The Dangers Of Allowing Predator Populations To Go Unchecked

Fred Gunner

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Yesterday, a 5-year-old girl was mauled by a black bear in Grand Junction, Colo., an hour from my home. According to a news report from KDVR-TV (Fox 31) in Denver, the girl’s mother awoke to the sound of screaming in the yard. When she ran outside to investigate, she saw a large black bear dragging her 5-year-old daughter. She began yelling and the bear dropped the girl, who is now recovering from serious injuries in the local hospital. The suspected bear was killed this morning.

full


The truth is that human-bear conflicts are on the rise statewide. As a lifelong Colorado resident I’ve personally seen as many as three adult bears on my ranch on any given day. In fact, a report from KDVR-TV last July estimated the state’s thriving bear population at 20,000. Anyone who ever paid attention in biology class knows that black bears, like any wildlife species, must be kept in check with area carrying capacity. Therein lies the problem.

In 1992, Colorado lost its spring black-bear hunting season (and the ability to hunt bears with dogs or over bait). Anti-hunting groups succeeded in putting the issue on the ballot supported by a media campaign and lies. Antis said lactating sows were being killed during the spring season so their cubs died of starvation when, in fact, only one lactating sow accidentally had been taken by a hunter the previous spring. The fact: Far more lactating sows were killed on the highway that year. The ballot measure passed despite that state wildlife biologists explained hunting was a sound bear management tool. The move stripped wildlife-management authority away from state biologists who were the ones who knew what was really happening in the field.

Last fall local landowners told me there were more than 50 bears trapped and killed by CPW in the cornfields near Olathe, Colo., alone last summer. The expanding bear population combined with the fact that dry conditions had wiped out much of the available feed in the high country kept wildlife conservation officers on the move.

Now instead of having hunters help to manage bear populations while their dollars boost the local economy during a spring bear hunting season, Colorado pays government trappers and its own CPW staff to eradicate problem bears. The irony, of course, is that bears are still being killed—just not by hunters—and the state is paying the bill.

A few years ago, a Colorado woman was killed and partially eaten by a black bear in her backyard. It amazes me that we are now paying people to trap and destroy problem bears. Before the spring bear season was banned, we could bait and run bears with hounds during the spring season. The state made money while the bears were controlled by outdoorsmen who were happy to pay for the opportunity. I think it is long past time for CPW to reexamine the possibility of a spring black bear season and get the bear population under control while benefitting from the hunters’ license fees that help to pay for wildlife and conservation initiatives.

Of course, while hunting is a common-sense wildlife management tool, it only can help to keep wildlife populations in check where it is permitted. by Phil Phillips - Monday, May 14, 2018

What is happening with Bears in Colorado is happening with Lions and Leopards in Africa.

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2018/5/14/black-bear-mauls-5-year-old-in-colorado/
 
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I realize that Colorado has a lot of people that have been led astray on this issue, but with the current problems is there a chance this could be reversed? A few human deaths and then some common sense numbers could change some minds.... Is it worth trying?
Bruce
 
This seems very familiar to us up in Ontario. In 1999 the antis managed to get spring bear hunting cancelled for much the same reasons. As the years passed there were more and more bear human incidents etc, until the government reinstated spring bear hunting in limited areas for two years in 2014, now it has been opened to most areas and will remain open until at least 2020 as a pilot project. A side effect of the spring bear closure seems to be a huge decrease in our moose population. At the end of the day, science will win this battle here I think .... but only until the next push from the antis.
 
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They did the same things in California with Bears and Mountain Lions.
The Antis work solely of the emotional response of sheeple.
 
Wildlife management by the MOB, not science. :cry:
 
Yesterday, a 5-year-old girl was mauled by a black bear in Grand Junction, Colo., an hour from my home. According to a news report from KDVR-TV (Fox 31) in Denver, the girl’s mother awoke to the sound of screaming in the yard. When she ran outside to investigate, she saw a large black bear dragging her 5-year-old daughter. She began yelling and the bear dropped the girl, who is now recovering from serious injuries in the local hospital. The suspected bear was killed this morning.

full


The truth is that human-bear conflicts are on the rise statewide. As a lifelong Colorado resident I’ve personally seen as many as three adult bears on my ranch on any given day. In fact, a report from KDVR-TV last July estimated the state’s thriving bear population at 20,000. Anyone who ever paid attention in biology class knows that black bears, like any wildlife species, must be kept in check with area carrying capacity. Therein lies the problem.

In 1992, Colorado lost its spring black-bear hunting season (and the ability to hunt bears with dogs or over bait). Anti-hunting groups succeeded in putting the issue on the ballot supported by a media campaign and lies. Antis said lactating sows were being killed during the spring season so their cubs died of starvation when, in fact, only one lactating sow accidentally had been taken by a hunter the previous spring. The fact: Far more lactating sows were killed on the highway that year. The ballot measure passed despite that state wildlife biologists explained hunting was a sound bear management tool. The move stripped wildlife-management authority away from state biologists who were the ones who knew what was really happening in the field.

