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Researchers: GPS Proves Grizzly Bears Actually Stalk Hunters in the Field

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Photo Credit: USGS

Photo Credit: USGS

Eight Montana grizzly bears have been outfitted with GPS trackers in an ongoing study that could bring some unnerving news to hunters.

The study is aimed at bolstering the theory that grizzlies, which can be as stealthy as they are ferocious, stalk hunters from as close as the length of a football field in order to steal their prey. Already, data has shown at least one grizzly following oblivious elk hunters almost from the moment they left the parking lot, according to the Billings Gazette. Scientists believe the bear may have been following the humans in hopes of getting to a fallen elk before they did. . .

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, part of the U.S. Geological Survey, started the project over the summer, by tagging the grizzlies in the Grand Teton National Park. Next, the study team asked elk hunters to voluntarily carry some 100 GPS units that track their routes.

In the most clearly detailed example, a group of hunters turned on their GPS devices moments after leaving a parking area at around 6 a.m. When scientists analyzed their movements later and contrasted them with those of a nearby grizzly, it became clear the bear was tailing them.

The bruin stayed downwind of the hunters, at one point coming within 100 yards of them as they moved around a lake. At around noon, the bear bedded down for a nap, but easily picked up the hunters’ trail again when it awoke, according to the report. . . So attuned to the movements of hunters are the bears that scientists believe they may even listen for the sound of gunshots, knowing that they signal a meal to be scavenged. Grizzlies are known scavengers, and officials noted there have been cases of the mighty bruins attacking hunters as they dressed elk in the field.

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Alaska Hunter Bags World Record Grizzly Bear

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Larry Fitzgerald and some pals were moose hunting near Fairbanks, Alaska, when they came across fresh bear tracks in the snow. Three hours later, the auto body man had taken down the grizzly that left the prints, an enormous bruin that stood nearly 9 feet tall and earned Fitzgerald a place in the record books.

Although Fitzgerald shot the bear last September, Boone and Crockett, which certifies hunting records, has only now determined the grizzly, with a skull measuring 27 and 6/16ths inches, is the biggest ever taken down by a hunter, and the second largest grizzly ever documented. Only a grizzly skull found by an Alaska taxidermist in 1976 was bigger than that of the bear Fitzgerald bagged.

“I’m not really a trophy hunter, or anything,” Fitzgerald, 35, told FoxNews.com. “But I guess it is kind of cool.”

Fitzgerald brought down the bear from 20 yards, with one shot to the neck from his Sako 300 rifle. He said he knew from the tracks he was on the trail of a massive grizzly, but only learned this week that he held a world record.

“We knew it was big,” he said. “It was a rush.”

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Man Mauled by Grizzly in Alaska Recounts Attack

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Photo credit: Marshmallow

Photo credit: Marshmallow

A man who recently was mauled by a grizzly bear near northern Alaska’s remote Brooks Range said he recognized the animal that left him with broken teeth and a deep gash in his arm from his guide trips.

Jim Tuttle said he and the hunters he guided often spotted the bear, nicknamed Buddy. But the animal was never aggressive toward them until two weeks ago, when Tuttle was walking along a creek and saw it charging.

Tuttle said 16 years of guiding in the area had dulled him to the risks of working in bear country. When the incident occurred earlier this month, he was walking to a caribou carcass by himself, armed only with a pair of trekking poles.

“I am partly to blame. I got complacent, and I paid for it,” he told the Anchorage Daily News. “I guess I should have had a gun in my hand, safety off, ready to shoot.”

He said the attack northwest of Anaktuvuk Pass lasted less than 15 seconds. When it was over, Tuttle was spitting out broken teeth and needed a tourniquet on his left arm. One of his cheekbones was cracked.

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Hunter Rescued after Bear Attack in Alaska

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A hunter mauled by a brown bear survived more than 36 hours in the Alaskan wilderness until he was rescued by the state’s air national guard.

The man was part of a group on a guided hunting trip about 30 miles north of Anaktuvuk Pass, a tiny Nunamiut Eskimo village in the Gates of the Arctic national park.

Initial rescue efforts by local search teams and state troopers were turned back because of dense fog. The 11th Air Force rescue co-ordination centre learned of the man’s plight on Thursday about 36 hours after the attack, and dispatched a search-and-rescue crew equipped with night-vision goggles and flares.

The man had suffered severe blood loss and other injuries, but a medical professional in a nearby hunting party reached him soon after the attack. Officials credited the medic with saving the man’s life.

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First Brown Bear Attack of the Season

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Photo Credit: __Wichid__A brown bear attacked a well-known area biologist and birder while he was watching birds at the Kasilof River beach on Sunday afternoon with his family.

Alaska State Troopers said the bear first attacked a vehicle and a telephone pole before attacking Toby Burke, 48, a biological technician at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Burke did not do anything to provoke the bear and suffered bruising on his arm from the brief attack, said Megan Peters, Alaska State Troopers spokesperson. Emergency medical services examined Burke’s arm and said he was fine. Burke declined further medical attention, Peters said.

“The man was very lucky,” Peters said. “… He was able to walk away and go home.”

Multiple residents called troopers about the oddly behaving bear on the beach. One trooper and two Alaska Wildlife Troopers responded. Troopers shot and killed the bear after it charged them from beyond the tree line where they were patrolling and where the bear had last been seen.

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First fatal bear mauling in history of Denali National Park

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Photo credit: Marshmallow

A grizzly attacked and killed a lone backpacker in Denali National Park and Preserve on Friday after the man encountered the bear next to a river and lingered there snapping pictures, according to the National Park Service.

The death is the first fatal bear mauling in Alaska in seven years and the only one in the 6-million-acre park’s recorded history, going back more than 90 years, the Park Service said.

“It’s an extremely rare event, and it’s not common that we even have injuries related to bears,” said park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin. “We don’t see a lot, and we think some of that is due to our education.”

But the man — identified late Saturday as 49-year-old San Diego, Calif., resident Richard White — apparently ignored key parts of that education, which the Park Service says he received prior to heading into the Denali wilderness, in part of the park where there are no trails. Photos on White’s camera showed he stayed near the bear, instead of leaving the area, as required by his permit, park officials said.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers assisting park rangers shot a large male grizzly Saturday believed to have killed White and cached his body the day before, the Park Service said. The rangers had been unable to recover White’s remains for more than 24 hours, but retrieved him late Saturday, a park spokeswoman said.

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