Grizzly victim drives 25 km for help
VANCOUVER — British Columbians are being warned to be extra vigilant of bear attacks after a man was mauled by a 1000 pound grizzly on Saturday. Brent Case, 53, was doing surveying work for a power company just east of Bella Coola when, he told his son, “he felt like someone was watching him.” “[The bear] initially grabbed him and threw him to the ground,” Dean Case said. “It was kind of boggy where he was and he fell down and there was a log nearby, so he tried to . . . put himself under the log. But the bear grabbed him by the other arm and pulled him out from under there.” The younger Case said “after the bear pulled him back out and chomped on the back of his head, he thought he was going to die.”
His father wasn’t dead, but he pretended to be while the bear jumped up and down on him several times, then finally wandered off. In spite of severe gashes on his head and upper arm, bites to his elbow and knee and bleeding profusely, he managed to drive his pickup truck about 25 kilometres out of the bush to a nearby settlement. “I knew right away he’d been attacked by something,” said Rob Sandford who initially helped Case. “What I could see [he was] basically covered in blood.” “The stitches are stapled all over the back and the side of his head, and over his upper arm,” Dean Case said. “He’s a pretty smart guy and he kept his face down when it was happening, so he doesn’t have any damage to his face.” Bella Coola, on the central coast, is 700 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.
“We’ve just come through a long winter so I would imagine any of the bears that are just now emerging from hibernation are hungry and that probably means they’re a little bit grumpy.”
Grumpy? I’d hate to see him when he’s angry.
Wasn’t this an episode of Grey’s Anatomy?
Its not Yogi the Bear land
What do you think is going to happen with all the “development” in British Columbia ?
The bears got to live somewhere
So much for scenic B.C.
Thaar’s a baar!
Why weren’t they armed? I knew a gal who grew up in Sitka. By the time she was 13 she carried a .30 cal when she went hiking.
tougher than the average bear. too bad his truck didn’t have a pit-bull in it – the interwebs would explode.
Someone get this man a beer
#4 Pat, shooting at an attacking Grizzly is the worst thing you could do, other than running that is.
#7 You obviously haven’t seen what high powered rifle rounds do to a grizzly. You do know that is what you hunt them with?
Must not been hurt that bad. Drove all that way. Leave the animals alone…
He was drunk and thought it was one of those hairy Canadian chicks.
#9 “Leave the animals alone…”
I’m sure that’s what you’d be thinking as one was gnawing on your arm. LOL
I’ve come across bears 3-4 times==they were all uninterested.
If attacked, I don’t know if I would have the “presence of mind” to play dead, but that does seem to be the best advice==go catatonic/possum. Just the opposite for sharks==jab the eyes if you have any arms.
#2. You have no idea what you are talking about. Bella Coola is in the middle of nowhere… with thousands of square miles of wilderness. This guy was in the middle even more nowhere doing some survey work. They will not bother tracking this bear. It’s just what happens out there… we are used to it. Scenic BC will ocntinue to be so for a long time. Come visit sometime if you can tear yourself away from the latte and your cell phones.
Let’s try to remember that this is a highly unusual case. Most bear attacks are because stupid humans got too close. This one sounds different.
I also have to question the reporting a bit.
If the human did not get too close to the bear and surprise him/her, why did the bear attack? If out of hunger, why did the bear leave on thinking the guy was dead?
Something feels off about this story.
By the fact that the bear didn’t eat him, it seems territorial, which makes much more sense for the more herbivorous grizzlies anyway. Black bears are more carnivorous, with the exception of when coastal grizzlies are eating salmon.
I don’t know. I think the guy must have somehow gotten too close for comfort. Perhaps he just didn’t even notice that he had done so before getting attacked. That just feels more likely to me.
Oh, and yes, leave the bear alone. I think I’d be able to say that even if I were the victim. At least I’d like to believe that. I met a bear researcher briefly while at Knight’s Inlet in BC. He was missing a significant chunk of his face and one eye.
When he was attacked, the first thing he said afterwards was “don’t kill the bear!” He admitted to making the classic mistake even after years of bear research. He got too close, panicked, and ran.
More power to him for having the strength of mind to admit that and call for leaving the bear alone. I have a lot of respect for him.
xman, I’m with you. Leave the bear alone.
pat, I sincerely hope I would still say that even if attacked. Humans are a dime a dozen. We need more bears.
Pat you should know better. You have a 40% more chance of being killed if you use a gun as defense against a bear than if you play dead. Look it up.
If you are hunting them, that’s a totally different scenario. Why would you want to hunt them in the first place?
#15 “You have a 40% more chance of being killed if you use a gun as defense against a bear than if you play dead. Look it up.”
