April 15th, 2013
Grizzly is a huge gray bear, familiar to us from the stories and tales of Jack London, Seton-Thompson and Curwood. The largest and most ferocious predator in North America, the most dangerous enemy of any hunter. Even the Latin name for the grizzly bear subspecies, Horribilis, means “terrible, terrible.” The grizzly bear is truly one of America's largest predators. It weighs up to 500 kg and, standing on its hind legs, reaches 3 m in height! And this is not the limit! The grizzly's closest relatives, the brown bears that live in Alaska and Kodiak Island, are even larger. The weight of some individuals reaches 700 kg, and the height on the hind legs is 3.3 m! These are one of the largest land predators.
Westerns and Wild West hunting stories often depict grizzly fights to the death and grizzly raids on cattle ranches. But there is almost always more fiction in these stories than truth. The grizzly bear is not the only animal whose ferocious temperament and bloodthirstiness are attributed to it completely undeservedly.
In ancient times, grizzlies were complete masters of the American mountains and forests. They did not know any competitors or rivals except each other. Therefore, grizzlies were very self-confident and often attacked even people if they disturbed them - or if they believed that they wanted to disturb them. Among all Indian tribes, defeating a grizzly bear was considered a feat, even with six or eight men. Of course - with spears, arrows and a stone ax against such a hulk! The first European settlers, with their flintlock rifles, round bullets and always damp gunpowder, also felt very uncomfortable among the grizzlies. Back then, a tragic outcome when encountering a grizzly bear was indeed not uncommon.
Even a hundred and two hundred years later, in certain areas of America, it was not entirely clear who was pursuing whom, who was actually the hunter and who was the game. True, grizzlies usually attacked only when wounded, but at the same time they fully justified the nickname “terrible bears.” The grizzly bear is very tough on wounds. Even after receiving several bullets, the enraged bear continued the attack, and the hunters were not always able to escape - unless they had time to climb a tree or jump into a boat. There were also sudden, unprovoked attacks, usually with dire consequences.
For example, in 1823, in the upper reaches of Missouri near Fort Kiowa, such a story happened. Captain Smith, riding at the head of a small hunting expedition, was suddenly attacked by a grizzly bear in the middle of a clearing. The beast first pulled up the horse under him, then grabbed the rider by the head and chewed the handle of the knife with which he tried to defend himself to pieces! The bear was killed with a friendly volley, but the captain managed to receive serious wounds. The grizzly actually scalped him with his huge fangs and tore off one of his ears, hanging on a flap of skin!
None of the captain's companions had any medicine or medical knowledge. Nobody knew what to do. Finally, the captain, who had not lost consciousness, asked one of them to take out a needle and thread and simply sew the torn skin back to his head. And he sewed it on! Without any anesthesia - there was none then. He wanted to cut off his ear completely, but the captain asked him to sew it back in its original place - maybe it would grow back. And so they did. Then they helped the captain get to the nearest stream, where they rested a little. A few hours later, Smith was able to mount his horse again and reach the camp. He recovered, and even the severed ear actually grew back! It’s simply amazing what strong material these people—trappers and explorers—were cut from back then.
But time passed. The gun barrels acquired screw rifling, then the guns became breech-loading, firing many times in a row, and the bullets themselves changed from round to conical. They flew further and further and pierced the bodies of the victims deeper and deeper. And the more perfect the weapon became, the more impudently the man treated the former ruler of the American continent.
So, in the middle of the 19th century in California, the then dominant Spaniards amused themselves by surrounding a bear on horseback and throwing a lasso around its neck. And one Spanish officer once decided on a bet to do it alone. He actually managed to throw a lasso on the bear - though not on the neck, but on the paw - and he tried to drag the bear behind the horse. No such luck! The horse could not move even a centimeter. And the bear, taken aback at first, came to his senses, struck the stretched lasso a couple of times with his paw, and then began gnawing it with his teeth. And then he ran away and dragged the horse and rider behind him, like a dog! In the end, the officer had no choice but to cut the lasso with a blow of a knife to the loud laughter of the spectators who followed him on horseback.
