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Speaking of Yellowstone -- geysers actually kill more people than bears. 3 people had been killed this year at the geysers. None from bears.
Someone jumped into a geyser and had his sister take a video. Well, Search and Rescue found 8 lbs of his blob the next day. I would be a lot more concerned about idiots getting in trouble with bears rather than bears themselves. The 2015 incident is an example of that.
In some ways, I would actually trust more the bears' instincts and common sense than people out there to avoid each-other.
These large parks have become like Disneyworld. Way too many tourists. So the last thing rangers need is a rampaging grizzly killing a few of these tourists. It would make for very bad PR too. Then we will hear -- "600 bears are too many, lets cut it down to 300."
We've been dealing with this for at least 150 years, so we have some experience and achieved some balance.
Oh my. Yes, the big parks are a nightmare for the field rangers in particular. They have to deal with hundreds of people daily that think the animals are props. There for their ....edification. That the huge area surrounding the populated campground they set up in is a wild, rough and very dangerous place never enters their minds. People are hurt by more than bears. Buffalo, elk and even deer put down the hammer as well.
It's perhaps a little known fact hat more people are seriously injured and even killed by deer every year than all other animals, including predators, combined. Rutting bucks are quite dangerous. They sure ain't Bambi.....
Not really a double-standard. Humans are supposed to manage conservation of wildlife. Not the other way around. Secondly, we can apply fines, even incarceration for unwarranted, unpermitted shooting of wildlife. Hard to levy fines or incarcerate bears..
I'm willing to go out on a limb and bet that if someone shot a wild animal in the city nothing would happen to them. When you go some where were they are wild animals which we do a lot you take your chances being out there. No matter of your talking about a snake, Bear cougar, etc. Your either food, or the animal is trying to protect it's young or in the case of a snake it's scared of you.
The animal doesn't hate you nor will it kill you for sport. Humans on the other hand.
I remember some 20-25 years ago wanting to be a park ranger in Wyoming. They were looking for people who had experience with guns. They had poachers come down from Alaska with polar bear pelts back then they were worth 10K I can only wonder what they are worth these days. Anyhow for that kind of money they would take a shot at you.
I'm willing to go out on a limb and bet that if someone shot a wild animal in the city nothing would happen to them. When you go some where were they are wild animals which we do a lot you take your chances being out there. No matter of your talking about a snake, Bear cougar, etc. Your either food, or the animal is trying to protect it's young or in the case of a snake it's scared of you.
The animal doesn't hate you nor will it kill you for sport. Humans on the other hand.
I remember some 20-25 years ago wanting to be a park ranger in Wyoming. They were looking for people who had experience with guns. They had poachers come down from Alaska with polar bear pelts back then they were worth 10K I can only wonder what they are worth these days. Anyhow for that kind of money they would take a shot at you.
Poachers are a special sort of lower life form to me. A critter I have an unabashed hatred for. Shooting a poacher stone dead on the spot is something I could sleep like a baby after having done. I'm not talking about someone who takes a deer without a tag and license because his family is hungry. That's not poaching. Poachers are killing for profit and only taking certain parts leaving the rest to rot so some Chinese "medicine" shop has deer antler or gall bladder from a bear is my major malfunction. I despise their methods, their motives and their being alive and breathing the same air as the animals they kill.
As to thrill killing, predator animals do so. They do not only kill for food or as a territorial response. The huge offenders are the big cats. Mountain Lions as far as the US goes, but African lions, leopards and Indian tigers are famous for it. I've also personally experienced thrill killing coyotes though feral dogs are the absolute worst as far as canines go. And they are a man made problem. Three different Mountain lions I was personally involved in tracking down were such offenders. Two were a pair. A tom and a she. They were sheep killers. Taking down and mauling far more animals than they ate. Dozens at a time.
The last was the worst case of a blood drunk cat I could conceive of. I lost four calves in his first raid on my spread, three the next only four days later. One of these was actually eaten. The others he killed because he could. He then raided a neighboring ranch and killed an entire pen full of ewes with lambs. I don't know what the body count was there but I did see the mess. All in one night. All that was eaten was the milk bags from the ewes. This was an 8 foot chain link enclosure with three strands of barb wire on top. Weak foot and all he went right over and right out and only lost a little hair. The sheep in the first incident were on pasture on another ranch. Either way easy pickings.
A great many documented Mountain Lion attacks on humans had no motives of either territory or hunger involved. Mountain lions are not territorial animals for one,and when they were tracked down and brought down they were found to be strong, healthy, and well fed critters. They attacked because they could and it seemed like a good idea I guess. If you need some insight into such behavior just watch sweet little Fluffy the kitty cat when he/she has caught a mouse, bird or some other hapless creature. The prey will be deliberately wounded so it cannot escape, but will be let go so it can try, only to be torturously caught again so the game can continue a while longer.
The big cats are no different. The remains of the human victims of man eater/killer big cats often show that they died neither quickly or painlessly and as often as not are barely touched as food. Merely mauled. Despite many preconceived notions about the big cats as noble "kings of the jungle" or whatever, they are in reality quite nasty beasties. Neither noble nor even truly admirable. Worthy of respect, always. But hardly the animals mythology makes them out to be. They quite often exhibit traits many feel are attributable only to humans.
The African sub species of lion native to the Tsavo region are famous for this behavior. They kill hundreds of people every year. These animals are exceptionally nasty as cats go. They are different. Worse than any other species or sub species of feline. Scientific research on them has been very telling. If your interested, look into it. Pretty interesting stuff. At any rate, the notion that predators, especially big cats, only kill for defensive reasons or for groceries is just not true. Sorry to tell you that but hey, I know better. And from personal experience.
