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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:11:10 GMT -5
American Bears - Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt. Old Ephraim. The grizzly bear undoubtedly comes in the category of dangerous game, and is, perhaps, the only animal in the United States that can be fairly so placed, unless we count the few jaguars found north of the Rio Grande. But the danger of hunting the grizzly has been greatly exaggerated, and the sport is certainly very much safer than it was at the beginning of this century. The first hunters who came into contact with this great bear were men belonging to that hardy and adventurous class of backwoodsmen which had filled the wild country between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi. These men carried but one weapon: the long-barreled, small-bored pea-rifle, whose bullets ran seventy to the pound, the amount of powder and lead being a little less than that contained in the cartridge of a thirty-two calibre Winchester. In the eastern states almost all hunting was done in the woodland; the shots were mostly obtained at short distance, and deer and black bear were the largest game; moreover, the pea-rifles were marvellously accurate for close range, and their owners were famed the world over for their skills as marksmen. Thus these rifles had so far proved plenty good enough for the work they had to do, and indeed had done excellent service as military weapons in the ferocious wars that the men of the border carried on with their Indian neighbors, and even in conflict with more civilized foes, as at the battles of King's Mountain and New Orleans. But when the restless frontiersmen pressed out over the Western plains, they encountered in the grizzly a beast of far greater bulk and more savage temper than any of those found in the Eastern woods, and their small-bore rifles were utterly inadequate weapons with which to cope with him. It is no small wonder that he was considered by them to be almost invulnerable, and extraordinarily tenacious of life.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:12:01 GMT -5
Continued.... The change in the grizzly's character during the last half century ( consider Teddy Roosevelts time-line ) has been precisely paralled by the change in the characters of its North American cousin, the polar bear, and of the South African lion. When the Dutch and Scandinavian sailors first penetrated the Arctic seas, they were kept in constant dread of the white bear, who regarded a man as simply an erect variety of seal, quite as good eating as the common kind. The records of these early explorers are filled with examples of the ferocious and man-eating propensities of the polar bears; but in the accounts of most of the later Arctic expeditions, they are portrayed as having learned wisdom, and being now most anxious to keep out of the way of the hunters. A number of my sporting friends have killed white bears, and none of them were ever even charged. And in South Africa the English sportsmen and Dutch Boers have taught the lion to be a very different creature from what it was when the first white man reached that continent. If the Indian tiger had been a native of the United States, it would now be one of the most shy of beasts. Of late years our estimate of the grizzly's ferocity has been lowered; and we no longer accept the tales of uneducated hunters as being proper authority by which to judge it.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:12:39 GMT -5
Continued.... How the prowess of the grizzly compares with that of the lion or tiger would be hard to say; I have never shot either of the latter myself, and my brother, who has killed tigers in India, has never had a chance at a grizzly. Any one of the big bears we killed on the mountains would, I should think, have been able to make short work of either a lion or a tiger; for the grizzly is greatly superior in bulk and muscular power to either of the great cats, and its teeth are as large as theirs, while its claws, though blunter, are much longer; nevertheless, I believe that a lion or a tiger would be fully as dangerous to a human being, on account of the superior speed of its charge, the lightning-like rapidity of its movements, and its apparently sharper senses. Still, after all is said, the man should have a thoroughly trustworthy weapon and fairly cool head, who would follow into its own haunts and slay grim Old Ephraim.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:13:08 GMT -5
American Bears - Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt. Old Ephraim, The Grizzly Bear. Bear vary greatly in size and color, no less than in temper and habits. Old hunters speak much of them in their endless talks over the camp fires and in the snow-bound winter huts. They insist on many species; not merely the black and the grizzly, but the brown, the cinnamon, the gray, the silver-tip, and others with names known only in certain localities, such as the range bear, the roach-back, and the smut-face. But, in spite of popular opinion to the contrary, most old hunters are very untrustworthy in dealing with points of natural history. They usually know only so much about any given game animal as will enable them to kill it. They study its habits solely with this end in view; and once slain they only examine it to see about its condition and fur. With rare exceptions they are quite incapable of passing judgment upon questions of specific identity or difference. When questioned, they not only advance perfectly impossible theories and facts in support of their views, but they rarely even agree as to the views themselves.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:13:44 GMT -5
