It’s about time someone finally figured this one out. And,
thanks to modern technology, we now know something everyone suspected for a
very long time. Grizzly bears do in fact hunt the hunters who think they are
hunting them, at least the U.S. Geological Survey seems to bear that out.
How do you ask?
No, they don’t romp around in the woods looking for stray
Yogi’s with hunter caps and rifles, they merely do what thousands of holiday
travelers have been doing for years. They attach a GPS tracking device on a
collar. Then, they get a few naïve hunters to carry a similar tracker with them
when they head into the woods and the rest is just like watching a game of
Pacman, or if you prefer, Pacbear.
This whole thing was worked out at Grand Teton National Park
where the USGS loaded eight grizzly bears with GPS collars. They then got a few
suckers, er I mean hunters, to agree to carry GPS trackers with them when they
went into the woods to hunt. No one was really surprised that some of these
bears picked up on the hunters and followed from afar, well at least 100 yards
away. The bears were even clever enough to stay downwind of the hunters,
masking their own odor and keeping the hunters in front—where they wanted them.
In their review of the tracking patterns, the USGS said it
was pretty obvious what the bears were up to. Just like the infamous Yogi bear,
these local grizzlies were out for a free lunch. No, they weren’t necessarily
going after the hunters per se. But they had learned that often where the
hunters go there is a chance at a free dinner.
“Hey BooBoo boy, let’s go get some free Elk carcass.”
What the hunters opt to leave behind, Elk are after all
rather large animals of the deer species, like the gut pile and hooves and such
left over bones the bears like to eat. In its essence, it’s a win-win
situation. Of course, most of these hunters don’t realize the bears are
actually tracking them.
I wonder what their thoughts are now that they know the
bears are following closely behind. But according to the USGS that is exactly
what bears do. They are opportunists when it comes to haute cuisine, they don’t
so much care where the next comes from, but they do want to eat.
There are in fact accounts of bears stealing salmon from
fishermen, and an occasional story about large bears stealing an elk or moose
that some hunter actually killed. Bears, and especially those of the Grizzly
variety, are one of the largest predators around. While they are more than
happy to eat berries, grasses, and nuts; they also enjoy gut piles, other
people’s kills, and dumpster diving – when it comes to that.
The USGS data also showed that these bears are more like
Yogi than one might assume. One of the bears apparently got tired while tracking
one hunter. He found himself a nice place in the shade and took a nap. Now, how
they know he was napping I am not so sure, perhaps the bear took a selfie? But
nonetheless, after an hour of non-movement, the GPS indicated the bear got up
and went back to following the hunter’s track.
The USGS swears that no hunters were injured during their
experiment. There were also no reports of Grizzly bears with GPS collars being
killed. Money well spent, I guess we found out something that most hunters
suspected for a long time.