Somewhat later, it became fashionable among the Californian Spaniards to catch grizzly bears alive and force them to fight bulls in the arena instead of bullfighters. In order to even out the chances of opponents as much as possible, the bear was put on a short chain, which severely limited its movements. Then the bull was released. There was no need to set him on - he himself, obeying instinct, rushed at the bear and drove the horns into its ribs. The bear grabbed his nose with its teeth and the scruff of his neck with its claws, and a frantic fight began, followed by the Spaniards, greedy for bloody spectacles, with burning eyes. The bears usually won...
Very difficult times came for grizzlies when the North American prairies were filled with farm herds. Grizzlies began to be intensively shot to protect livestock from them. Although they attacked livestock very rarely. There was a bonus for the head of each bear; They were hunted with packs of dogs and poisoned baits were scattered. As a result of this extermination, the number of grizzlies became ever smaller. And those who remained became more and more timid, they retreated into the most distant mountain valleys, inaccessible to humans, and the forests of Canada, British Columbia and the Yukon. In the end, there were only a few left. And they were very careful, trying not to catch the eye of people. Not once in the first decades of the 20th century was anyone heard of a grizzly attacking anyone. It seemed that they had completely changed their character and that they were not at all the great-grandsons of those terrifying beasts. The grizzlies must have been able to appreciate the danger posed by a man armed with modern weapons.
At the same time, when grizzlies began to be seriously studied, completely unexpected things became clear. It turned out that almost all grizzlies are... vegetarians! 99 out of 100 grizzlies eat plant foods and very moderately consume small animals: marmots, as well as insects. So they suffered, one might say, undeservedly.
But there are also exceptions. Rarely, there are carnivorous grizzlies hunting large game. Such a meat-eating grizzly is, as a rule, larger, stronger and angrier than a “vegetarian” and for a hunter, he is indeed a serious opponent.
The most famous of these bears was a huge grizzly bear nicknamed Old Moses. For 35 years - from 1869 to 1904 - this bear terrorized a huge area in Colorado. During this time, he slaughtered 800 head of cattle - not counting calves and small animals - and killed at least five people who tried to shoot him. But even he himself never attacked people unless they touched him. Eyewitnesses said that Old Moses even had a peculiar sense of humor - he loved to make purely bearish jokes. More than once, for example, he staged such a stunt: he would sneak up unnoticed on the campfires of travelers or gold miners and suddenly burst into the camp with a roar, throwing everything in his path! But he never hurt anyone - unless they tried to shoot at him. He was simply pleased to see people, scared to death, screaming in fear, rushing to the trees to escape. Having restored order and reminded who was boss, Old Moses peacefully walked away.
Old Moses always left trappers out in the cold when they tried to earn the bounty on his head. He carefully jumped over the stretched cords leading to the crossbows, and always managed to get the bait from the traps without slamming the trap.
Today, grizzly bears live primarily in Yellowstone, Mount McKinley and Glacier national parks. For decades they were carefully protected there, and this led to the fact that in the early 60s, grizzlies in the parks began to attack people again!
True, they are no longer provoked by shots, but by tourists who, despite the ban, feed the bears again and again. They get used to it and begin to come to tourist tents and roads themselves. Such an insolent bear quickly loses its fear of humans. If he doesn’t find the treat enough or doesn’t like it, he may immediately get angry and attack
No less dangerous were the dumps of food waste that accumulated near tourist campsites, as well as the dumps scattered by single tourists near the tents. They invariably attracted bears - both grizzlies and baribals. An animal accustomed to visiting these landfills may, on occasion, climb into a tent. He quickly gets used to ignoring a person's proximity, and this leads to a loss of respect and caution on both sides. In the 60s, a special population of bears appeared, existing almost entirely from landfills and begging. Attacks by such insolent bears on people often happened. More than 13 such attacks occurred in Mount McKinley Park, and even more in Glacier Park and Yellowstone. Some of them ended tragically.