Continued.... A full grown grizzly will usually weigh from five to seven hundred pounds; but exceptional individuals undoubtedly reach more than twelve hundredweight. The California bears are said to be much the largest. This I think is so, but I cannot say it with certainty - at any rate I have examined several skins of full-grown California bears which were no larger than those of many I have seen from the northern Rockies. The Alaskan bears, particularly those of the peninsula, are even bigger beasts; the skin of one which I saw in the possession of Mr. Webster, the taxidermist, was a good deal larger than the average polar bear skin; and the animal when alive, if in good condition, could hardly have weighed less than 1,400 pounds. Bears vary wonderfully in weight, even to the extent of becoming half as heavy again, according as they are fat or lean; in this respect they are more like hogs than like any other animals.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:14:32 GMT -5
Continued.... The grizzly is now chiefly a beast of the high hills and heavy timber; but this is merely because he has learned that he must rely on cover to guard him from man, and has forsaken the open ground accordingly. In old days, and in one or two very out-of-the-way places almost to the present time, he wandered at will over the plains. It is only the wariness born of fear which nowadays causes him to cling to the thick brush of the large river-bottoms throughout the plains country. When there were no rifle-bearing hunters in the land, to harass him and make him afraid, he roved hither and thither at will, in burly self-confidence. Then he cared little for cover, unless as a weather-break, or because it happened to contain food he liked. If the humor seized him he would roam for days over the rolling or broken prairie, searching for roots, digging up gophers, or perhaps following the great buffalo herds either to prey on some unwary straggler which he was able to catch at a disadvantage in a washout, or else to feast on the carcasses of those which died by accident. Old hunters, survivors of the long-vanished ages when the vast herds thronged the high plains and were followed by the wild red tribes, and by bands of whites who were scarcely less savage, have told me that they often met bears under such circumstances; and these bears were accustomed to sleep in a patch of rank sage bush, in the niche of a washout, or under the lee of a boulder, seeking their food abroad even in full daylight. The bears of the Upper Missouri basin - which were so light in color that the early explorers often alluded them as gray or even as "white" - were particularly given to this life in the open. To this day that close kinsman of the grizzly known as the bear of the barren grounds continues to lead this same kind of life, in the far north. My friend Mr. Rockhill, of Maryland, who was the first white man to explore eastern Tibet, describes the large, grizzly-like bear of those desolate uplands as having similar habits.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 13:15:07 GMT -5
Continued.... Mr. Clarence King informs me that he was once eyewitness to a bear's killing a steer, in California. The steer was in a small pasture, and the bear climbed over, partly breaking down the rails which barred the gateway. The steer started to run, but the grizzly overtook it in four or five bounds, and struck it a tremendous blow on the flank with one paw, knocking several ribs clear from the spine, and killing the animal outright by the shock. Horses no less than horned cattle at times fall victims to this great bear, which usually spring on them from the edge of a clearing as they graze in some mountain pasture, or among the foot-hills; and there is no other animal of which horses seem so much afraid. Generally, the bear, whether successful or unsuccessful in its raids on cattle and horses, comes off unscathed from the struggle; but this is not always the case, and it has much respect for the hoofs or horns of its should-be prey. Some horses do not seem to know how to fight at all; but others are both quick and vicious, and prove themselves very formidable foes, lashing out behind, and striking with their fore-hoofs. I have elsewhere given an instance of a stallion which beat off a bear, breaking its jaw.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 6:42:06 GMT -5
Grizzly 211, the most beloved bear in Yellowstone National Park in modern times, affectionately known as Scarface, was killed by a hunter's bullet in November of 2015. R.I.P. Scarface. Mankind has so overpopulated and conquered the Earth that the fate of the grizzly and all other living things are in his questionable hands.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 7:29:36 GMT -5
Monarch, the last California grizzly - mounted and on display.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 7:38:40 GMT -5
The Grizzly Book by Jack Samson - A Gallery of Outlaw Grizzlies by W.P. Hubbard - Red Robber 1880 - 1885.
