Survival Skills of Bears

[brotherbear]

Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers.
One cannot always predict what a bear will do, any more than one knows just what to expect from a man. Experience has proven that the grizzly mother can be a savage engine of destruction when she feels her cubs are threatened. We know too, that surprising a grizzly of either sex is usually dangerous, as many good bear stories testify. And a hunter should always be wary in approaching his downed prey, for though the strength of a grizzly may have been overestimated, on occasion he is formidable and dangerous even when presumed dead. The downed bear is not always a dead one, as many men have discovered to their grief. Some of the most harrowing encounters, in fact, have occurred when the hunter, sure of his kill and excited, neglects to reload his gun and approaches the fallen animal too closely. The bear may still have energy and fury enough to close on the man.
I knew a rancher up near Henry's Lake, in Idaho, who had gone after a grizzly he noticed eating at the carcass of a long-dead cow. He fired, at a good shooting distance, and the bear keeled over but was quickly up and running away. The rancher, a good shot, fired his .30 - .40 five more times and made that many hits. On the fifth shot the bear went down and stayed there. Supposing the bear to be done for, the rancher went up to it. When he poked it with his gun, the bear, to his surprise, sprang to its feet and attacked him. He placed one more shot. The bear, bleeding and red-eyed, gnashed him with her teeth and struck with her powerful arm, tearing him with her claws. Having thrown the man to the ground and satisfied herself that her antagonist was dead, the bear moved away. After walking about fifty yards she lay down, and later she was found dead there. The rancher was fearfully torn and lacerated and spent many months recovering. Reply