In August 1967, two young women were killed by bears in two widely separated areas of Glacier Park. The incident caused great outrage in the press. Then another woman died - right in the middle of the campsite, just a few hundred meters from the garbage dumps where bears regularly rummaged.
Then in 1970 the administration national parks I decided to urgently liquidate all the garbage dumps. But zoologists who studied the life of grizzly bears in Yellowstone Park warned that this must be done gradually, otherwise the bears, in search of replacements, will begin to intensively visit and gut the tents of tourists. In the winter of 1970-1971, the landfills were all cleared out completely and simultaneously. And the result was not slow to follow. More and more bears were hanging around campsites and tents, scaring tourists. The number of bear robberies and bandit attacks has increased sharply. The insolent animals were caught, euthanized with narcotic charges, and transported to another part of the park, or even beyond its borders. But the bears quickly returned and, being hungry, posed an even greater danger. As a result, some of the animals had to be shot and the campsites had to be fenced off. But as the influx of visitors to the parks increased dramatically from the early 1970s, the tragedies continued. Every year at least three people were injured. After all, it is difficult to convince tourists not to throw away food waste.
In the summer of 1975, five visitors were injured by bears in Glacier Park and two in Yellowstone Park. On August 16, 1976, a tourist tried to drive away two cubs from his food supplies, which he kept in the open air. And the bears really don’t like greedy men who spare food for the bear! It all ended for the poor guy with serious plastic surgery on his face.
And in 1979, a grizzly bear mauled a tourist to death in his own tent. The victim, a young man named Harry Walker, had been careless with food waste. The court decided that the administration was to blame for liquidating the landfills at the same time, and awarded Walker's heirs $87,400 in compensation for moral damages.
Today's grizzly bears living outside national parks are also not safe. In August 1974, 36-year-old photographer John River, who had specially flown to photograph bears, died in Alaska. He was killed by a male grizzly bear when he unceremoniously tried to take his portrait from too close a distance. A bear, especially a grizzly, does not forgive familiarity (by the way, the grizzly is not at all a separate species, as was previously thought, but only a subspecies of the brown bear).
In 1979, the entire hunting press of the USA and Canada wrote about an unusual incident. On September 29, 1979, in Colorado, in the San Juan Mountains, local professional hunter Ed Weissman was attacked by a grizzly bear. Ed was accompanying a group of amateurs who were bowhunting deer that day. This type of hunting has just become fashionable in the USA. At some point, the hunters dispersed and Ed was left alone for several minutes. The bear suddenly appeared from behind a rock 15 meters from Ed and immediately rushed to attack. Ed didn't have time to do anything. He only had a bow and arrows as weapons. The bear knocked them out with a blow of his paw and knocked Ed down. Ed decided to remain completely still. Sometimes this saves you - you never know what has angered the bear. But it didn’t save him. The grizzly began to tear at Ed's left leg. The hunter pulled his legs to his stomach and pressed his hands to it, protecting his most vulnerable spot. The bear left his leg and began to chew on his shoulder. Then he dragged Ed over 10 yards behind him, threw him and grabbed him by the arm. Losing consciousness from pain, Ed realized: he needed to defend himself! With his left, free hand, he groped around and found a thin arrow from a bow - a ridiculous weapon against a grizzly bear! Ed desperately squeezed the arrow and, with the last of his dying strength, hit the bear in the neck with the tip. Luckily for him, in his youth he worked as a cattle slaughterer and remembered where to strike...
For some time the grizzly tormented him, not paying attention to the blood gushing from his neck. Then he suddenly left the man and walked away. He stood in front of Ed for several minutes, then staggered and fell. The carcass twitched several times and fell silent. The grizzly was dead... Ed was found by hunters looking for him and taken to the hospital. His leg, shoulder and right arm were badly damaged, but he survived. The animal he killed turned out to be a female, very old, weak and emaciated from hunger - a trivial reason for an attack on a person.
