HikeArizona.COM

Tucson paper stating Tucson Center for Biological Diversity filed an act with Game and Fish for an updated Grizzly Bear Recovery plan.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/spec ... ition_.pdf

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -shot.html

If it was a grizzly, it would peel open the hard outer shell to get at the soft, delicious, insides ...

I am kind of comfortable at the top of the food chain, don't think I want to relinquish the position.

I hiked on Kodiak and lived to tell the tale.

I will hike/camp with someone that looks more appetizing to a bear than me.

Nighthiker wrote:I will hike/camp with someone that looks more appetizing to a bear than me.

What's the old joke about all you have to do is run faster than your companion?

They need an awful lot of room, don't they? Seems impractical to me.

I think they should re-introduce the Mountain Lion to NJ and help control the deer population

I'd rather face a dozen mountain lions than a single grizzly. I really don't want to start lugging a .50 caliber rifle for protection while hiking.

That bighorn sheep reintro went really well on mt lemmon :roll:

"I'm yellng No! No! Bad bear. BAAAAAD bear."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ainst.html

Hmmm.... I am no fan of causing any animal or plant, to become threatened or endangered. On the other hand, I am not a fan of "re-introducing" them into an area that is known for a great amount of outdoor adventure after the people that inhabit and frequent the area are not accustomed to the extra precautions needed.

One day we are there knowing what we need to look out for and what to be wary of , the next day "Is that a freaking GRIZZLY!!!!!!!!!??????????" I mean, I know they were once there. I remember a guy I served with in Yuma told me about his great grandfather talking about them in AZ. Maybe a sudden and mass re-intro of some species would be ok, like say, a mass re-intro of lions to metro Atlanta would not be so bad.......

I realize this is heresy, but in my opinion the Mexican Wolf re-intro in Eastern AZ/Western NM has been a bit of a flop, and has caused so much divisiveness, hatred and controversy, and a bazillion bucks, to boot. The people of Eastern AZ would go into full-on revolt if a grizz was foisted upon them, in their neighborhood. It's always where we DON'T live that we want to introduce species, conveniently forgetting that others have lived there for generations. It's always city people who want to foist this sort of crap onto country people. I'm no redneck, I'm no right-winger, but I totally see their point of view. It's always, always, always outsiders who come into an area and do that sort of thing, foist things like wolves onto the country folks. I lived in the White Mountains for 15 years. Almost no one living up there wanted the wolves. Those people were saying, "We have enough problems. Why are you doing this to us? What did we do to deserve this?"

I actually know a hiker in Tucson whose solution to this problem was that all the people living in the White Mountains should just move to the city. How very arrogant some city people can be when telling country people how they should live.

BEEBEE wrote:I think they should re-introduce the Mountain Lion to NJ and help control the deer population

A surprising number of people think they're already here. Mrs. big_load thinks she saw one a few years back. I haven't seen anything bigger than a bobcat, though.

big_load wrote:

BEEBEE wrote:I think they should re-introduce the Mountain Lion to NJ and help control the deer population

A surprising number of people think they're already here. Mrs. big_load thinks she saw one a few years back. I haven't seen anything bigger than a bobcat, though.

I have lots of friends back in NJ and a few of them are very pro reintroduction unless it is in the middle of West Milford, Ringwood etc.. They never seem to have an answer to my question about how they would like having all the natural predators that use to roam NJ brought back. Or about all the Deer Vehicle accidents due to the over population.

@BEEBEE Mountain lions would end up in West Milford or Ringwood, regardless. There are too many deer there and enough good lion habitat. I think people would adapt to their presence quickly, or just remain as oblivious as they are to all the other critters. Given the panic that ensues for reports of coyotes just a bit further east, I suspect non-outdoors folks here are clueless about how thick they are in the northwest counties. Everyone seems thoroughly inured to black bears, even the urbanites. Grizzlies would be a different story.

Grizzlies are not more dangerous than black bears. They're scarier because they're bigger, yes. But grizzlies normally only attack humans when they feel threatened, and stop attacking when you play dead (ergo, threat diminished). Blacks don't behave that way. They just keep attacking until it appears that the threat may actually overpower them (ergo, threat diminished means nothing). That's why the scientifically backed conventional wisdom is that you play dead with a grizzly but fight a black bear.

Politics will never allow the grizzly bear back into this part of the country. So, I don't view this as a debate even worth having. We may as well debate putting a man on Venus. I'm just pointing out that putting grizzlies in Arizona is really just another way of saying: more bears in Arizona (that are probably less dangerous but are a lot scarier).

http://www.statisticbrain.com/bear-attack-statistics/

Just some statistics to ponder. From 2005-2012, both black and brown bears killed roughly the same number. The estimates of brown bears in the wild seems to be around 150,000 compared to estimates ranging from 630,000-750,000 of black bears. Just by percentages, brown bears are winning! Percentage wise, and based on estimated numbers of encounters, the brown bear species are much more dangerous.

Can you believe what you read on Wiki?

For wild bears, there has been a single black bear fatality in Arizona. And a single grizzly bear fatality.

There have been three fatalities caused by captive/pet bears.

There have been 10 bear attacks (non-fatal) since 1990. All black bears. Three of the 10 occurred in 2012 near Payson. Is this because there are more bears, or more people in Arizona?

The Gilbert, AZ woman who was attacked by a black bear in Pinetop (June 28, 2011) later (July 26?) died from her injuries. She was walking her dog by a dumpster at the Pinetop Country Club so it was not a hiking incident.