Controversial Grizzly Bear Death A Family Tragedy

Indeed Murderer

I have it also posted on my website....aphoto4you.com
I have observed this bear for 3 years and her family...I reside part time in Jackson Hole....aprox 6 mo... and i followed this family for a while...

It is shame...
It is sad..

Thank you Todd.

Thank you Todd for the well thought out and appropriate answer. I was by no means addressing you with more than a caution about lumping all "homo spaiens" in the same category. The rest of the comments were addressed to those who use word like "murder," "persecution," "kill baby Kill," etc.. Murder speakes of premeditation and rage, persecution speaks of an inherrant dislike and intentionalality toward harm, "kill baby kill" sounds like gleeful killing. This foolish hunter broke a lot of rules of the backcountry and bear country, and in the end he shamefully shot a bear out of fear for his life which he himself put in jeapardy. What he did was pure foolishness. But haven't we all made a mistake and done something foolish. How many of us have foolishly pulled out in front of someone and nearly caused an accident. That accident could have caused someone's death. Would that give you the title of "murderer," or would people think you have a "Kill Baby Kill" menatlity, were you "persecuting" the one you hit. No, it was a foolish mistake. In the event of an accident you would be in trouble with the law. This man is in trouble with the law as well. If he gets a slap on the wrist, don't blame him. Contact the local law enforcement and share your displeasure. Let them know what the public sentiment is about such unwise acts.
In this age of energy conservation, let's use our energies wisely and instead of wasting energy railing against a fool, why don't we act on our convictions to support bear country education, hunter education, grizzly bear research. Lets use our enegry and our words to build up, or edify, rather than waste them in hurtful destruction.
Enough said on my part.

From Todd Wilkinson, Editor

Dear Shane, I thank you and everyone else for commenting. I think your last observation, especially, is worth heeding: "We have so many bears now because of our ability [to] judge and care for those animals. There are way more of us out in the woods who see bears and interact with them in a positive way than those have have foolishly killed them."

Indeed. I couldn't agree more, to a point. The death of Bear 615 is a cautionary tale and I make clear in my blog that there are plenty of hunters out there who behave responsibly (as well as tens of thousands of hikers in grizzly country who do not carry weapons and are traversing through areas with bears and who never have a negative encounter). I don't know how old you are, but I remember vividly seeing posters in Yellowstone back in 1983 (when I worked in the national park as a summer employee). The posters announced a series of meetings on the troubling decline of grizzlies in the ecosystem. The bear population was in a free-fall. Human behaviors—leaving trash around that created habituated bears; hunters having loose trigger fingers; and habitat destruction—were the prime culprits. There certainly are MORE bears today than there were THEN, perhaps three times as many, (maybe a total of 600 or 650) in a region covering 20 million acres. Really, that's not many bears over an ares that would cover a huge chunk of, say, New England.

It doesn't take many years of losing females of breeding age or entering breeding age to turn what has been a stable, or modestly growing bear population into one moving into decline. The loss of carnivores is a huge problem worldwide.

I have been within closer proximity to grizzlies in Yellowstone and Alaska (and wild lions on foot in Africa) than the shooter of 615 was, each time unarmed.

I, too, have been a hunter and there are places where I do not go grouse hunting in the mountains because I do not want to run into a grizzly. That's my choice, not a judgment of other hunters. My blog posting was not a condemnation of hunting and in fact I praise hunters who keep their cool and take every precaution they can to avoid having to kill a bear. Stephen Westmoreland, the hunter who shot 615, made a series of personal decisions that led to his bear encounter and resulted in him pulling the trigger. Those decisions also led to him being cited by investigators for killing the bear. He chose to walk close to a moose carcass in an area where he knew grizzlies lived...a practice the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in a recent advisory said was human behavior that should be avoided.

In addition, Bear 615 had been seen by countless hikers during the summer and never once exhibited aggressive behavior. You, nobly, have had plenty of bear encounters yourself and did not have to use bear spray or bullets.

One more fact worth noting: Routinely, I have conversations with members of the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Study Team, the federal research unit that has tracked grizzlies for decades. In thousands of encounters with bears in the backcountry, those field biologists have not felt the need to kill bears and they say that bear spray works.

You are right: We were not there when Westmoreland pulled the trigger. I will say this again: We are going to have a lot more dead bears if vague expressions of fear become a valid justification killing carnivores. That's precisely one of the excuses given by settlers for nearly wiping out grizzlies and wolves. I am willing to bet that with you being an outfitter, one of the things your clients enjoy about going out in the wilderness with you is the untamed unpredictability and atmosphere of wildness you offer. Fear and wonder go with the territory when you enter grizzly country. It's part of the magic. Thanks again for writing.

