once again my point is missed.
Are hunting trips for elk worth the occasional dead bear? Clearly many have no problem with it. I do, I think its a shame that to indulge our hobbies we put other creatures at risk.
I bet the motivation for the guys hunting wasnt hunger, it was sport and the fact that the hunters put themselves into a situation where they had to shoot a bear doesnt sit right with me.
No I dont wish the bear had won and frankly I'm getting tired of people asserting that, when I think I have made my point clearly enough.
Dreaming up an imaginery scenario (forgive any errors regarding habitat and species) Lets relocate and replace bear with say Rhino, and assume youre hunting gazelle for pleasure (and food) when you are confronted by a Rhino and are forced to shoot it.
You're protecting yourself, but you knew there were Rhino in the area and you carry weapon big enough to kill it 'just in case'. The Rhino was.never your quarry but it died because despite having the skills.and knowledge to obtain food elsewhere you are excercising your god given right as an apex predator to hunt. Well done, you are indeed an apex predator.
And that is my last word on the matter as clearly this is.a difference of opinion and culture that decades of lively debate will not resolve.
To suggest that Elk hunting is not a respectable past time because it encroaches on the area bears frequent is very very naive.
By the same logic it means we as humans should not stray into any zone where animals that are likely to threaten our lives.
In some areas simply by walking out your front door your straying into "bear country", taking the kids to school, mowing the lawn, visiting neighbours are all things that risk a bear v human interface.
Therefore (as most adults carry a firearm) bears are at risk simply by the fact that humans are living there.
Sure it's a shame the bear had to die.
End of the day though it's a animal, personally i put the life of any human over the life of any animal.
Hell i even put the freedom of humans over the life of any animal.
That's not to say they shouldn't be protected and respected.
There is a balance here between being reasonably cautious and reasonably respectful.
Again it's very very easy to judge other peoples actions from the safety of our nice warm secure homes.
For those of us from the UK though unless we've experienced something like this it really is impossible for us to imagine the thought process behind these things.
Lets say as an example that any activity we do that takes us into the countryside has a 30% chance of bumping into a bear.
Would you cease all outdoor activities simply because you MIGHT have to shot a bear to defend yourself?
If you did go walking with your kids would you not take as many legal means of protecting yourselves as possible?
As i say we really cannot judge as most of us simply have no idea what it's like.
For me, we came across a brown bear while hiking in northern Greece, i've been in many many life threatening situations both in my professional and personal life, this was something completely different though as we know being unarmed if this bear wanted to kill us, no amount of talking, reasoning or self defence on our parts would do anything to stop it.
Part of you wants to throw rocks at it to scare it away, another part doesn't want to do ANYTHING that might **** it off.
Was there a risk it would attack?
No where near as much as a Grisly but yeah a small risk.
Would i have killed it to protect myself?
As i said before i'd have hit it with a newspaper till it died of old age if it meant protecting myself.
Would it had been a shame i would have killed a bear?
Hell yes.
Would i go walking in northern Greece again?
Without a shadow of a doubt.
Cheers
Mark