So the grizzly bear problem today is complicated. Tourists, of course, want to see bears that are not afraid of humans. But respect must be maintained - otherwise tragedies happen. And it is difficult to maintain balance in such a matter. In national parks, grizzly bears are protected and even tried to resettle in other US states, where bears were previously aimlessly exterminated. On the other hand, in Yellowstone Park, grizzlies have multiplied so much that since 1980, seasonal hunting for them has been allowed.
The real bear kingdom is as it is; man is not the master here, but a guest. National Park Katmai is a gem and the highlight of the entire trip. It was worth flying halfway around the world just for him alone. The place is unique, you can count them on your fingers on the whole planet.
Throughout the vast territory of the park, 16 thousand kilometers long, we will be interested in the small Brooks Camp, located at the mouth of the Brooks River, on the shores of Lake Naknek. The main months for bear sightings at Brooks Camp are July and September. It is at this time that hordes of salmon move up the river. Bears know this very well and are already waiting for prey.
You can live in a quadruple room at Brooks Camp wooden house(purchased in full), or you can put up a tent in a special area fenced with an electric fence (much cheaper than a house). At the same time, you need to understand that despite the fact that the house costs the same as a good hotel in Manhattan, the conditions there are quite spartan - beds in two tiers, shower, toilet and that’s it.
Accommodation and flights are sold as one package. You can come for one day without an overnight stay, but there’s not much point in that. I chose the intermediate option of two nights. The place is very popular, it is recommended to make a reservation in advance (I booked my trip almost a year in advance).
1. Before national park We got there in two stages. First we flew to the city of King Salmon (500 kilometers from Anchorage). The plane, although small, looked civilized - there was one flight attendant and they gave us nuts.
2. A bus met us at King Salmon and took us to the float plane parking lot. Passengers and luggage were weighed and distributed among the planes. We flew to the Brooks base, the time in the air was about forty minutes.
3. First of all, we were taken to an anti-bear briefing, which consisted of watching a film and a lecture by a ranger.
4. In total, about two thousand grizzly bears live in the park, while about 70 individuals constantly live in the area of our camp. The grizzly bear is a subspecies of brown bear that lives primarily in Alaska and Canada.
5. Performance characteristics of a bear: height 2.2-2.8 meters, weight up to 500 kilograms, claws up to 15 centimeters, speed up to 60 km/h, swims well. The ultimate killing machine.
6. The good news is that grizzly bears eat mainly berries and fish. In a calm state, the bear does not attack people. However, you should not stand between the cubs and their mother, for example. Bears can also be attracted by the smell of human food, so food storage and waste disposal must be handled very responsibly.
7. In winter, grizzlies sleep peacefully in dens, so in the fall they have one goal - to eat to their fill. An adult bear eats up to 20 salmon per day. Due to the abundance of fish in the river, bears do not care about people, they are busy fishing.
8. To make it easier to observe bears, two observation platforms have been built on the river. Lower platform:
9. Observation platforms are separated from the camp long bridge. The bridge is guarded by rangers who make sure that people and bears do not cross paths. On the bridge, “bear jams” or “bear jams” appear every now and then, for example, when some bear goes to sleep near the bridge or on the path. You can’t drive him away; everyone must wait until the bear leaves on his own. It is quite a common situation when the bridge is closed for half an hour or more. It’s also a shame when you reach almost the middle of the bridge, and the ranger shouts at you that you need to turn around. They say there were situations when people were late for their plane after getting stuck in a “bear traffic jam.”
Rangers mostly do the work of regulators and breeders, making sure that the paths of bears and people do not cross. Meanwhile, bears walk along absolutely all the same paths as tourists.
People got stuck on a bridge while a bear was swimming under the bridge:
10. The lower observation deck is located right next to the bridge. In order to get to the second observation deck at the waterfalls you need to walk about fifteen minutes through the forest (two kilometers). The caveat is that rangers only patrol the camp, the bridge and the lower platform, and even then only during daylight hours. When you walk through the forest or in the evening, you realize that there is no one around, only bears.
