Archive for the 'Animals' Category

Field & Stream.

A backcountry camper in Idaho killed an aggressive bull moose in self-defense in Northern Idaho last week. The bull had charged the man and his dog at a Harrison Lake, a popular hiking and backpacking destination near Sandpoint, Idaho.

The camper, whose identity has not been released, tried to hide behind a tree when the moose charged. But the bull didn’t let up, and he shot it with a .45 caliber handgun at point blank range, stopping the bull in its tracks. Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) officials responded to the event and located the downed moose before temporarily closing the Harrison Lake trailhead to prevent conflict between hikers and scavenging bears and wolves.

An article on the incident published in The Spokesman-Review notes that there have been male moose sightings at the lake for several years. Last fall, the U.S. Forest Service posted an advisory warning of an “aggressive moose” at the campground. Ben Read, a local hiker who is familiar with a moose in the Harrison Lake area that fits the description of the downed bull, told the Review: “I can’t say there’s never been an issue, because I know people generally run into him around the camp and obviously the two don’t mix,” he said. “However, I’ve never heard of a charging or trampling issue that someone was never able to avoid or get away from.”

Well I’ve heard of it.  Preparing for my trek through the Weminuche Wilderness I talked with someone who cut and cleared trails in that area.

He told me that bears had not been a problem in the area (this surprised me), but that Moose have been known to come into camp, and they were a danger due to stomping.

Chalk another one up for the power of the .45.  Carry self protection in the bush.

Down South.

Up North.

An Alaska hiker whose whereabouts were unknown for nearly two days after she reported being chased off a trail by bears was found alive Wednesday evening, officials said.

Fina Kiefer, 55, of Palmer, Alaska, emerged from the woods and was spotted on a road about a mile from the Pioneer Ridge trailhead. Kiefer was injured and was transported by ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation, according to statements from the Alaska State Troopers as well as Alaska’s National Guard.

State troopers were notified on Tuesday around 1:29 a.m. local time that Kiefer was alone and in need of assistance on Pioneer Ridge Trail near Palmer, about 42 miles northeast of Anchorage. Kiefer had called her husband asking for help after she said she was charged by multiple bears and had to use bear spray. But she stopped responding to telephone calls and text messages shortly thereafter, according to officials.

These are tough situations, but once again, there are common themes I would highlight.

Bear spray, scaring the bears away, and medical kits.  Don’t rely on spray.  Carry a large bore handgun.  And these people are fortunate – the national guard and helicopters won’t always be available.  Carry a medical kit.

ADN.

Officials don’t know yet why the bear attacked or what kind of bear was involved, said Leah Eskelin, a public information officer for the wildlife refuge.

In remote locations I like to carry a satellite phone or phone with texting capabilities via satellite.  And yes, a medical kit with Quikclot and bandages, tourniquets, Tylenol, etc.

In the tent I sleep with a gun next to myself, although in this case it may not have made a difference.

Those are mean beasts who attack without remorse.

Dean Weingarten.

He saw the grizzly coming at them. He dropped the arrow and bow and drew his Taurus .45 1911 semi-auto. He yelled at the bear and started backing away. As the bear saw the two other hunters behind the lead, it momentarily paused, giving him time to rack the slide and chamber a round. The Taurus had eight rounds in its magazine.

The pause was momentary; not a full stop of the charge. The lead hunter was able to start shooting from a range of six feet. The grizzly grabbed the lead hunter by the left thigh and the hunter went down with the bear on top of him.

As the bear closed with the lead hunter, the middle and last hunters had seen the bear, dropped their bows, and drew their pistols, a .44 magnum and a 9mm. They started shooting.

With the lead hunter down and the bear in his lap, he put the .45 against its head and shot his last rounds. The bear went limp. The lead hunter was able to crawl out from under the big bear.

Shortly afterward, the bear was seen to move, and the hunters fired two more rounds into the chest cavity from the side. The hunters estimated they had fired 19 cartridges at the bear; 8 rounds of .45, 6 rounds of .44 magnum, and about 4 rounds of 9mm.

[ … ]

At the scene, they collected 12 cartridge cases, including 9mm, .45, and .44 magnum.

The wardens found seven bullet wounds in the bear, five of which were from the front, and two of which were from the side. They recovered four bullets from the bear in three different calibers.

Good Lord.  That bear was hard to put down.

Yet more lessons learned.  Pistols, not bear spray.  Next, the bow hunters thought they had discharged 19 rounds.  They actually discharged 12.  Finally, don’t always assume you’re going to hit your target in that sort of situation.  They connected with 7 out of 12.

From a reader, news from Alaska.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Allen Minish was alone and surveying land for a real estate agent in a wooded, remote part of Alaska, putting some numbers into his GPS unit when he looked up and saw a large brown bear walking about 30 feet away.

“I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary,” he said by phone Wednesday from his hospital bed in Anchorage, a day after being mauled by the bear in a chance encounter.

The mauling left Minish with a crushed jaw, a puncture wound in his scalp so deep the doctor told him he could see bone, lacerations and many stitches after a 4½-hour surgery. He also is wearing a patch over his right eye, saying the doctors are worried about it.

