And you say open the hunt???

Tuc · #1 05-27-2010, 05:46 PM

This here **** ****es me off. I hope they catch the SOB that shot this sow.

Three grizzly cubs orphaned

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Three grizzlies have been orhpaned after wildlife officials had to put their mother down.

Updated: Thu May. 27 2010 17:28:51

ctvcalgary.ca
Three grizzly cubs have been orphaned after their mother was injured so badly she had to be shot by wildlife officers.

Fish and Wildlife officials had been monitoring the sow and her two-year-old cubs for the past month.

Lyle Lester says the mama bear was healthy and a responsible mother. "This particular sow, she's been a pretty good mama. She's kept her kids away from farm yards and they haven't been getting into any trouble in terms of bothering livestock."

About a week ago things changed.

Area residents told wildlife officials they saw the sow limping. Then there were reports the cubs were on their own, coming into farm yards and eating dog food off someone's deck.

"Young bears, when they're on their own, are like kids. They get into trouble. And it didn't take these bears long to get into farm yards because they're hungry," says Lester.

Several days ago, someone spotted the cubs going in and out of a shelter used by a rancher as protection for his calves.

When Fish and Wildlife officers turned up to investigate they found the badly wounded sow inside. "She was hurting. She was suffering. When we tranquilized her, we found that he back leg ahd been shattered and there was a bullet wound," says Lester.

Lester says the mother bear had to be destroyed.

Her cubs were trapped, tagged, and have now been relocated to an area north of the Crowsnest Pass.

And here's another........compliments of man! Ya right open the hunt.
Young grizzly killed by train

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Parks Canada had been tracking the bear that was killed by a CP train on Thursday.

Updated: Thu May. 27 2010 14:44:29

ctvcalgary.ca

A female grizzly bear has been killed by a CP train.

It happened on Thursday at 12:15 a.m. on the railway tracks west of Banff.

Parks Canada staff has been tracking the bear and say it was four-and-a-half-years-old.

The bruin was hit near the Fireside day use area which is close to the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and Bow Valley Parkway.

Officials searched the tracks and say no grain was found in the area.

Bears have been known to be hit by trains while they are on the tracks eating grain. Parks Canada says CP has done work to reduce bear mortality on the tracks. CP now has a rule that train crews must blow whistles in the area where the bear was hit to warn wildlife.

Park officials say, since 2007 five grizzly bears have been hit by trains in this area.

Please Add Comments
| 4 Comment(s)

mark
Were gonna be outa bears if this keeps up.

Peter
Very sad,wrong time and wrong
place

Laura
Here we go again. Spring has hardly sprung and already we are facing another needless death of an iconic figure. Makes my stomach turn. Imagine the mess it must make to have an animal that size killed by train. Can’t be a pretty sight for anyone. Exploited by tourist agencies; celebrated and cherished by many; hunted by others - the grizzly bear. When there are no more grizzlies, what will help the Rocky Mountains stand out from the others? Why not increase patrol of the tracks at key periods? And for heaven's sake SLOW THE TRAINS DOWN. Surely we can get stuff to and froe a little slower for the sake of the lives of these iconic beings.

Leslie
This just breaks my heart. We have so few of these amazing animals left in their ever-shrinking habitat. Must be horrible for the C.P. crew as well.

Arn?Narn. · #2 05-27-2010, 06:12 PM

some people are useless...

moosehunter3-0 · #3 05-27-2010, 06:20 PM

"And you say open the hunt?" No need to, the trains are managing the populations just fine

On the other hand it would be interesting to know why someone would of shot the sow...

Cowtown guy · #4 05-27-2010, 06:41 PM

Yup. I still say open the hunt. Maybe not across the whole province but definitely in key areas. Or at the very least complete a comprehensive study of "all" of the available habitat so a proper decision can be made.

Any hunter that doesn't want the proper biological studies done should be ashamed of themselves. Any scientist that takes the "study" that was put forth recently as fact and the ones who compiled that data as a fact should also be ashamed. Scientists are supposed to be unbiased. How was the last study anything but?

