"We turned and sprinted..." Exactly how not to act if you think a bear might be too interested. The fact that she did not chase at that moment suggests that she was not interested in eating you. Nothing in the description of her behavior suggests aggression of any kind.
But of course, it's always all about us. Every bear should want to eat us, right? We should be the most important and interesting thing in the bear's day.
Who was really threatened? Hint: the bear isn't the party with the gun.
Anyway, the fact that many people have never realized we are animals shows how complete is our divorce from the real world. We are out of touch, even with our selves.
I wonder how much distance that bear was able to close in on them just 'innocently' walking closer to them until they both realized they were standing in the deli section, and on the wrong side of the glass.
An excellent article; I've spent a long time attempting to confront and understand the animal within and trying to balance its role in my life. The article does leave out one important point, though: as animals, we are not only prey but the most intelligent predators that exist.
Dang, nothing puts in perspective the fact that you share the top of the food chain than a bear encounter. I remember staying at a hotel in the Tahoe area and seeing a black bear's head come out around the corner of the building not 5 yards in front of me (I was sent out to throw some trash away), I was real young and the size of it was unreal, I can only imaging how much a grizzly would freak you out. I'm not sure who was more scared, I froze while he booked it in the other direction. Luckily it was only after the trash cans and probably had been scared off by people before.
Still, you should brush up on what to do when you see a bear before going hiking in bear country and get some bear spray or protection. Running make you look like dinner and they'll instinctively give chase (this applies to just about any predator). Luckily, you don't have to be seen by a predator as stronger, just as more likely to injure it. Which we have an advantage over 4 legged animals as standing tall, arms/coat wide, makes us look more dangerous than we are... more like a fellow bear since no other animal in the area stands like that. Add in a long walking stick and most won't consider you worth it... assuming they aren't already man-eaters.
Was the bear shot? It stinks, but I'd trust the ranger knows when they are too dangerous. We can't have an animal hunting people. :(
We are not animals. That is a false doctrine put forth to further the atheistic evolutionists agenda. Just because you are being stalked by an animal that only has its next meal on its mind to pack on calories does not mean that the animal views you as anything other than that.
Do I need to point out the obvious here? You (a human) are putting down written word to paper and composing that word through language. You are using reasoning, logic and an understanding of self awareness. You are describing from memory the details of your interaction as close as you can recall to paint a picture that the rest of us humans can understand. A human artist has skillfully rendered the drawing associated with this story that took the knowledge only a human can possess to complete.
No you are not an animal and neither is any other human walking this earth since they were created. I know this will draw the ire of many and lead to a lot of antagonistic replies, but I can not just sit here and allow the furthering of the atheistic evolutionist lie. Its a crazy story and one that should serve as a reminder to be careful and knowledgeable when out in the wild, but not one to further any agenda on agenda based "science". Thanks for sharing the story.
David Quammen's book "Monster of God" is a fascinating exploration of this subject, for anybody interested in nonfiction/natural history.
The writer didn't have bear spray? Doesn't sound like a very experienced hiker. Perhaps they should stay and hike on the east coast. This behavior just puts wildlife in danger.
I have been stalked by coyotes while deer and turkey hunting right here in NY state. I shot one coyote at 3 feet as it was coming up slowly behind me. I have a friend who was mauled by a coyote while turkey hunting. We honor our human predator ancestry by hunting for the best meat you can eat. Yes predators predate on humans if they can. I live out in the country in very rural Northern NY "the north country." And by the way I am a retired Registered Dietitian....
We are animals by ancestry.....meat doesn't start in a package...
Yes, my dear young man, we are have animal bodies BUT our soul dwells within it.
Our purpose in life is to tame it and use it to serve our Creator.
Thank heaven we are not just animals and we can reach the heavens if we maintain our morality.
If not, you are right, we are just animals to be eaten by any other animal.
prey for your next meal ...
So did he shoot the bear?
As Queen Victoria said, nature is given to us to rise above it.