11. Once a bear ran literally 10 meters from us, but we pretended not to notice each other. The basic rule is not to panic, not to wave your arms, not to cross the path of the bear, but simply slowly retreat from the road.
12. As soon as we completed the instructions and settled into the house, I immediately rushed to the photo hunt. Even the rather heavy rain didn't stop me. I almost paid for my carelessness - for reasons unknown to me, rain flooded my camera, as a result of which, when turned on, it did not allow me to set any settings, but immediately began to shoot in bursts. To say that I was in a panic would be an understatement. I ran across the ceiling, asking the heavens why I was such an idiot and didn’t take a spare carcass.
Deja vu was scary - my camera once broke in Ecuador (this horror story). I tried to manually adjust the focus with the device turned off, and then let it shoot in bursts. The photo below is practically the only one that turned out with this approach. Fortunately, the photographic gods had mercy on me - within a few hours the camera dried out and subsequently worked without any complaints.
13. Melancholy-romantic bear on a spit:
14. In this camp I observed the highest concentration of photographers per square meter. The most popular lens, in my opinion, was the Canon 100-400 (almost all the photos in this post were taken with the same one). At the same time, there were a lot of people with 600 mm primes and the like. Photographers could hang around the site all day, waiting for the right shot.
15. From the lower platform there is a view of the lake, where bears are actively swimming, tracking down fish. Some drag their prey ashore, while others eat it right on the spot:
18. In addition to the ubiquitous seagulls, there are other birds in the park. I caught a shy magpie:
19. And an equally timid partridge:
20. The photos below were taken from the observation deck at the waterfalls. Here you can see the bears much closer. In July, you can see a dozen bears at the waterfall at the same time, some of which stand right in the rapids and wait for the fish to fly right into their mouths. But in September, salmon no longer jump into the waterfall, so the bears hang out mainly near the lower platform.
21. Looks out for the victim.
22. Sometimes it is not clear how bears manage to find fish in stormy water.
31. The gift shop sells T-shirts that say Katmai is the largest sushi bar in Alaska.
32. It only takes a bear a few minutes to cut one fish, and then he returns to hunting.
33. The camp area is quite small - a dozen and a half log houses, an office, a fish storage facility, a dining room, and a few other buildings. There is no mobile phone service on site, but you can get a satellite phone in the office. Breakfast lunch and dinner - Buffet for a fee. The food is good, but nothing more. The expected abundance of salmon was not on the table. But a great find is the circular fireplace, which is so nice to warm up next to after hours of watching bears.
34. A local squirrel once scared us a lot when we were walking through the forest to a waterfall. She'll jump out of the bushes, and out of fright, I mistook her for a bear.
35. All that's left of the elk are the horns and legs:
37. Office house:
38. Bears are not afraid to roam freely right around the camp. This bear is grazing on the lawn right under the dining room windows.
40. Loch Ness Bear:
41. The second main activity in the camp, besides watching bears (this activity even has a name - “bear watching”), is fishing. Fishermen usually stand in the same places as bears. Moreover, they directly compete with bears for fish - people have nerves of iron. There is a special building on the territory for storing fish, where bears cannot reach.
42. Bears do not attack seagulls; they are probably not dexterous enough for this.
43. It’s not rain, it’s a bear that has climbed out onto a rock and is shaking itself off. Sometimes they looked strikingly like dogs.
44. Pay attention to the manicure:
45. Trying to catch a fish...
46. ...this time it was unsuccessful.
50. Seagulls are bears’ eternal fishing companions. They know that they will definitely get the offal from the fish that the bear has not eaten. But I saw a seagull independently attack a salmon in the water.
55. We met a bear sleeping peacefully under a tree. And it’s not clear what to do in such a situation - make a louder noise so that he wakes up and leaves, or, on the contrary, sneak away without attracting much attention to himself.