That being said, it is still a load of crap that these types of things are still hapenning.

gramps73 · #5 05-27-2010, 06:52 PM

Hope the cubs are old enough to male it on there own...With no reports of the sow causing trouble why would have someone shot her...

albertadave · #6 05-27-2010, 06:59 PM

With all due respect Tuc, I really don't see what either of these stories has to do with opening the grizzly hunt. In the first case, there might very well be a very good reason why that bear had a bullet hole in it, maybe not, but it's possible. In the second case, a park bear got hit by a train, really has no bearing on the hunt debate. In either case, to me it seems that if there are enough bears around that they are having these kind of interactions with people, that might be an indicator that there are in fact enough bears for a limited hunt. Just my thoughts.

Arn?Narn. · #7 05-27-2010, 07:22 PM

What bothers me is that the Sow was shot. She was apparently a non aggressive bear, but even if she turned and someone shot her,..they obviuosly knew she wasn't dead. Why not report the incident if it was innocent rather than having a wounded Griz left to suffer or cuase more harm...

****es me off!

shooter3456 · #8 05-27-2010, 07:55 PM

Will definetly be interesting to see who ends up getting charged if anyone? That bear had been around the country side for quite some time and had been in and out of alot of ranches without causing any trouble, I had taken pictures of her and the cubs just last week right off the highway to waterton, I guess if your a grizzly bear and spend too much time around the public some trigger happy tuff guy will sooner or later try and prove a point. I hope those cubs can survive without getting into trouble, but I'm betting they don't make it. All in all it was probably just a bad combination of events for this sow, late storm killing calves and ranchers not able to remove their dead animals, and the rest is history, hopefully the shooter can't keep his mouth shut and he gets busted.

birdman · #9 05-27-2010, 07:58 PM

I'm not wildlife biologist but i live close to the area where this bear was. Having takin many photos of the bears and video footage this really ticks me off. What I have seen she was one of those good bears, sticking to herself and cubs and not bothering anyone. Sure she might have been feeding in the area but then again if your hungry and theres dead critters out in fields you would eat to. I hope Fish and Wildlife stick with there investigation on this one and find out who would do such a thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm a hunter as well but there comes a time when sometimes we have to stick up for the wildlife.

Rantastic · #10 05-27-2010, 08:01 PM

well sad but maybe the sow was shot in self defense who got on the wrong side of her... or it coulda been some jerk target practice. But no one knows for sure, maybe there is a dead guy out laying in the bushes who lost that fight and wont ever be found? My point is the media sucks and will only ever convey one extreme biased opinion and state it as fact forever. There will be no changing that though, sigh.

albertadave · #11 05-27-2010, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shooter3456

Will definetly be interesting to see who ends up getting charged if anyone? That bear had been around the country side for quite some time and had been in and out of alot of ranches without causing any trouble, I had taken pictures of her and the cubs just last week right off the highway to waterton, I guess if your a grizzly bear and spend too much time around the public some trigger happy tuff guy will sooner or later try and prove a point. I hope those cubs can survive without getting into trouble, but I'm betting they don't make it. All in all it was probably just a bad combination of events for this sow, late storm killing calves and ranchers not able to remove their dead animals, and the rest is history, hopefully the shooter can't keep his mouth shut and he gets busted.

Are you basing this statement on anything other than your own biased speculation? Were you there when the bear got shot? I know I wasn't, so I won't try to speculate on what may, or may not, have happened.

Cowtown guy · #12 05-27-2010, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arn?Narn.

What bothers me is that the Sow was shot. She was apparently a non aggressive bear, but even if she turned and someone shot her,..they obviuosly knew she wasn't dead. Why not report the incident if it was innocent rather than having a wounded Griz left to suffer or cuase more harm...