2
The author is obviously still alive, but he didn't tell us the end of the story. Very disappointing.
3
Talk to any woman who has give birth and she will speak to you of our animal nature, born of blood, pain and joy.
3
The author made mistakes in bear country. He’s lucky to be alive.
1
The predators today are other humans, and this has been the case for millennia. You have religious predators, capitalist predators, political predators, developer predators, etc etc.
It's refreshing and wonderfully simple when the predator is another species. All my life I've been pursued and harassed by humans who wanted to eat me alive. I wish I could find a simpler, more animal way to defend myself against these humans, using teeth and claws. If I could whack them in the face with a hoof, maybe they'd get the message and bug off.
Indeed, with the predator nature unleashed when any degree of power is acquired. The true test of civility may be whether or not we allow power to turn us into predators.
My wife, her uncle and I had a possible close encounter with a bear when we were camping in the Smokies. During the night, Tom bolted up suddenly, zipped open the tent door, stuck his head out and inquired in a loud whisper, "Randy, what the heck are you doing stumbling around out here in the middle of the night? Quiet down!" Right behind him in the tent I answered, "I'm not out there, Tom. I'm still in my sleeping bag!"
I'd never seen a middle-aged man move so quickly. We were never sure if it actually was a bear visiting us in the night, but were grateful that we didn't find out at such close range. We laughed at the possibility, but it took us awhile to get back to sleep.
1
You can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and be prey to people who are every bit as dangerous as the grizzly.
You have to be aware of your surroundings, and maybe take out your ear buds.
2
All hail to our national park workers--rangers, wildlife specialists, educators--who dedicate their careers to bridging the gap between one animal and another. The humans, who define beavers and deer as "nuisance animals," & all of the creatures with whom we share our world, who don't define themselves in relation to how they inconvenience us.
The park ranger who knew this grandma grizzly bear & sought to protect both her & the hikers is truly the hero in this story, which happened several years ago. In the current era, does he still have a job? Does he have health insurance? How does he feel about being a federal worker--demoralized? What about the pardons out west, both from juries and the current resident of the White House, of vigilantes who set fires & point guns at park rangers and suffer no consequences. If he still has a job, how does the park ranger in this story feel about now having a target on his back? Does he feel like a hunted animal?
These are not theoretical questions to me. My son is a wildlife specialist who has spent the five years of his adult life working for the national park service. He loves his work, his coworkers, and the animals he studies and protects. And he needs to get another job now because he's about to turn 26 and won't be on our health insurance any longer. There is no semblance of a professional path for him to follow in today's NPS. He moves from seasonal job to seasonal job.
Do we value our parks? Lets save them. Vote in Nov.
11
It's sad that humans who have developed most of the earth encrouches on bear's natural habitat, is or feels threatened, and then the bear is killed. Hardly a nice ending for a senior bear. Human safety matters but we must consider always, the impact on wildlife everytime we choose to enter their domain. We would be a much better world if that domain and it's inhabitants were treated with equal respect and consideration as we, also animals, as noted by the author, treat ourselves.
That's true.
Almost many years before when I used to do my work regular basis with mates.At then,I went up there in a zoo and saw a lion stood in front of us,and twinkling of an eye it digged on much harder soil like someone who is composing a piece of rock.I am astonished to look at it.It took less then few minutes to do it as a whole.We are human but they are beast,most powerful and strongest animal of nature.
Thanks
Hiking in roughly the same area a couple of years ago I came upon a grizzly track the size of a dinner plate in a small stream bed. I don’t remember if I had a revelation about being an animal but the hair on the back of my neck certainly reacted and I knew unequivocally that I didn’t want to become dinner. I never saw this particular bear, but NOT knowing where it was presented the possibility that it might be right around every next bend in the trail. Waited until we were almost back to the car before I mentioned it to my wife fearing that her bearphobia would kick in and she’d be unable to move.
