Ol’ Ephraim, as the Mountain Men called the grizzly bear, remains the deadliest of dangers to be encountered in the wilds of the American West — though fatal encounters are much less common than they were in the days of yore.
From The Livingston Enterprise:
Park County law enforcement officials said a Livingston man who went missing Wednesday [March 23] in the Six Mile Creek area of Paradise Valley appears to have died after an encounter with a grizzly bear.
Park County Sheriff Brad Bichler posted on the department’s Facebook page Friday afternoon that searchers found Craig Clouatre.
“It appears he had an encounter with a grizzly and unfortunately did not survive,” Bichler wrote. “We will continue to work through the afternoon to bring Craig home. Please keep his family and all those involved in your thoughts and prayers.”
Bichler said Clouatre and a friend went into the area to possibly hunt for antler sheds Wednesday morning.
“They split up at some point later in the morning,” Bichler said. “When the other man returned to their vehicle and his friend wasn’t there, he called us and we began searching Wednesday night.”
A recent Sidetrails podcast for Patreon recounted the death of Andy Sublette in the 1850s at the hands of a griz in Malibu, California. That land where the beautiful people now dwell was once wild and rugged frontier.
David Wrolson says
I will add a book on this topic you might like (sorry) David Quammen’s “Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind.”
https://www.amazon.com/Monster-God-Man-Eating-Predator-Jungles-ebook/dp/B00256Z30Y/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33TAURJ9TF2CB&keywords=Monster+of+God&qid=1648411558&s=books&sprefix=monster+of%2Cstripbooks%2C373&sr=1-1
>>>>”Casting his expert eye over the rapidly diminishing areas of wilderness where predators still reign, the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo and The Tangled Tree examines the fate of lions in India’s Gir forest, of saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia, of brown bears in the mountains of Romania, and of Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East. In the poignant and troublesome ferocity of these embattled creatures, we recognize something primeval deep within us, something in danger of vanishing forever”<<<<<
The part that sticks with me the most is the end where he talks about space exploration as we spread way out. The worst thing would not be to find enemies ala "Alien" but instead the worst thing would be to find ourselves completely alone out there.
JimC says
Wow. That sounds fantastic. On the list…
Matthew says
The last thing about space travel is interesting since I’m pretty sure we are alone out there or at least if there is another civilization it is so far away to be impossible to contact. There seems to be a lot of conditions for life that need fulfilling and not many places in the universe that does.
lane batot says
I will ditto recommend that book–EXCELLENT! And boy howdy, Jim, do I have a bear book for you! Next blog tithe…….
JimC says
I’m intrigued…
wayne says
Bear Attacks: Their Cause and Avoidance by Stephen Herrero is, in my opinion, the source when it comes to bear-human encounters. As a professor of Environmental Science and Biology at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he studied bear attacks in Canada and the U.S for decades. He examined cases in the detailed manner of a homicide detective. I read the book before my first backpacking trip in Alaska, and it made for some nervous nights in the field. Highly recommended.
JimC says
My daughter’s fiancee had a nerve-wracking early-morning wakeup call from a bear in Montana a few years back. Fortunately, it was a black bear and not a griz. I am adding this book to the FP library.
lane batot says
I will ditto recommend that’un too! Everyone venturing into bear country should read it–especially people nowadays, that are so ignorant about how to behave/react to wild animals. I’ve seen Stephen Herrero on several bear documentaries, too–he is THE bear/human encounter expert these days, for certain! I love Doug Peacock’s stuff, too–Peacock is a sure enough real life modern mountain man!…..When I took a Wolf Study course, back in 1982 out of the University of Montana in Missoula, one thing we college students did was scout the Rocky Mountain front and the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, for wolf sign(alas, we found none back then)–my FIRST dream trip out West–INCREDIBLE experience! We had to take a brief Bear Encounter Course before heading out, as we would be in Grizzly and Black Bear territories. We saw LOTS of bear sign, the whole two weeks we were backpacking in there, but no sightings. Once, though, a large grizzly had JUST crossed the trail in front of us during a rain shower–it’s track only just filling up with raindrops as we came on it! Biggest bear track I’ve ever seen! Made the hair stand up on the back of my neck! And it had crossed the trail only minutes ahead of us! Yet we never saw or heard a thing…..
David Wrolson says
My bear story. I live in farm country in west-central Minnesota (not bear country except an occasional straggler and there are many more (black) bears in Minnesota now than at the time of my tale).
In June 1975, when I was 8 years old, I went behind the woods and saw an old man in a fur coat standing in the cornfield. I got scared and ran away.
Years later, I realized that was a bear and talked to a neighbor who had seen one at the same time. I don’t remember if I realized it was a bear before or after I talked to him.
wayne says
On the first evening of a week long wilderness float fishing trip in coastal Alaska last August I walked 10 yards from our tent and found a huge, still soft pile of blueberry and salmon brown bear scat. We saw numerous bears on that trip one of which was a huge male that dwarfed the inland grizzlies I’d seen over the years in Alaska and Yellowstone. Knowing they were always nearby, I followed Herrero’s dictum that grizzlies very seldom attack groups of 4 or more humans. I didn’t wander alone. Seeing a bear in the wild is like finding a rattlesnake or a copperhead on a hiking trail. The reminder of potential life-threatening danger gives you a real sense of what wilderness is.
Joe says
I remember reading an article about fur trader Isaac Slover’s final hunt, shooting a grizzly, and approaching it despite his decades of experience and his companions warning. The wounded animal sprang up and fatally injured Slover. The lesson I think is useful to any hunter or hiker today.
JimC says
I’ve read of African hunters who stunned an elephant with a brain shot, sat down on their “kill” for a smoke and… you know the rest.
Ouija says
Hi! I’m the 6X granddaughter, I think the generation is correct. My kid (meaning I) did a lil ancestry report. I found this. Quite the story for a 1st grade ‘back-to-school’ report. Guess that’s just how the Slovers roll