Within a month, six friendly Utes rode into the JRX Ranch and told Riley a bear had attacked fourteen wild horses they had left overnight in a horse trap. Riley and some of his men went to the trap. It was located at the end of a small blind-pocket canyon. The Utes had barricaded the narrow entrance with a log gate. The trap itself was small and surrounded by high, sheer, rocky walls. The Utes had caught the herd the afternoon before and then gone to their camp for the night. Upon returning to the trap next morning, they discovered the bear had invaded it during their absence. Three horses were dead. Two others were so badly injured they had to be shot. One was a beautiful blaze-faced chestnut that Riley had tried several times to capture. Riley was so angered he vowed vengeance on all bears, offering $50 to anyone who would bring him the Red Robber's hide: the first reward placed on the bear.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 7:39:08 GMT -5
The Grizzly Book by Jack Samson - A Gallery of Outlaw Grizzlies by W.P. Hubbard - The Bandit 1899 to 1904.
Both men had a good look at the grizzly and were sure that the bear's face about the eyes and nose was a decided white color, and that the rest of his body was a dark, bluish-gray with whitish hair on his great shoulders. Because of his masklike markings on his face, he became known as the Bandit.
In the fall, at the edge of a timber-fringed meadow, two coyotes led to the discovery of a gelding that had been killed by the Bandit. The horse had entered a small indentation in a low bank to drink at a spring. Tracks revealed the grizzly had come in behind the horse and had killed it with a smashing neck blow as if attempted to dash by him in the narrow opening.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 7:42:58 GMT -5
The Grizzly Book by Jack Samson - A gallery of Outlaw grizzlies by W.P.Hubbard - Bloody Paws 1889 to 1892.
Among the outlaw grizzlies, Bloody Paws seems to hold the record for the number of domestic animals killed. During three years his accounted escapades totaled 570 head of domestic animals destroyed, not to mention several head of wild game. The value of the stock, mostly sheep, charged to his destruction was estimated at $7,850. His boldness, and the fact that he caused the death of two hundred and sixty-three "woolies" in a single raid, were the chief factors accounting for his notoriety. Sheepmen placed rewards totaling $375 on his head.
Bloody Paws was a typical grizzly of that part of the country. He was classed as a "bald-face." He had a pale, creamy-buff coat with a slightly brownish tinge in the rolls of fur over his massive shoulders. Several times his pelage was described as of silvery whiteness.
Downey described Bloody Paws as a "big devil" that must have been all of eight feet tall when standing up. He was certain of hitting him once, maybe twice, but the shots unquestionably were just flesh wounds. His loss was 37 ewes.
Shortly afterward, near the junction of Beaver and Shell Creeks, a cowhand came upon a range bull that had been slain by the outlaw. The bull's throat had been torn open and one of it's sides caved in. Blood spots over a trampled area gave mute evidence of the battle waged there. A limping track connected Bloody Paws with the dead.
Bloody Paws was estimated to have been twenty years old and to have weighed close to 1,000 pounds. All through life the grizzly was referred to, and thought to be, a male. Upon the bear's death, it was discovered to be female. She was never seen or known to have been with cubs, and was undoubtedly barren.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 7:43:49 GMT -5
Grizzly Years by Doug peacock.
The Bitter Creek Grizzly was the only bear I knew of in Yellowstone that regularly killed moose and bison. He attacked younger animals - ambushed them from nearby timber, then dragged them back into the trees, sometimes covering the carcasses with dirt and sticks. I had seen this too many times to believe that these animals had all conveniently died during the winter. His was not the usual pattern of predation for grizzlies. In 1977, when I first crossed paths with the Bitter Creek Griz, a biologist had found another grizzly who had passed up many carcasses for live elk: The bear liked to kill what he ate. A few bears learn to kill healthy adult elk during all seasons, and cow-struck bulls during the rut were especially stupid and approachable. Yellowstone grizzlies also prey on elk calves, as they do caribou calves in Alaska, and moose calves in both places. Adult moose were generally a match for a grizzly except when snows were deep and lightly crusted: grizzlies can walk lightly over a thin crust, distributing their weight evenly on their plantigrade feet, and they glide over the top of deep drifts in which moose wallow.