4
We live in the mountains of New Mexico, snug up to the Cibola National Forest. We listen to packs of coyotes singing, watch the wild turkeys fly (when the must), and keep the bears out of our bird feeders with an electric fence. The deer pose for our game cams. From this idyllic spot we not only recognize our animalhood, we feel deep brotherhood with our fellow beasts.
3
Today I was listening from a Swami about the Eastern construct of Ego and how it relates to "fight or flight". The preservation of the I-ness is very core to us and our technique of that preservation is very sophisticated. Under that web of sophistication lies the "fight or flight", the most primitive construct we received from Mother Nature through evolution. The manifestation of this Ego will make us Devine or drive us to worst type of animal. The choice is ours.
I doubt this grizzly bear was stocking the hiking couple for food. That feeling might have only been imagined in retrospect, which, of course, would have been easy to do. As for humans (Homo sapiens!) being animals but denying it, read Freud’s “Civilization and Its Discontents.” Freud says we slip into our animal nature’s all the time.
1
@David Thomas
The ranger kind of supported it. Sounded like she'd already been trouble due to having difficulty hunting.
1
Alan Lightman wrote a thought-provoking rumination on human encounters with the wild in "Out Place in the Universe," which appeared in Harper's Magazine in December 2012 and is anthologized in the 2013 edition of the excellent "Best American Science and Nature Writing" series, in this case edited by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Lightman's point was that we want "nature" and "wilderness," but are doing all we can to tamp it down to something manageable by humans. Even in vast wilderness areas, we find a ranger.
Anyway--highly recommended.
What happened to the bear? ... This thought fleetingly crossed my mind but once as I reached the essay's conclusion. Biology as zoology/conservation/ecology/environment/etc..., tells the bear-as-animal story. But this, Philosophy, tells the story of man's never-ending inner struggle. We could each pick an animal for our own very personal symbol and journey. The Native American Chief would have seen this as bear teaching man to take time, go into the cave of hibernation, quiet with meditation. Once upon a time, bear "spoke" of introspection.
2
This is a fascinating, thoroughly engrossing article about something many of us tend to forget. Yes, as humans we have made great achievements under what can be understood as progress. And the other side of being human (that we sometimes exhibit the worst instincts that are housed in animal tendencies) also belongs to us. I applaud this article and the NYT for publishing it because it grounds us into understanding that being human is not all sweetness and light and we have the responsibility of reflecting occasionally on the animal within all of us.
6
I doubt the bear was stalking you. If it was and you ran it would have been on you in about 3 seconds.
My girlfriend and I were stalked by a black bear in Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska. We had left the lodge on Lake Selby on a 7 day backpack. About 3 hours into the backpack a black bear came out of a gully and started to come toward us very slowly. We held our ground as you are supposed to do. I remember my knees knocking with fear, the only time I have ever felt that. To run would have shown the bear we were prey and we probably wouldn't be alive today. The bear seemed uncertain what to do, even at one point looking like it was going to climb a tree. We slowly backed away hoping that the bear had decided we weren't an easy lunch. It followed. Eventually, we started to throw rocks at it. I saw a rock hit near it and it was gone. We cancelled the backpack and stayed at the lodge until our scheduled pickup a week later. We've backpacked in Alaska several times since then but not in forests only on open tundra. Black bears are typically only in the forests.
6
@Smokey The Cat
This bear was not stalking you; sounds like he was nearly as scared as you were.
As a doctor and as a guy who majored in biochemistry, I am aware of our animal nature on a continuous basis. Our biological defects are the basis for my job.
It's the idea that we are something different or, God-forbid, "better" than animals that I have always found absurd. Other animals aren't ruining the planet.
From the inside we look very much like chimps and a fair amount like dogs and even fish. At a cellular level we are similar to oak trees.
100
@vbering I remind all of my evangelical friends that 6 weeks after conception, the human fetus is still sporting gill slits.
