away. So much for a bell to warn off bears. I have been charged by a black bear, who stopped on the edge of the road and growled at me. I've been charged by a cow moose who twice turned at 17 feet, before finally running off into the woods. Both times I rattled my tree calipers at them and yelled back. Both times I'm sure that they had young around. It's quite an experience.

 

[check]

Yup. I was charged by an Elk in the parking lot of the Banff School of Fine Arts. No fun at all. At least it stopped before it got to me!

 

[k0ua]

I had an interesting situation happen during the whitetail rut. I went outside with a aerosol paint can and some small part to paint the part. I was shaking the aerosol can and of course it was making a lot of noise from the mixing ball inside. Up runs a pretty good sized buck deer with some respectable antlers, who thankfully did stop a few feet away from me as he sat there tossing his head and pawing the ground. I don't generally consider deer as being much of a threat to humans, but during the rut deer do silly things. This one did not care for my "rattle can" at all. I stopped rattling, and shouted at the buck and he decided he had urgent business elsewhere, which was a good thing as my paint can against his antlers would not have been a fun match-up.

 

[check]

OK, here is another Black Bear story. Cottage neighbour used to store his recycling in his cottage garage. One night a big bear tears off the walk-in door and heads inside to get at the recycling. They saw him, flashed their lights and yelled (from inside the cottage, or course) but the bear simply ignored them. Made a mess of course. So they called the MNR, and they told him that bears like recycling even MORE than other garbage. Apparently the sweet little tiny bits of leftover beer and soda and what not in the supposedly empty cans is very attractive to them. Who knew?

Another cottage neighbour had a bear climb right into their cottage at night through the screen of a window while they were sleeping in the cottage upstairs (!) The wife heard a noise and came downstairs to investigate, and fortunately the bear was spooked and quickly climbed back out the window and took off, leaving scratch marks all over the window frame and wall. OK, no more leaving screened windows open at night!

It has been suggested that you use your car panic button if you spot a bear, presumably to scare it off with the obnoxious horn sounds. Have not had occasion to try it yet.

The bear sightings here in our bay at the lake have dropped dramatically since one neighbour stopped putting out food for the birds and ducks. Duh!