Russian River Bear Cubs sighted in Alaska

I caught up with the famous Russian River bear cubs on the Kenai River
in Alaska. These bears were made famous when their mother and a
sibling were killed by an unethical, immoral person shot them near a
campground, and certainly out of season. The killings were aparently
simply for sport (alleged killer still awaiting trial). You can find
images of the 2 surviving cubs at www.alaskanfishguides.com , then
click on the Russian River Bear Cub Gallery link. You will find that
they are healthy, furry and fat. Enjoy

Thanks for your question. Certainly what you say is true, however the
evidence in this case is contrary to a self defense situation. These
bears in particular are very habituated to humans. The Russian River
is famous for its "combat fishing", where people are lined up elbow to
elbow and several deep trying to catch the sockeye salmon returning to
spawn. The sow has been a resident of this area for some time. She
would frequently bring her cubs to the banks of the river to find food.
All summer, people enjoyed seeing the bears who did no pose any kind
of threat.

Certainly my judgement of ethics and morality may seem strong, but the
facts of the case indicate that this was simply a sport to shoot the
bear (and one of the cubs I might add). The weapon used was not the
kind that a person would use for bear protection, or even have in a
popular and busy campground, for that matter.

I am not an anti-gun activist, in fact I own many. However, incidents
like this really harm the case for those who own firearms.

Likewise, to really answer your question, I have been around many, many
bears (up close and personal!). The typical bear (even with cubs)
would have nothing to do with people if there were a way of escape.
The normal bear attacks occur because the bear was surprised (not the
case here), or threatened, and on rare occasion hungry. It is my
experience that once a bear is encountered, if a person talks to the
bear and backs away calmly the encounter is averted. Now certainly
there are exceptions to every rule. But I strongly believe that if
this person was in a situation that may have threatened the bear, they
could have avoided the shooting.

AlaskanFishGuide wrote:

Thanks for your question. Certainly what you say is true, however the
evidence in this case is contrary to a self defense situation. These
bears in particular are very habituated to humans. The Russian River
is famous for its "combat fishing", where people are lined up elbow to
elbow and several deep trying to catch the sockeye salmon returning to
spawn. The sow has been a resident of this area for some time. She
would frequently bring her cubs to the banks of the river to find food.
All summer, people enjoyed seeing the bears who did no pose any kind
of threat.

Certainly my judgement of ethics and morality may seem strong, but the
facts of the case indicate that this was simply a sport to shoot the
bear (and one of the cubs I might add). The weapon used was not the
kind that a person would use for bear protection, or even have in a
popular and busy campground, for that matter.

I am not an anti-gun activist, in fact I own many. However, incidents
like this really harm the case for those who own firearms.

Likewise, to really answer your question, I have been around many, many
bears (up close and personal!). The typical bear (even with cubs)
would have nothing to do with people if there were a way of escape.
The normal bear attacks occur because the bear was surprised (not the
case here), or threatened, and on rare occasion hungry. It is my
experience that once a bear is encountered, if a person talks to the
bear and backs away calmly the encounter is averted. Now certainly
there are exceptions to every rule. But I strongly believe that if
this person was in a situation that may have threatened the bear, they
could have avoided the shooting.

I haven't encountered that many bears in the wild and so far none of
them were "very habituated to humans." The bears I have encountered
were all heading away from me at a good speed and that is the way I like
it. If you think these bears "did no pose any kind of threat" I
certainly wouldn't want you guiding me. Most bear attacks in national
park campsites etc. are by bears that habituated to humans and no longer
fear them. bears habituated to humans are the bears that authorities
have to relocate to very remote areas or kill because they are such a
threat.


And this thread has what to do with rec.outdoors. fishing? Oh, I get
it. It is a spam to get people to visit your web site.

Jon