3
@vbering Neither are we, doctor. In fact, we are the only species who manages its ecology, and cares for other species. This planet has existed for billions of years, and more animals have been wiped out and rendered extinct in it's long history, long before man arrived on the scene, than you or I can count. If you think we have the power to ruin the planet, you are poor a scientist. It's far too vast and complex for our puny efforts to ruin it. Oh, we may cause local damage, but global damage? Short of setting off every nuclear weapon in our possession would fall short of a single ultra-plinian eruption of a super volcano. The geological record shows the earth has experienced ten such eruptions, displacing hundreds of millions of tons of earth and covering entire continents in dozens of feet of ash. We really are very small, even at our very biggest.
I spent many years treeplanting in Canada, and had a number of grizzly, black bear and wolf encounters. It does make you reflect on things, looking into the eyes of another powerful species. Still, this article makes one think that you are always prey ( kind of a city-folk cliche). Sometimes you could be, but usually you are disturbing the cubs, or in the way of where they are going (and live), or just an object of intense curiousity. I had a friend who can do wolf calls and wolves will hang out and howl with you, if you can hold the tune. Prey? sometimes, but fellow pilgrims as well.
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@Jpl
It might also be worthwhile to point out that we pose a greater existential threat to every living on this planet than any of them could ever pose to us.
22
@Mike
So so true. Mind you, when a predator is looking at you, you all alone, and smelling the air, things are rather primal, existentially-speaking. Bruce Chatwin in "Songlines" speculates about a feline predator in our past that fed on humans, that is one of our deepest memories/fears. Maybe that memory gets triggered in these cases.
A very nice piece of writing. I'm surprised that the feeling of pleasure at being freed from mundane concerns came over you at a time when the prospect of being torn limb from limb seemed about to become reality; I would've thought the adrenaline rush would suppress that.
Like others here I'm wondering what happened to the bear.
90
@Jon Harrison Arguably, if the bear was shot and eaten than we are animals like the bear. If the bear was saved and cared for, than we are human, not quite an animal like the bear.
Umm. What happened with the bear? Was it shot? Did it wander off?
5
I hope that this bear did not end up being slaughtered because humans acted without proper respect. Instead of feeling his bestiality, it seems the writer was experiencing limbic system fear & adrenaline. Had he really known his animal self, he would have respected bear by keeping a close eye on her. An animal in the wild maintains a relaxed alertness, open to the world & able to sense other presences.
My encounters with bears, and wildlife generally, have been benign or delightful. Humans are not typically in the bear food chain. Black bears are generally, with good reason, scared of people and one usually sees the bear's hind end as she flees the intrusive humanoid. Sometimes a bear has hung out, both of us showing curiosity.
Maybe this grizzly was not intent on making a meal of you, but was curious to see what was in her home; perhaps she was trying to run you out of her home. Crazy Tim Treadwell survived 12 seasons among grizzlies, before lack of attention got him finally killed by a new angry bear.
Filled with fear & violence, humans unfairly project these shadow traits onto animals. We kill billions of animals every year.
Maybe women know more what it is to live in animal alertness, knowing we are prey to the most dangerous creature of all, the human male. Women are prey all the time, to the sexual perverts, the stalkers, the gun nuts, the angry, the entitled, the psychopaths, the misogynists, the husbands who kill their families, the deranged.
13
I am impressed by both your knowledge of nature expressed in the first half of your comments and the deep anger that wells up in the last paragraph. Probably a story in there worth exploring further.
Not all men are evil, misogynistic animals. Some are, but most men are just trying to get by.
Thank you, Earthling.
What happened to the bear?
7
Bears rarely - if ever - kill people to eat them.
10
good piece. shoulda been eaten.
3
I'm in no position to dispute the authors experience; but I will say that there could have been other bears in the area. It is possible the author exercised ignorant prejudice with this one bad boy ...
Either way, with ever dwindling free roaming space and ever increasing humans being born, these things will happen till the last of the great wild is destroyed for our pleasures, and so called needs.
Isn't it enough just to know that there's a wildness out there not touched by our overly ordered and compartmentalized needs?