I thought that grizzly predation was not as common here as it had been a decade or more ago. The predatory segment of the population had probably been killed off selectively, and continues to be culled as they were born into it, because predatory bears are bolder and more visible. The Bitter Creek Griz was a holdover from the days when bears could afford to be bold and aggressive. Which served, as it always had, an important ecological function vital to survival of the species.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 15:21:37 GMT -5
www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/07_00/snare_bear_hair.shtml Scientists snare bear hair for DNA analysis It's a culinary teaser meant for bears only: one-cup fetid fish oil and four liters spoiled cattle blood. Biologists slosh, slather and hang this and other concoctions—catnip, castor oil and molasses—to lure bears under and over barbed wire fencing. "It's a putrid job," says Garth Mowat, a Canadian biologist and general manager at Wildlife Genetics International. But an effective one. The smells draw the bears to designated sights; the barbed wire snags their hair, and scientists collect and send it to the lab. In the root of each collected hair is enough DNA for geneticists to identify species, individuals and sex. Using techniques from human forensic science, "bears are essentially tagged without ever being touched," Mowat says. Biologists are using this data to estimate population size, distribution and genetic variation, all indications of a population's health. Scientists analyze bear hair follicles using six markers to determine species, sex, and individuals. (Scientists compare regions of DNA to identify species: Black bears, for example, have 9 to 15 more units than grizzly bears.) The larger challenge is getting the hair, which isn't as easy as it might sound. Grizzly bears weigh 300 to 800 pounds depending on their sex and the time of year. They are solitary, elusive creatures that, in the western United States and Canada, reside in dense forests. Biologists have sedated and collared them, drawn blood samples, flown overhead to count them and even positioned cameras with trip lines to capture them on film, without much success. "A lot of cameras were lost," laughs Curtis Strobeck, professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta. In 1995, undergraduate student Michael Proctor tromped through the mountains of British Columbia, Canada following black bears until he developed a procedure for collecting their hair. It turns out bears have no aversion to walking over, under and through barbed wire, as cattle ranchers will attest, when there's rotting blood on the other side. "And nothing separates the hair like barbed wire," he says. Using Proctor's technique, bear biologists worldwide are snagging bear hair for its telling DNA: for sun bears in Malaysia, Asiatic black bears in Japan, panda bears in China, spectacled bears in South America, sloth bears in Asia, and brown bears in Europe. The United States adopted this method in at least eight states for black bears and in some western states for grizzly bears. Canadian researchers completed 17 studies in the last four years estimating grizzly bear populations in British Colombia and Alberta and have three more studies in the works. This methodology could ultimately work for all fur-bearing animals, and is already being tested on lynx, bobcats, martens, and fishers, to name a few. Interested in DNA analysis for its wildlife management applications, researchers are learning how many bears there are, where they are, how they are related, paternity, maternity, and if there are ecologically significant populations that need stronger conservation efforts. They have not mapped markers to a location on the bears' 74 chromosomes—42 for giant pandas and 52 for spectacled bears—or even a particular chromosome. And there is little interest in undertaking a bear genome project. The reason, says Proctor, who is now working on his Ph.D. at the University of Calgary, is that the emphasis and funding in bear biology is ecological in nature. "The immediate threats to bears are human conflict, habitat fragmentation and cars on the highway, rather than disease or even genetic isolation," he says. Proctor is studying the DNA of 900 grizzly bears in British Columbia. Using 16 markers for paternity, pedigree and inter-population analysis, he can look at individual bears, their parents and their offspring to get a picture of grizzly bear dispersal and movement. British Columbia has an estimated 10,000 to 13,000 grizzly bears that move along the mountain ranges. Highways running east to west cut through their habitat. With data gleaned from these DNA samples, Proctor hopes to learn how much the highways impact grizzly bears: How do grizzly bears move between geographic areas? Do they cross highways? Mountain ranges? "We're using DNA to ask questions about the present and the future," he says.
