Awe inspiring grizzly experience.

[Nonsuch]

Back to the subject……

Amazing experience and I am glad you were in a pick-up. What could she have done to you in the vehicle if she had made contact?

 

[Shewie]

Back to the subject……

Amazing experience and I am glad you were in a pick-up. What could she have done to you in the vehicle if she had made contact?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10758380

 

[santaman2000]

LOL. I'm glad I'm not the one trying to explain that claim to the insurance company.

 

[marcelxl]

Awesome story!

I have seen Black Bears a few times on my travels in B.C. with this one being the closest encounter (approx 15ft away)

I have become really interested in them and really want to see a Grizzly..............or rather, I did!

 

[Nonsuch]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10758380

Hoho. Looks like a normal teenager's car

 

[pete79]

Fantastic experience (thank you for the edit).

If you were driving and experienced in these things i can only imagine how the trainee reacted, did he/she turn up for work the following day?

The trainee loved it. She's spent a lot of time in the bush and has been around bears quite a bit. Her reaction was similar to mine, turned white for a short period of time followed by spouting off about how amazing it was.

 

[pete79]

Hi,

scary indeed but I'm not sure I understood what went wrong and how to avoid it. Seems to me (0 experience of bears) like what you did was quite reasonable. Can you inform?

I got a bit complacent and didn't take the time to look at the situation before being in the centre of it. I knew that the "lump" was either a kill, or a cub.......both of which bears are pretty protective of. What threw me was the fact that I was in a vehicle and didn't know it was 2 tiny little cubs. Grizzly mums have a real large area of personal space when the cubs are tiny like that. If I'd been on foot, I would have stayed well away, but I just assumed that in a vehicle everything would be fine (which it was ultimately). What went wrong is that I made several assumtions about how the animal would react. Won't be doing that again.

 

[Pierr]

ok, so hard stop (or even backtracking) at the moment you noticed the "lump" rather than just slowing down. Got it.

 

[pete79]

Back to the subject……

Amazing experience and I am glad you were in a pick-up. What could she have done to you in the vehicle if she had made contact?

Don't really want to think about that. I've seen bluff charges before, and they're generally characterised by a lot of display (huffing, jaw clacking, pounding the ground as they run, the ears are held up, and the animal doesn't look at you). This, in my opinion, was the real deal; she was looking straight at me, and was coming straight for the drivers window, she was totally silent with no "display", and her ears were flat against her head. Whatever was going to happen, I just don't know, but I beleive it wold have ended with some form of physical contact with the vehicle. Chances are, with a defensive aggressive act, it would have been quick, but with a reasonably large bear (300 or so lbs) she would have been very capable of inflicting a bit of damge to the vehicle and me in that short period.

 

[pete79]

Great fun! Thanks for sharing that cool story. And thanks for reminding me how much I love not living in Grizzly country.

Yeah. You have to be constantly on your guard in the woods where there are any bears (not just griz). I love living in grizzly country though. It's like being in the castle of the king. For the most part, they are very forgiving of our stupidity.

 

[pete79]

ok, so hard stop (or even backtracking) at the moment you noticed the "lump" rather than just slowing down. Got it.

Yep. I should have taken time to assess the situation, and not assumed that she would ignore the vehicle. As it was, I was in the situation before I even fully knew what it was. Should have given her space and time. Most bears wouldn't have reacted that way, but this one did, and I assumed that she'd behave like most of the other grizzlies I've come across.