If I could I'd buy up every last bit of wild just to give it back to the almighty. Maybe even put a wall up around the entire thing and throw away the key.
Anyway, that's my dream.
9
I share that dream. Human beings never - never! - take a previously untrammelled place and improve upon it. We ALWAYS cause harm. The good we do to restore nature is in response to others of us having damaged it. The most difficult concept for us is the one of just leaving a place totally and completely untouched, and observing from afar.
8
It should be noted that the observation, "We are animals too," comes up a lot in discussions of the morality of the (culturally established and traditional) killing by humans of nonhuman animals for the purpose of eating them. E.g., informally, in response to the suggestion that eating bacon is a form of complicity in the deadly exploitation of pigs, there often comes something like, "But lions eat zebras, and wolves eat deer, so there's nothing wrong with my eating a pig."
That is a very poor analogy: Human beings have historically resorted to predation, and still do, but in fact there is no need for them to do so, being omnivores; also, they are moral agents as well, cherishing justice, mercy and compassion among their highest ideals.
I myself am glad that Maxim Loskutoff and his partner escaped unharmed from their encounter with a bear. But it is likely there are a few proponents of animal rights who would have seen it as a fitting bit of karma, assuming Maxim and partner are not vegan, had they not escaped.
1
Gee, the first things I learned about bears, in Maine, were that you can't outfight them and you can't outrun them, but maybe you thought you had only to outrun your partner.
6
I have an unpopular opinion. John Rawls’ veil of ignorance should apply beyond humans. Any being that feels physical or emotional pain should be empathized with.
3
Maxim has clearly never been a woman living in "civilization". We are routinely hunted. We are not allowed to forget that we are meat. Our struggle is to achieve the certain sense of humanity that men routinely enjoy.
9
Years ago I wrote lyrics for a musical piece, and one of the last lines was 'the human beast, whose brain is big enough and small enough to imagine itself lord of all.' It is perhaps the human failing that will kill us as we imagine that we can slaughter the rest of the food chain and destroy the earth under our feet and not pay for it.
6
My grizzly experience was a bit more intimate. I was 13, in 1955, also in Glacier NP. I was asleep in my pup tent, and was dreaming that hot oil was being poured in my hair. I awoke to look into the face of an adult grizzly, a foot or two away.
Very slowly, I moved my head into the bag.
I was lucky. The bear walked back a few steps, made that dangerous coughing grunt, dropped to a lope, and left.
It didn't bother me so much. I really believed "our leaders know what they're doing; they wouldn't let me come here if I were in danger."
A decade later, my blood ran cold when I read about the two women killed in the late 1960s grizzly attack less than ten miles from the location of my tent. With respect to big bears, it has remained quite cold.
I disagree with the author's conventional tribute to civilization. It's a defense against predators, true. But, it is also a process of neutering ourselves to fit inside cell-walls of an autonomous social organism analogous to a biological one.
As we now recognize, via global warming, sprawl, pollution, fires, etc, it can be a malignancy.
So, it's a race between the good sense that civilization brings, and the stupid neglect of its dangerous accoutrements. Not to speak of mutilating ourselves.
Don't get me wrong. I relish stents, world travel, plumbing, and other true benefits of civilization.
On the other hand, the bear problem is that there are too many humans: we should ration visits.
Civilized common sense.
8
I just got back from Alaska. I had the privilege of seeing several bears including Grizzles up close. Not to close. We got a lot of advice on how to deal with bears but the person who we meet who actually studies them says there's no rhythm or reason or much you can do when one has the notion you'd make a nice meal. Some bears are going to attack no matter what you do and some are just curious. Bear spray and an electric fence around your campsite is about the best you can do.
The world is a very complex and mostly a deadly food chain. We stand on top of it. If you ever want to know how vicious we are open the newspaper or turn on the news. Sometimes it makes me feel like turning away and running as far and as fast as I can.