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Post by brobear on Mar 24, 2017 2:46:24 GMT -5
Human Impact, Relations and Conservation
In the early 1800’s the grizzly bear population thrived in much of North America, but by 1975 much of their population had been devastated and extirpated in most of the contiguous United States except for 6 remote locations as well as 76% of their territory in Canada (Banci et al., 1994). This was caused without question by the destruction of habitat by the increasing human population. Expansion of cities, road and train building, deforestation, excavation of minerals and increased agriculture has decimated most of their former habitat and left populations isolated from one another (Banci et al, 1994). Another major factor in their population decline was the rapid decrease in the number of prey available; an example of this is the overhunting of bison in Canada and the US. The presence of roads and railway tracks through a forest often deters bears from crossing, and causes a decrease in the territory size of individuals as well as segregation of communities. In 1975, grizzly bears were listed as a threatened species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and conservation efforts began to take hold.
Since that time, a wide variety of efforts have been made by governments to reduce human interaction with grizzly bears and to restore their population to a healthy size for their current area. Populations in Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide in the US have reached a recovered level (Strickland, 1989). Successful programs in the Yellowstone region have also nearly eliminated grizzly related injuries to humans since the 1960’s (Gunther, 1994). As hunting by humans is still a large risk to bear populations, reducing access to forests by hunters is being stressed by conservation agencies (McLellan, 1989). The populations of grizzly bears in Canada and Alaska are relatively stable and large enough to support themselves, and are protected by numerous national parks and hunting bans. Nevertheless, grizzlies need the constant security given by governments and conservation strategies to ensure that the bears do not undergo a population crash such as the one seen in the 19th and 20th century.
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Post by brobear on Mar 24, 2017 11:36:34 GMT -5
Grizzly.
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Post by brobear on Mar 24, 2017 11:53:18 GMT -5
Grizzly.
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Post by brobear on Mar 28, 2017 8:38:35 GMT -5
www.discovery.com/tv-shows/great-bear-stakeout/about-grizzlies/meet-the-europeans/ Meet the Europeans Coronado in Grizzly Country Read more Coronado in Grizzly Country Francisco Coronado, depicted here on his quest for gold in the American interior during the years 1540 to 1542, was one of the... DCL Meet the Europeans Stories of white men discovering the New World often cite Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as the first Europeans to encounter grizzly bears in North America, but - in truth - they weren't even among the first handful to do so. The first European to encounter the grizzly bear may have been Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer who landed in Florida in 1528 and entered the American West in 1532. Grizzlies were then abundant along de Vaca's route through present-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico's northern provinces. However, de Vaca made no mention of bears in his journal. On the other hand, Francesco Vasquez de Coronado's journal specifically mentions "bears," without going into detail. In 1540, he embarked on a two-year expedition into the American interior. His search for gold took him as far north as present-day Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska - prime grizzly bear country at that time. Claude Jean Allouez, a French missionary to the Pacific Northwest, penned the first known description of the grizzly bear in 1666. In his journal he described a nation of Native Americans who "eat human beings, and live on raw fish" but who, in turn, are "eaten by bears of frightful size, all red, and with prodigiously long claws." Grizzlies were next mentioned by English explorer Henry Kelsey, who journeyed across the Canadian West between 1690 and 1691. On August 20, 1691, Kelsey wrote of "a great sort of Bear wch is Bigger than any white Bear & is Neither White nor Black But silver hair'd like our English Rabbit ..." In September he again mentioned the "outgrown Bear wch. is good meat" and which "makes food of man." Grizzlies were mentioned more frequently in journals throughout the 18th century. In 1703, for instance, Baron Lahontan wrote: "The Reddish Bears are mischievous Creatures, for they fall fiercely upon the Huntsmen, whereas the black ones fly from 'em." Two decades later, Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix wrote the first report on Native American grizzly-hunting activities. The first explorer to describe the bear as "grizzled" was Englishman Samuel Hearne, who journeyed across northwestern Canada to the Arctic Ocean from 1769 to 1772. In his journal, Hearne mentioned seeing the "skin of an enormous grizzled Bear" and camping at a spot "not far from Grizzled Bear Hill, which takes its name from the number of those animals that are frequently known to resort thither..."
