Griz attack samples

Newspaper readers are exposed to quite a few opinions from amateur grizzly bear "experts," from moderately knowledgeable "experts" and occasionally from professional "experts." There are still things nobody truly understands about North America's largest and most powerful carnivores. I'm not any kind of expert, but I am an interested observer. I do trust officially tested "bear repellent."

An interesting account on its usefulness from Federal files:

"Aug. 27, 1999 — A male hiker from Switzerland and a female hiker from New York were hiking toward Bighorn Peak (Yellowstone Park) when they heard a moaning noise. Unsure what the sound was, and thinking the noise was farther away, they continued with their hike. They had taken a few steps when they saw a bear (most likely a grizzly) approximately 10 yards away on a slope to the left of a trail. The woman stepped away from the bear and quickly dropped down on her lower legs and into a ball position; the bear charged the woman, huffed a couple of times but did not touch her. At the same time, the male stepped uphill in the direction the bear was first spotted. He was approached, but not touched by two yearlings. The male deployed his pepper spray (he was unsure if his spray hit the young bears), and the adult bear immediately turned away from the woman and charged the male hiker. He continued to spray, falling on his back in the process, but the bear did not touch him.

Thinking the adult bear was going to attack, the man raised his leg for protection. The grizzly swatted his leg, inflicting two gashes and other minor injuries. The adult bear then sniffed at the cloud of spray and retreated, but immediately returned. The two hikers, now out of spray, remained on the ground, very still, until all three bears left the area. Although the hikers had met a park ranger patrolling the area on horseback shortly before their incident, they chose to return to the trailhead where their vehicle was parked and drive to Bozeman, Montana, for medical treatment." (End of account)

From dozens of reports, the above is the first one in my files from a national park wherein there is any acknowledgment of the effectiveness of pepper spray. Have other official Park Service reports from that time and even later where the unlucky victims did not have spray and were more seriously mauled. After 1999 I collected more reports from both parks where pepper saved the day.

"VERY STRANGE" is the following account, a thing we do not understand, from Yellowstone archives. An attack on May 26, 2002:

"Abigail Thomas, a 32-year-old post office employee at Lake, was jogging around Lake Lodge cabin loop when she encountered a male sub-adult grizzly bear approximately 15 yards to her right. Ms. Thomas immediately stopped and stood perfectly still; she did not make eye contact with the bear and continuously reassured the bear that she was not a threat. The grizzly stood up on its back legs and sniffed the air, then dropped to the ground and slowly approached Ms. Thomas on her right side. When it reached her it began sniffing her from the waist down, then opened its mouth and — very gently — closed its mouth around Ms. Thomas right upper thigh. The bear applied a small amount of pressure, then released her leg. Ms. Thomas received no injuries, other than some minor contusions; her skin was not broken from the bite. After Ms. Thomas felt the bear release her leg, she reached for her water bottle and squirted the bear between the eyes. The bear immediately ran from the area."

Believe it or not! That causes me to recall a couple of unexplained, but similar incidents from Glacier records. One where the young man successfully snoot-punched the bear attacking his girlfriend, and another where a woman bopped the griz (chewing on her husband) on the head with her field glasses.

Maybe next week in Glacier I'll keep a water bottle and field glasses handy, but I still have some other stuff… just in case.

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and Hungry Horse News columnist.