Last fall local landowners told me there were more than 50 bears trapped and killed by CPW in the cornfields near Olathe, Colo., alone last summer. The expanding bear population combined with the fact that dry conditions had wiped out much of the available feed in the high country kept wildlife conservation officers on the move.

Now instead of having hunters help to manage bear populations while their dollars boost the local economy during a spring bear hunting season, Colorado pays government trappers and its own CPW staff to eradicate problem bears. The irony, of course, is that bears are still being killed—just not by hunters—and the state is paying the bill.

A few years ago, a Colorado woman was killed and partially eaten by a black bear in her backyard. It amazes me that we are now paying people to trap and destroy problem bears. Before the spring bear season was banned, we could bait and run bears with hounds during the spring season. The state made money while the bears were controlled by outdoorsmen who were happy to pay for the opportunity. I think it is long past time for CPW to reexamine the possibility of a spring black bear season and get the bear population under control while benefitting from the hunters’ license fees that help to pay for wildlife and conservation initiatives.

Of course, while hunting is a common-sense wildlife management tool, it only can help to keep wildlife populations in check where it is permitted. by Phil Phillips - Monday, May 14, 2018

What is happening with Bears in Colorado is happening with Lions and Leopards in Africa.

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2018/5/14/black-bear-mauls-5-year-old-in-colorado/

Fred any chance of you sending this in as a letter to the editor at the paper? You have done a nice job with facts here. Perhaps people would be more supportive if they could see some correlations to no Hunting vs human bear conflict. I bet the average citizen has no idea that bears are being killed by the wild life folks.
It’s a shame the little child was hurt. I suspect she had no idea that the creature was not friendly and could hurt her.
 
Fred any chance of you sending this in as a letter to the editor at the paper? You have done a nice job with facts here. Perhaps people would be more supportive if they could see some correlations to no Hunting vs human bear conflict. I bet the average citizen has no idea that bears are being killed by the wild life folks.
It’s a shame the little child was hurt. I suspect she had no idea that the creature was not friendly and could hurt her.
Sir,
I found this article on NRA's American Hunter .org I posted the link at the end. This also appeared on Fox31 Colorado. So this is out there as far as the internet could take it far beyond my humble abilities to add to the issue. http://kdvr.com/2018/05/13/5-year-old-seriously-injured-after-bear-attack-near-grand-junction/

As a predator hunter myself, I am amazed and frankly awe struck at the fact that as far as the human race thinks we have mastered our environment that the wild creatures can from time to time remind us that we are still one of the weakest species on the planet.

And at the risk of offending many that is what I take away from this story.
 
Antis ought to do mind their damn business when it comes to wildlife. THEY are the problem not sportsman and women.
 
A 5 year old outside on their own at 2:30 am is missing from your narrative.
 
86fc55efb8a4b5306dee2dd1aa510386--camping-humor-funny-camping.jpg


Ok First if you don’t know me by now I freely admit that I have a twisted sense of grave yard humor coupled with weak self control and you get this…(sorry I just can’t not do it?)
 
 
The problem is that tree huggers from Komifornia are moving everywhere, and unfortunately they are well organized and funded by the idiots who believe in their cause. We as hunters need to wake up, get united and better organized because this is happening more and more.
 
Does that fit into the Acts of Nature category of my insurance?
Also, it would have been funnier if the dump was inside the car. Some bears just have no sense for the comedic effect!
 
Zimbabwe: Baboon Mauls Baby

A Victoria Falls woman has told of her shock after she found a baboon mauling her one-year-old baby after it caught her playing with her sibling at home.
Jean Gama said she did not believe the girl would survive the vicious attack.

“Suddenly I heard her scream like someone who was in severe pain.
“I rushed outside and found the baboon had sunk its teeth on her scalp and face.
“I hit it with a huge stone and that’s when it finally loosened its grip on her before fleeing.

"Apparently the baboon wanted to take away my daughter’s doll. The baboon’s teeth penetrated her skull and I don’t know what it means for her health as she grows up."
Gama sought treatment for her daughter in Zambia because there was no medication at health centres in the resort town.

Chinotimba residents said baboons had become a menace in their neighbourhood as they broke their windows and doors in search of food.
The baboons also attack women and children, but the mauling of the baby was the most violent incident in recent years.
Other areas where baboons invade people’s homes are Aerodrome, Bongoland and the central business district.

“We keep our windows and doors closed all the time because of the marauding baboons,” said Reuben Dube, a Chinotimba resident.
“They take away anything they find in the house and we no longer have gardens because they destroy our crops.

Dube said parents now accompany their children to and from school on a daily basis out of fear of attack by the baboons.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201805150802.html
 
Hey! I took that black bear photo last year in Canada, on my way home from a grizzly hunt.

Cool. Glad you liked it. :)

Regards, Guy
 

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