You know what, I’m just going to say it … I’m glad they don’t occupy that same range any longer. Grizzly bears are terrifying and I like being in nature.
I know it seems scary, but their existence has little to no impact on outdoor recreation. They don’t want to be around us anymore than we want to be around them.
All the times I’ve run into a grizzly hiking or backpacking, they either ignore me or leave. Conflicts are rare, and almost exclusively happen because of a surprise close encounter, or someone comes too close to a carcass a bear is camping out on.
The ones to worry about are the damn cow elk during calving season. Pure chaotic evils.
Source: I’m from the grizzly range of western Montana and lived in Yellowstone National Park for many years.
Prior to 1800, an estimated 50,000 grizzly bears were distributed in one large contiguous area throughout all or portions of 18 western States, including Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Grizzly bears were reduced to close to 2% of their former range in the 48 contiguous states by the 1930s, with a corresponding decrease in population, approximately 125 years after first contact with European settlers.
The kill-to-death ratio is pretty favorable to humans.
You know what, I’m just going to say it … I’m glad they don’t occupy that same range any longer. Grizzly bears are terrifying and I like being in nature.
You like being in a sanitised artificial nature. It’s like someone who likes castles hanging out at Disneyland.
I live in a place without grizzly bears, must be Disneyland
I know it seems scary, but their existence has little to no impact on outdoor recreation. They don’t want to be around us anymore than we want to be around them.
All the times I’ve run into a grizzly hiking or backpacking, they either ignore me or leave. Conflicts are rare, and almost exclusively happen because of a surprise close encounter, or someone comes too close to a carcass a bear is camping out on.
The ones to worry about are the damn cow elk during calving season. Pure chaotic evils.
Source: I’m from the grizzly range of western Montana and lived in Yellowstone National Park for many years.
This list is probably not a complete accounting of all incidents, but it dates back to the 1780s, and has 88 cases where a brown bear killed a human.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
Going the other direction:
https://www.fws.gov/species/grizzly-bear-ursus-arctos-horribilis
The kill-to-death ratio is pretty favorable to humans.