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Post by brobear on Mar 28, 2017 8:40:40 GMT -5
www.discovery.com/tv-shows/great-bear-stakeout/about-grizzlies/great-white-bear/ The Great White Bear Meriwether Lewis and William Clark may not have been the first white men to encounter grizzly bears, but their 1803 to 1806 voyage had a unique and unprecedented mission: to scientifically describe the flora and fauna encountered during the expedition. Thus, they became the first to use direct field observations to describe the grizzly bear, as well as the first to acquire a full specimen for study. On April 29, 1805, Lewis and Clark were heading west along the Missouri River when they encountered two of the largest carnivores they had ever seen: grizzly bears. They fired. One - a 300-pound juvenile - charged, chasing the men about 70 yards downriver. Two shots later and the bear finally fell. In his journal entry for that day, Lewis compared the grizzly to the well-known black bear, noting that "it is a much more furious and formidable anamal, and will frequently pursue the hunter when wounded." He added, "It is asstonishing to see the wounds they will bear before they can be put to death ." Nearly a week later, on May 5, Clark and a hunter shot "a most tremendious looking" grizzly, firing "five balls through his lungs and five others in various parts" before it finally died. This "verry large and turrible looking animal" was measured (it was almost 9 feet from snout to hind claw) and examined in detail. It would later become the type specimen used to scientifically describe and classify the grizzly. Following another encounter with a grizzly on May 11, Lewis wrote, "these bear being so hard to die reather intimedates us all; I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen and had reather fight two Indians than one bear ." After being party to a particularly harrowing escape from an enraged grizzly on May 14, Lewis remarked that "the curiossity of our party is pretty well satisfyed with rispect to this animal ." They thereafter refrained from shooting grizzlies for sport, but would continue to be plagued by the bears for a good part of their journey.
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Post by brobear on Mar 28, 2017 8:43:09 GMT -5
www.discovery.com/tv-shows/great-bear-stakeout/about-grizzlies/tyrant-of-the-frontier/ Tyrant of the Frontier In the first half of the 19th century, some 50,000 to 100,000 grizzly bears roamed the American West, ranging from the Pacific coast to the Great Plains, where they hunted buffalo calves and weaker members of the herds. On the heels of Lewis and Clark's "Voyage of Discovery," large numbers of young men headed west in search of furs, trade and adventure. To many, the ultimate adventure was confronting a grizzly bear - and living to tell about it. In those days, shooting a grizzly was a life-threatening enterprise. The most advanced rifles were single-shot, muzzle-loading contraptions that fired small-caliber bullets, and even experienced riflemen took at least 20 seconds to reload. Grizzlies were incredibly resistant to these early rifles - only a shot through the head or heart could reliably take one down. When the rifle failed, and safety was out of reach, the hunting knife was typically used as a last resort against angry grizzlies. Theodore Roosevelt once wrote that "in a very exceptional instance, men of extraordinary prowess with a knife have succeeded in beating off a bear, and even in mortally wounding it." He went on to remark that "in most cases a single-handed struggle, at close quarters with a grisly bent on mischief, means death." According to most accounts, grizzlies were hostile and aggressive through the early 1800s, when they still reigned supreme in the American West. Many reliable, first-hand narratives tell of grizzlies preying on men, invading their camps and attacking people at first sight. Nevertheless, experienced frontiersmen were generally able to avoid them. As grizzly pelts were not particularly marketable, nor their flesh especially appetizing, most took care to do so. But others actually sought grizzlies out...
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