****es me off!

Maybe they heard of Joe Lucas? At least I think that was his name. I know if I had an encounter it would certainly cross my mind to Shoot ,Shovel & Shut Up. Anyone hear what his legal bill was for protecting his son?

shooter3456 · #13 05-27-2010, 08:20 PM

That is based on personal communications with various people from that area, and especially from hearing comments at a meeting held awhile ago in the South when ranchers specifically said that if SRD didn't start taking care of "THIER" bears then the ranchers would start shooting them in the guts and leave them for dead. No I wasn't there when it was shot but I have lived in the area for awhile and know alot of the ranchers. I don't blame anyone for protecting thier property and livelihood, but shooting a bear just because it's lurking around your property is not justified. I am not saying that this bear was shot by a rancher it could have just as easily been shot by someone from town. However; I will leave the investigation up to the Officers, I'm sure they have a pretty good idea where to start.

huntinstuff · #14 05-27-2010, 09:40 PM

Personally, and without insinuating anything, if I were an anti-hunter and wanted to further my cause, this is what I would do......

I would shoot a few feral horses.

I would shoot a grizzly, especially one with cubs.

I would wound a cow moose with a rifle.

I would shoot a bighorn sheep in Jasper, cape it and leave the body.

I'd shoot 3 dozen coyotes and leave their carcasses at the dump.

Then I would sit back and watch the media and other anti's slam hunters.

ishootbambi · #15 05-27-2010, 09:49 PM

yeah huntinstiff, thats a possibility alright. or it could be someone with the same intelligence as the youtube duck poachers.

whoever it was needs a steel toed boot in the nuggets!!

as for your title on this thread....what the heck does the hunt have to do with a crime and an accident?

Noah-Tall · #16 05-27-2010, 10:00 PM

Who is Lyle Lester? Did he do an autopsy and find a bullet hole. Or is he a media pernonality trying to make a story. Or was he a "bystander" that was interviewed? And where did this happen?

Rackmastr · #17 05-27-2010, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noah-Tall

Who is Lyle Lester? Did he do an autopsy and find a bullet hole. Or is he a media pernonality trying to make a story. Or was he a "bystander" that was interviewed? And where did this happen?

Lyle Lester is a Fish and Wildlife Officer based in Southern Alberta.

Matt L. · #18 05-27-2010, 10:25 PM

In other words, yes he did do an autopsy and find a bullet hole.

Not sure how a person can draw a line between these two unfortunate incidents and the hunt though...

TreeGuy · #19 05-27-2010, 10:28 PM

The healthy and likely expanding grizzly bear population will see more and more of these 'human-bear conflicts' as they expand further eastward. Would it not be better to see dead bears at the hands of hunters, rather than poachers/trains/cars/F&W/etc? At least the hunt can target specific problem areas and have the potential to educate the grizzlys to the inherent dangers of man?

Tuc, sometimes I wonder who's side you are really on..........

mudbug · #20 05-27-2010, 11:31 PM

[QUOTE=TreeGuy;596529]The healthy and likely expanding grizzly bear population will see more and more of these 'human-bear conflicts' as they expand further eastward. Would it not be better to see dead bears at the hands of hunters, rather than poachers/trains/cars/F&W/etc? At least the hunt can target specific problem areas and have the potential to educate the grizzlys to the inherent dangers of man?

Gotta agree with Tree 100% on this one. One thing I'd lke to add is lots and lots of animals get killed by trains, it happens unfortunately. The Sow it's a shame she was shot but no one here no the reasons why. Could have been some moron or it could have been she was acting aggressively to someone, a failed poaching attempt, who knows. Until the real reason she was shot comes out we should really not speculate or play the blame game. As for how this affects the re-opening or non-reopening of the Grizzly hunt this incident to me anyways shouldn't be a factor in the decision. If someone shot this sow just for the heck of it I hope they're caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law so if anyone knows anything I hope they inform the proper authorites. Anyhow just my two bits...........

sikwhiskey · #21 05-28-2010, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by birdman

I'm not wildlife biologist but i live close to the area where this bear was. Having takin many photos of the bears and video footage this really ticks me off. What I have seen she was one of those good bears, sticking to herself and cubs and not bothering anyone. Sure she might have been feeding in the area but then again if your hungry and theres dead critters out in fields you would eat to. I hope Fish and Wildlife stick with there investigation on this one and find out who would do such a thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm a hunter as well but there comes a time when sometimes we have to stick up for the wildlife.

One of those GOOD BEARS??????? Like Yogi? You sound like an Idiot,photo-smart, retarded Biologist. Perhaps you should run for parliment!