All that damage came from a very brief encounter — he estimates it lasted less than 10 seconds — after he startled the bear Tuesday morning just off the Richardson Highway, near Gulkana, located about 190 miles (306 kilometers) northeast of Anchorage.

The bear, which Minish said was larger than 300-pound black bears he has seen, charged and closed the ground between them in a few seconds.

Minish tried to dodge behind small spruce trees. That didn’t stop the bear; he went through them.

As the bear neared, Minish held up the pointed end of his surveying pole and pushed it toward the bear to keep it away from him.

The bear simply knocked it to the side, the force of which also knocked Minish to the ground.

“As he lunged up on top of me, I grabbed his lower jaw to pull him away,” he said, noting that’s how he got a puncture wound in his hand. “But he tossed me aside there, grabbed a quarter of my face.”

“He took a small bite and then he took a second bite, and the second bite is the one that broke the bones … and crushed my right cheek basically,” he said.

When the bear let go, Minish turned his face to the ground and put his hands over his head.

And then the bear just walked away.

He surmises the bear left because he no longer perceived Minish as a threat. The bear’s exit — Alaska State Troopers said later they did not locate the bear — gave him time assess damage.

[ … ]

Minish, 61, has had his share of bear encounters over the 40 years he’s lived in Alaska, but nothing like this. He owns his own surveying and engineering business, which takes him into the wild often.

“That’s the one lesson learned,” he said. “I should have had somebody with me.”

He left his gun in the vehicle on this job but said it wouldn’t have mattered because the bear moved on him too fast for it to have been any use.

That’s a hard-learned lesson.

I’ll accept that he couldn’t have deployed a handgun from a holster fast enough to defend himself if he says so.  He was there and I wasn’t.

But I’ll tell you what.  If it was me and I had to go out in the bush alone, I’d keep a tactical 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buck or slug on a sling at the ready on my body.  I say a tactical 12 gauge shotgun because I’d want something with a shorter sight radius than a fowling piece – where I could drop what I was going and pick the gun up within a second or two.

Still better, go out with someone.

Maybe The Alaskan has some better suggestions.

From reader Richard, awful news about a man being killed by a bear in Yellowstone.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Grizzly bears are part of life in the gateway communities around Yellowstone National Park, and backcountry snowmobile guide Charles “Carl” Mock knew well the risks that come with working, hiking and fishing among the fear-inspiring carnivores, his friends said.

Mock was killed after being mauled by a 400-plus pound (181-plus kilogram) male grizzly while fishing alone at a favorite spot on Montana’s Madison River, where it spills out of the park and into forested land that bears wander in search of food.

The bear had a moose carcass stashed nearby and wildlife officials say it likely attacked Mock to defend the food. The grizzly was shot after charging at a group of seven game wardens and bear specialists who returned the next day.

Bear spray residue found on Mock’s clothing suggested he tried to ward off last week’s attack using a canister of the Mace-like deterrent, considered an essential item in the backcountry. He usually carried a pistol, too, but wasn’t on the day he was killed just a few miles north of the small town of West Yellowstone where he lived, according to two friends.

While some on social media questioned the inherent perils of such a lifestyle in the wake of Mock’s death, those who knew him said he accepted the risk as a trade-off for time spent in a wilderness teeming with elk, deer, wolves and other wildlife.

“People don’t understand that for us who live here, that’s what we do every day,” said Scott Riley, who said he fished, hunted, hiked and kayaked numerous times with Mock over the past decade.

[ … ]

Mock, 40, managed to call 911 following the mauling and was found by rescuers propped against a tree with the cannister of bear spray in one hand, his father, Chuck Mock, told the Billing Gazette. His other hand had been “chomped off” as he tried to protect himself.

One of the animal’s teeth punctured his skull and Mock died two days later in an Idaho hospital after undergoing extensive surgery.

One more failure in the bear spray category.  The pistol he usually carried didn’t do him much good sitting at home.  While the risk wouldn’t have been nonexistent, it would have been reduced with a large bore handgun.

I cannot embed the video.  Go to reddit/Hunting to check it out.

That boar was intent on an attack.  The notion that wild pigs are all “runners” now and won’t charge is clearly false.  A pig tusk can cut a femoral artery and cause death in minutes.

He had an AR pattern rifle shooting 300 BO, with a standard capacity magazine.

But hey, who needs standard capacity magazines anyway?  He could have just let the pig kill him.  PETA would have loved that.  Maybe not so much though when they invade their yards and kill their pets and tear up their lawns and gore their children.

You do the math.  They reach maturity in several years, have three or four litters every year, 12 pigs per litter.

Even if you’re not intent on hunting, carry a large bore handgun when in the bush.

Tell WiscoDave he needs to get control of his pets. That raccoon could get hurt.

Man I’m so sorry. I don’t deal well with the loss of dogs. I still grieve my Heidi-girl, and think about her each and every day.

Every once in a while I run across videos of people on this blog.  This is Fred’s new pet cat.  I thought you would enjoy seeing him come home to his cat.