As someone who has hunted for 35 years; if I shoot at a bear with the gun I’d carry into that area, the bear is dead, period.
#16–pat==good call.
#15–JR==innocent mistake but a complete misunderstanding of statistics/odds or whatever you think you are quoting.
Group characteristics tell us little of specific members.
>>Why would you want to hunt them in the
>>first place?
Good question! What does one do with a dead bear? Eat them? Or is it just the thrill of killing, because one can?
#18 – Most people don’t hunt them. Hunters in those areas are hunting other game, elk, moose, etc. A rifle that you use against moose will decimate a grizzly. The people that “die” defending themselves are not the big game hunters but idiots hiking who shoot at bears with pea shooters.
Bobbo, no mistake on my part.
>>Hunters in those areas are hunting other
>>game, elk, moose, etc.
OK, so what do you do with a dead elk? Or a dead moose? I’ve never been to a restaurant where they served moose stew, or elkburgers.
#21 – I don’t know any commercial hunters. We deep freeze the meat and eat it for a year or so. You really don’t know what people do with the game they hunt? You’ve never had venison?
Homo Sapiens evolved as hunter/gatherers. It’s the best diet. Forget grains and the rest of the diet that causes diabetes. Lean game meat, fruit, leafy vegetables, nuts. That’s the best diet. Try it sometime.
#21. Elk meat is excellent Mustard, in this part of Western Colorado, Elk meat is sold routinely. I have many roaming in my backyard, I mean herds of them. Moose I havent tried, but I’d like to.
#22 Sure I’ve had venison. I even know butcher shops where you can buy it. Never saw elk or moose on their shelves though. I’d think if it was any good, they’d be selling it. Especially when you consider the reduced bullet price/ pound of meat ratio you’d get out of a 1000-pound elk.
The only time I’ve ever seen a dead moose or elk was when its head was mounted on some guy’s wall.
Bobbo, Pat, here’s proof.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
>>Elk meat is excellent Mustard
Shit, I hope so! For almost $30 a pound
http://tinyurl.com/64vqmf
it better be SUPERB! Damn, that is a pricey burger!!
#25 – No, there is no data on what type of rifle was used. If I use a .30 cal against fowl I’d be “surprised” to find it “ineffective” against a charging duck. LOL. The “fact” sheet is just put out to protect the bears. It is so thin on facts as to be laughable. Did you ever wonder how Fish & Game can put down a grizzly using a rifle w/o getting mauled?
Pat your original point was to imply that surveyor should have been carrying a gun. You apparently can’t see the difference between hunting for bear and being attacked while you are surveying or hiking.
If you are stopped and eating lunch, and a grizzly comes charging out of the brush you might realize what is happening throw down tour sandwich, grab your gun turn and aim and kill a charging bear in the first shot. It better be between the eyes, and if it is you’ll be in the 50% of survivors. But please don’t tell people out working or hiking that a gun is the way to protect themselves.
“The question is not one of marksmanship or clear thinking in the face of a growling bear, for even a skilled
marksman with steady nerves may have a slim chance of deterring a bear attack with a gun. Law
enforcement agents for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have experience that supports this reality —
based on their investigations of human-bear encounters since 1992, persons encountering grizzlies and
defending themselves with firearms suffer injury about 50% of the time. During the same period, persons
defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time, and those that were injured
experienced shorter duration attacks and less severe injuries. Canadian bear biologist Dr. Stephen Herrero
reached similar conclusions based on his own research — a person’s chance of incurring serious injury from
a charging grizzly doubles when bullets are fired versus when bear spray is used. “
#28 – Answer the Q about weapon type. Without actual data there is nothing to evaluate. Quit ignoring the Q.
Hiya All:
To answer the question about who’d hunt a bear: well, around my house on the east coast of Canada people occasionally hunt bears that come to close to urban areas because they are dangerous to people, livestock and pets and also cause a nuisance by spreading garbage all over the place.
As for hunting Moose and Elk and the like: yes, they taste lovely. I get the feeling that some of your don’t get out of the city much… you should try it sometime, maybe you’d learn something.
I also agree that carrying a firearm into the woods in case of bear attack is a bit excessive. It is rare that bears attack (and when they do it is grizzlies and usually this time of year). Considering that the attack happen in BC, which is in Canada, where buying a gun isn’t that easy (not that its that hard, but you do need to buy a licence, take a safety test etc… I think there are special rules on transporting guns too), that shotting a bear, even in self defensive means a trip to the RCMP office and some sort of investigation to prove that it wasn’t on purpose it just doesn’t seem worth it. I reckon you’d be better off playing it safe by wearing a life jacket when you are walking in the woods, because you are more likely to fall into a river or lake and drown then get killed by a bear.
-Ben.