Okotokian · #22 05-28-2010, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gramps73

Hope the cubs are old enough to male it on there own...With no reports of the sow causing trouble why would have someone shot her...

Because perhaps the jerk who thought she was causing trouble wasn't the "reportin' kind". Figured he was man enough to handle it himself... how does that go? "Shoot, shovel, shut-up" or something like that? Just a guess...

albertadave · #23 05-28-2010, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Okotokian

Because perhaps the jerk who thought she was causing trouble wasn't the "reportin' kind". Figured he was man enough to handle it himself... how does that go? "Shoot, shovel, shut-up" or something like that? Just a guess...

Or, perhaps, as Cowtown guy said, he's heard about the precedent set by the crap that Joe Lucas went through, and decided that reporting it wasn't worth the hassle and enormous legal fees? Just another guess....

Jamie Black R/T · #24 05-28-2010, 09:14 AM

even if the shooter was justified in their actions it would be near suicide to report it. Grizzlies are such a hot button issue thanks to all the bleeding hearts out there (and on here) that you would get crucified for protecting yourself or your livelyhood.

Could have been a retard taking pot shots out his truck window...but could have just as easily been a farmer confronted on his front step by a hungry monster....I cant say for sure...and neither can any of you

Matt L. · #25 05-28-2010, 09:16 AM

Still, no excuse for not making sure she was dead. shooting her in back leg and leaving her is pretty sick. And caused more problems with the cubs.

Okotokian · #26 05-28-2010, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by albertadave

Or, perhaps, as Cowtown guy said, he's heard about the precedent set by the crap that Joe Lucas went through, and decided that reporting it wasn't worth the hassle and enormous legal fees? Just another guess....

That's a possibility too. Though if I wounded a bear in self-defence I'd report it. The fact that I reported it and that the bear was not killed would make it pretty obvious I wasn't poaching. A dead bear might be another matter. Shooting an attacking bear in the hind leg seems like a good trick though. I guess it could happen.

Ryry4 · #27 05-28-2010, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Okotokian

That's a possibility too. Though if I wounded a bear in self-defence I'd report it. The fact that I reported it and that the bear was not killed would make it pretty obvious I wasn't poaching. A dead bear might be another matter. Shooting an attacking bear in the hind leg seems like a good trick though. I guess it could happen.

If you did that in good faith, thinking you're doing the right thing they'll still charge you. No matter what. In the society we live in now a grizzly bears life is more important than a humans.

birdman · #28 05-28-2010, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sikwhiskey

One of those GOOD BEARS??????? Like Yogi? You sound like an Idiot,photo-smart, retarded Biologist. Perhaps you should run for parliment!

Didn't think you had to be a idiot to want to take pictures of wildlife, i guess theres lots of idiots out there who like photography.

Okotokian · #29 05-28-2010, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sikwhiskey

One of those GOOD BEARS??????? Like Yogi? You sound like an Idiot,photo-smart, retarded Biologist. Perhaps you should run for parliment!

Totally uncalled-for slam and insult. Read his polite post over again and learn something. You owe Birdman an apology.

landowner · #30 05-28-2010, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shooter3456

That is based on personal communications with various people from that area, and especially from hearing comments at a meeting held awhile ago in the South when ranchers specifically said that if SRD didn't start taking care of "THIER" bears then the ranchers would start shooting them in the guts and leave them for dead. No I wasn't there when it was shot but I have lived in the area for awhile and know alot of the ranchers. I don't blame anyone for protecting thier property and livelihood, but shooting a bear just because it's lurking around your property is not justified. I am not saying that this bear was shot by a rancher it could have just as easily been shot by someone from town. However; I will leave the investigation up to the Officers, I'm sure they have a pretty good idea where to start.

Pretty quick to blame the ranchers arn't you ?? Remember this bear was not to far from an Indian timber limit, where the natives would be legal to hunt her. Also not to far from a community pasture where 4x4 mud boggers like to explore. I too watched this bear, and she seemed well behaved, most ranchers know that if you kill a sow with cubs it is 100% sure those cubs will be a problem. I doubt it was ranchers.