Poachers are a special sort of lower life form to me. A critter I have an unabashed hatred for. Shooting a poacher stone dead on the spot is something I could sleep like a baby after having done. I'm not talking about someone who takes a deer without a tag and license because his family is hungry. That's not poaching. Poachers are killing for profit and only taking certain parts leaving the rest to rot so some Chinese "medicine" shop has deer antler or gall bladder from a bear is my major malfunction. I despise their methods, their motives and their being alive and breathing the same air as the animals they kill.
As to thrill killing, predator animals do so. They do not only kill for food or as a territorial response. The huge offenders are the big cats. Mountain Lions as far as the US goes, but African lions, leopards and Indian tigers are famous for it. I've also personally experienced thrill killing coyotes though feral dogs are the absolute worst as far as canines go. And they are a man made problem. Three different Mountain lions I was personally involved in tracking down were such offenders. Two were a pair. A tom and a she. They were sheep killers. Taking down and mauling far more animals than they ate. Dozens at a time.
The last was the worst case of a blood drunk cat I could conceive of. I lost four calves in his first raid on my spread, three the next only four days later. One of these was actually eaten. The others he killed because he could. He then raided a neighboring ranch and killed an entire pen full of ewes with lambs. I don't know what the body count was there but I did see the mess. All in one night. All that was eaten was the milk bags from the ewes. This was an 8 foot chain link enclosure with three strands of barb wire on top. Weak foot and all he went right over and right out and only lost a little hair. The sheep in the first incident were on pasture on another ranch. Either way easy pickings.
A great many documented Mountain Lion attacks on humans had no motives of either territory or hunger involved. Mountain lions are not territorial animals for one,and when they were tracked down and brought down they were found to be strong, healthy, and well fed critters. They attacked because they could and it seemed like a good idea I guess. If you need some insight into such behavior just watch sweet little Fluffy the kitty cat when he/she has caught a mouse, bird or some other hapless creature. The prey will be deliberately wounded so it cannot escape, but will be let go so it can try, only to be torturously caught again so the game can continue a while longer.
The big cats are no different. The remains of the human victims of man eater/killer big cats often show that they died neither quickly or painlessly and as often as not are barely touched as food. Merely mauled. Despite many preconceived notions about the big cats as noble "kings of the jungle" or whatever, they are in reality quite nasty beasties. Neither noble nor even truly admirable. Worthy of respect, always. But hardly the animals mythology makes them out to be. They quite often exhibit traits many feel are attributable only to humans.
The African sub species of lion native to the Tsavo region are famous for this behavior. They kill hundreds of people every year. These animals are exceptionally nasty as cats go. They are different. Worse than any other species or sub species of feline. Scientific research on them has been very telling. If your interested, look into it. Pretty interesting stuff. At any rate, the notion that predators, especially big cats, only kill for defensive reasons or for groceries is just not true. Sorry to tell you that but hey, I know better. And from personal experience.
Very true. That's why ranchers are so hesitant in accepting re-introduction of wolves. Wildlife biologists know this too. They just don't kill for food. When you bring back wolves to an area, you simply don't look if there is enough food there, but to see if they can get some "play money" too.
It will not surprise me if we start seeing this behavior start happening with the Grey Wolf/Wolf population in MT and the NW. Their numbers are growing unchecked and their food source(s) are disappearing due to overkilling by THEM.
This is simply false.
The 2016 Montana white-tail population is exactly where it was ten years prior, at 237k. Elk in Montana? Their numbers are actually up substantially in the past decade.
Deer and elk on one side, and wolves on the other side, naturally coexist. And guess what? Wolves to a better job of maintaining healthy ungulate herds than do humans via hunting. Wolves cull out the young, the old, the sick and the infirm. Why? Because they're the easiest pickings. Humans? They go out in the field looking for a trophy, thereby removing large and healthy specimens from the gene pool - the last thing that should be done. That's part of the reason that the doom-and-gloom claims about wolves simply don't match the reality on the ground.
The 2016 Montana white-tail population is exactly where it was ten years prior, at 237k. Elk in Montana? Their numbers are actually up substantially in the past decade.
Deer and elk on one side, and wolves on the other side, naturally coexist. And guess what? Wolves to a better job of maintaining healthy ungulate herds than do humans via hunting. Wolves cull out the young, the old, the sick and the infirm. Why? Because they're the easiest pickings. Humans? They go out in the field looking for a trophy, thereby removing large and healthy specimens from the gene pool - the last thing that should be done. That's part of the reason that the doom-and-gloom claims about wolves simply don't match the reality on the ground.
While I am no expert most of this post implicitly makes sense. I do know, however that elk population has dropped in Yellowstone; definitely a good thing.
As for wolves, I scratched behind the ears of an animal that is 97% wolf chromosomally.
The 2016 Montana white-tail population is exactly where it was ten years prior, at 237k. Elk in Montana? Their numbers are actually up substantially in the past decade.
Deer and elk on one side, and wolves on the other side, naturally coexist. And guess what? Wolves to a better job of maintaining healthy ungulate herds than do humans via hunting. Wolves cull out the young, the old, the sick and the infirm. Why? Because they're the easiest pickings. Humans? They go out in the field looking for a trophy, thereby removing large and healthy specimens from the gene pool - the last thing that should be done. That's part of the reason that the doom-and-gloom claims about wolves simply don't match the reality on the ground.
No experience with wolves so I can't comment as to that. Coyotes? Yep. Mountain Lions? Yep. Both will thrill kill. With absolute pleasure. I've always tended to hold wolves in higher regard that the latter two. Though properly behaving cats I also tend to enjoy seeing. Though as I said I've zero actual experience with wolves. Just accounts I've read from ranchers and other stockmen and their opponents in the animal rights sect.
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