59. A young bear is blocking the passage to the bridge. Unfortunately, we did not see the cubs; by September they had all grown up. The rangers recognize many of the bears by sight, although they say that many of the bears have become so overfed since the summer that they don’t look like themselves. This one is simply called Little Bear:
61. Smiling Bear:
62. An alternative pastime could be to go to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (there used to be active volcanic fumes there). We decided not to fuss and focused on the bears.
63. When I got tired of photographing bears, I switched to another big game - tourists.
64. All good things come to an end, so two days and two nights flew by in Katmai. We got back the other way, through the airfield to the Kulik lodge.
65. Remains under our wing famous bridge and a pen in which bears splash:
66. For the first time I saw a rainbow all over the sky in the literal sense of the word.
68. The float splashed down at the Kulik lodge (another recreation center in the reserve). We boarded a minibus and drove to the airstrip. We drove along a steep dirt road, literally through impassable bushes.
69. What was happening was very reminiscent of films about drug dealers - a dusty minibus, a dirt runway, a small propeller plane. Yes, I haven’t flown anything like this before. But the acceleration on the dirt road was surprisingly smooth, and we took off. This is still not a float - the plane was flying much higher than the clouds.
70. While we were shaking in the air, I thought to myself that many adventure films and games began with the fact that such a stunted airplane crashes on some tropical island, with dinosaurs, for example.
71. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot turned on automatic control and began to hamster an orange, washing it down with tea from a thermos (I hope it was tea).
72. It’s a strange feeling when you watch the steering wheel turn on its own, and the pilot is busy with an orange.
73. On approach to Anchorage I saw stripes international airport and I already thought that we would land on a normal runway. But no, near the airport there was a dirt road that was already familiar to us, where we landed. Next to the strip there was a parking lot for private small planes, very impressive in size. Still small private aviation very developed in the States.
Our acquaintance with bears did not end there; next time I will tell you about one of the most popular national parks in Alaska - Denali Park.
P.S. By the way, the more I travel, the less often I go to zoos.
To be continued...
Alaska - all entries.
Greetings, dear readers of the site “I and the World”! Today you will learn about the largest bears in the world: their habits and habitat, which specimens are very dangerous and which are quite harmless. But, in any case, it is undesirable to meet with them; the outcome of this meeting is unlikely to be in your favor.
From Russian fairy tales we know about bears as clumsy and stupid animals. Because of their weight, they really seem slow, but this is not so, they can reach such speed that it is difficult to escape from them even on a bicycle. You should get to know them better in order to know what to expect from them if you meet them by chance while traveling around the world, as well as: what they look like, how much they weigh, where they live, etc.
And our rating opens with “Black Bear” or Baribal
His black coat glistens in the sun of the USA and Canada. Less common in northern Mexico. It is in these countries that this animal lives and weighs from 300 to 360 kg.
The largest male is 363 kg. It was killed in Canada - this is the largest Baribal ever caught by man. The animals are quite harmless. They do not attack people or domestic animals and live quietly and peacefully, eating plant foods and fish.
Very rarely, when there is not enough food, Baribal can drag off livestock. With a height of up to two meters, Baribal cubs are born so small that their weight ranges from 200 to 400 grams.
In captivity: in zoos and circuses they can live up to 30 years, but in nature only 10. Now there are about 600,000 individuals.
In 4th place - American Grizzly
Among brown bears, he is the strongest, but not so big. The grizzly bear is very resilient and if there is a fight with another large animal, the animal has an instant grip, which leads to victory. It is considered friendly, but if there is not enough food or feels aggression, the kind nature disappears. The Grizzly's rather strong sense of smell allows it to sense prey at a great distance. It feeds on plant foods, loves fish, and like any predator, does not refuse animal food.
It lives in Alaska and western Canada and reaches 450 kg.
Grizzly in translation means “terrible”, but it does not try to attack people just like that, but only when it is hungry or very angry. In such rare cases, Grizzly was said to be a cannibal. During the rest of the time when it is rich in prey, it is not dangerous.
Brown Siberian bear takes third place
The dimensions of the Russian Siberian reach: weight up to 800 kg, and height up to 2.5 meters. This is a big fish lover, living near the Anadyr, Kolyma and Yenisei rivers. Sometimes found in Chinese provinces.