Judge not lest you be judged.

The loss of this bear is a tragic event. I love wildlife as much as anyone. I am an outfitter who runs educational backcountry horse trips in Yellowstone National Park. I do not operate hunting camps or anything of the like. But I hunt to feed my family. We literally eat everything we kill. My wife and four children eat three deer a year and an occasional elk. Blaming all hunters for one man's foolishness is not wise. I have had a number of bear encounters, I had 29 sightings just this year. I had a grizzly come into an elk killed by the wolves 200 yards from my camp. In my 19 years of guiding I have never had to use bear spray let alone a firearm with a bear. But that being said, how many of you have ever been in a backcountry setting with a grizzly bear 200 yards away let alone a mere forty. There can be a lot of fear in an encounter. That man should never have shot that bear, but you should think about walking in anothers moccasins before you judge.
A note to the author I also would caution against such sweeping statements as "the chronic inability of Homo sapiens to exercise sound judgment and self control in their actions that raises questions about the future of this special bear population." We have so many bears now because of our ability judge and care for those animals. There are way more of us out in the woods who see bears and interact with them in a positive way than those have have foolishly killed them.

Disgusted

Murder, pure and simple.

We Can Do Something

People seem to get really riled up when talking about those things they feel passionate about. We’ve all seen the news reports on the Town Hall meetings and the Tea Parties of late. Politics and Health Care. Two very hot issues. Those meetings are places for people to voice their opinions and debate some of the issues at the forefront of our society today. Do tempers flair? Yes they do. Is there yelling? Yes there is. Why do you think that is? Well, it’s human nature.
When we’re challenged about something we feel very passionate about, our behavior changes. We speak up when we are normally quite. We become an advocate when others want to change our viewpoint or force something upon us we don’t agree with. It’s how we are.
Well, you know what’s got my feathers ruffled? Take a guess. You got it. The senseless death of a bear. It really shouldn’t matter which bear but it does. Ever since I first became aware of Bear 399 and her cubs and the potential danger they faced from every aspect of life in the wild, in the back of my mind, I’ve dreaded the day when some bad news would break regarding one of them. That day is here. It’s like a gnawing bad feeling deep in my gut. It’s a sorry pain about human nature. It’s a pain with no relief. No law will regulate it. The loud sound of voiced opinions will never drown out the sorrow. There isn’t a fine or penalty large enough to keep some dumb ass with a gun from killing for no real reason! No No.. I’m not an advocate against guns. I have guns myself. It’s not the gun. It’s the person who pulled the trigger. It’s who he is. It’s his nature. It’s the cancerous cell. There is nothing we can do to or for him. It’s who he his. He’ll never understand what he did. No amount of reasoning will change his psyche. There are plenty of hunters that would have been perfectly fine in the same situation and left well enough alone and had the sense to avoid any potential conflict.
The culprit who shot Bear 615 will never understand what he did or how he effected the lives of so many. This is not only the shot “heard around all of Wyoming” but a shot “heard around the world”.
I want people to be riled up about this. I want people to voice their opinion. I want the death of this bear to become a cause for animal concern and conservation.
It doesn’t matter what animal rights group you support, just do it.
America’s Mustangs need assistance. The Cougar Fund needs assistance.
Donate to your favorite animal rights group in the name of Bear 615.
This is the only way to fight against what’s happened to Bear 615.

Senseless

The death of this bear comes as no surprise when Governors, public officials and special interest groups are invoking a policy of "kill-baby-kill, to anything that gets in the way of the success of their commercial ventures. This is no different than the downright slaughter of wolves currently taking place in some western states, and even the slaughter of the Yellowstone bison who "wander" outside the Park in winter in search of food and do not return to the park by the "magical" date of May 15. Their minds will not be changed. The only thing that can end the slaughter is for those responsible for enforcing the laws actually ENFORCING them. The man responsible for this bear's death will receive little more than a slap on the wrist - rather than a punishment that will deter him and others from repeating the offense.

And on it goes.......

......the arrogant, ignorant behaviour of human beings which, in the space of a Century has driven, shot and persecuted grizzly bears from every western state, and even Mexico, to the few brief refugia in which they survive today. At times like this, it seems we have learned nothing, and that we will stop at nothing until there are no more grizzly bears at all.