Although the warm season in these places is short, there is a lot of plant and animal food and allows you to gain a lot of weight.
Siberians are loners and hibernate during the winter. They fish very interestingly: when salmon jump out of the water, the bears try to catch them in the air.
2nd place – one of the brown specimens – Kodiak
They live on the shores of Alaska on Kodiak Island. The brown beast got its name from this island. Most big bear in the world among brown species. A muscular animal with long legs, the Kodiak easily obtains numerous foods.
They grow 2.6 meters long and gain up to 1000 kg. The height of an adult predator can be up to 2.8 meters.
There was a time when animals could completely disappear, and therefore they were prohibited from being shot. Now their number is increasing, but so far only 3000.
They do not attack people, and therefore do not pose a danger to tourists. But for the animals themselves, these encounters are quite unpleasant. Animals, frightened by strangers, stop eating normally and gain too little fat before hibernation. And an animal caught for the sake of keeping it in a zoo may simply not survive in captivity.
And finally, first place - Polar Bear
Wikipedia believes that the white bear is the world's largest bear, living in the Arctic and reaching a mass of 1 ton or even more. This predatory animal reaches 3 meters in length - how huge!
This is a real record in weight among all species. Can you imagine such a huge beast like white steamer moves slowly among the snow. There is also fur on the paws, so they move easily on the ice and do not freeze in the most severe frosts.
On the island of Spitsbergen there are even more polar bears than people living there. The long neck with a flat head allows it to stretch out and see far.
It is clear that living among the snow on drifting ice, it feeds on animal food: sea hare, fish, walruses, arctic foxes. Just like brown ones, they live alone and until about 30 years old. Only females hibernate when they are pregnant, in order to gain strength to raise the next generation.
There are 28,000 polar bears all over the world, and about 6,000 in Russia alone. And although hunting them is strictly prohibited, poachers kill up to 200 bears every year.
In the photo you saw the largest bears on earth. They are all listed in the Red Book, but poachers do not think about this, destroying animals for the sake of a beautiful skin. Over the entire history of mankind, so many of these animals have been destroyed that many populations are difficult to increase again.
We say goodbye to you until our next meetings on the pages of our website. If you liked the article, share it with your friends, they will also be interested in it.
This fall, a US Forest Service employee shot and killed a giant man-eating bear in Alaska. The young man was hunting deer when a huge grizzly bear appeared fifty meters away and rushed at him. Having managed to raise his 7mm semi-automatic rifle, the hunter emptied his entire magazine into the attacking bear. The grizzly fell a few steps away from the man, but was still alive.
After reloading the rifle, the guy shot the bear in the head several times, and only this stopped his heart. Later the Department commission wildlife and the Alaska State Fisheries Department determined that it was the largest grizzly bear ever taken in the world.
His weight was more than 726 kg, and his height, if he stood on his hind legs, was about 4.3 meters. Having examined the contents of the grizzly bear's stomach, scientists found fragments of human bodies in it. The commission found that the grizzly bear has killed at least two people in the last 72 hours alone.
An investigation was immediately organized. Forest Service personnel followed the grizzly bear's trail and soon discovered a .38-caliber pistol with an empty clip. Not far from the gun, the remains of a tourist were found, who became the giant bear's last meal. In defense, the man managed to shoot six times, and he hit the grizzly four times before this monstrous animal killed him. The encounter occurred about two days before the grizzly bear was shot and killed by a Forest Service employee. The body of the second victim was never found. In total, Forest Service personnel found four .38 caliber bullets and 12 bullets from a 7 mm semi-automatic rifle in the bear's body.
In order to more clearly imagine the size of this monster, we can make the following comparison: if you are a person of average height, you would only reach his lower abdomen when the bear stood on its hind legs. His height was such that he could look through the roof of a one-story house or look into the windows of the second floor. And when the bear stood on four legs, then his eyes and yours would be at the same level.