Most of the time a warm smile is all you really need. Loved the article and it's nice to know that when you're visiting one of these great parks, there are actually rangers in them watching your back.
4
From a bear's perspective, I would have to say that armed with the knowledge that bears are so often hunted with bait and dogs (real sportsmanlike), I would take great pleasure in knowing that some of ours, got some of theirs from time to time.
from a bear's pewrspective
2
Yes, Big Government in the form of the forest ranger with a very large gun has come to the rescue once again. And that so-called liberal Bill Clinton told us the era of Big Government was over!
2
This is why people skydive, at least me. To remind myself that I am alive and it can end at any time.
1
I wonder what you would have written if you had been mauled but still able to write afterwards. Maybe less wistful romance about almost being killed by a grizzly, and more grateful that you were still alive. And running from the bear was a terrible idea. Good thing you live in a world mostly safe from bears, because run from a grizzly enough times, and eventually one will maul you to death.
On a different note, was the bear shot by the ranger?
4
Well, I know the final answer. Either, the bear eats you, or you eat the bear. Since you wrote this little story, (and bears are bad at non-fiction), my guess is, Mr. Forest Ranger, (the guy with the big gun), orphaned some cubs. That aside, given the 100 yard distance to being a side order for some steak sauce, how fast could you run to avoid being eaten? And, take into account, you really only have to run faster then your partner, (if you can). Throwing down your back packs, hiking sticks, water bottles, my guess is you could do the hundred in about 12-13 seconds. Your GF, with a healthy dose of pure adrenaline, maybe the same? So even if the bear was only a little hungry, she could close the distance by about half, clearly a solid gain, enough to give any bear confidence it was only a matter of time, another short ten seconds or so, and she would be on you. I think a donation to the Nation Park Service is in order. And, how about ordering the vegetarian platter next time you're at the local steak house?
4
I recognized the collective human “animal” at the Ann Arbor art fair. An artist had created alarmingly realistic human sculptures that were arranged in his booth. Many human animals were transfixed by this. We collectively gazed at these quasi-human creatures like any animal regards prey.
1
I'm gonna say this is a guy thing. I don't believe I'd be thrilled or have a "pure feeling" from being chased by a bear. Um, no.
1
There are many ways to be in today's world. There are university professors who live almost entirely in their minds, people whose bodies function purely as a means to transport their head from place to place. There are professional athletes who depend almost entirely on their bodies, people who have no interest in physics, or poetry. To the extent that these two examples represent extremes, I pity them both. For the author, presumably someone who spends almost all their time in a city, I feel the same pity. To feel primaly alive while foolishly running away from a grizzly is a very sad commentary. A well-rounded person has an intimate understanding of life - intellect, love, fear, nature, physicality - and has tested their limits, or at least their comfort zones, in all of those disciplines. I feel bad for the author that a poorly handled wildlife encounter seems to have inspired such a profound realization. Perhaps his writing would benefit from further, um, living.
3
Yes we’re are animals still... and man is the deadliest of them all. I survived an attempted murder in the streets of California and narrowly escaped with my life (I could feel the wind of the bullets pass my head). Grateful to be alive very aware of the dangers of my fellow man now.
4
I grew up in Wyoming and roamed all over Yellowstone National Park as a child. And while I believe humans are animals, I believe bears are after the food in your backpack rather than you. They have an incredible sense of smell, and even a candy wrapper left in your tent will attract them.
3
Immediately reminded me of "Being a Beast" by Charles Foster...
2
For all those criticizing the author for running from the Bear, read or re-read Bill Bryson’s hilarious but highly informative section on his bear attack research in A Walk in the Woods. There is no single correct response to a Bear confrontation. All bears are different. Short of an enraged elephant, a grizzly bear is probably the most dangerous animal on earth. Running away is as good a strategy as any, but the best strategy is to have a really big gun.
4
Yeah, because who the heck are bears to be walking around in their own territory, after all?! They should know to stay out of our way or be shot. How about a little less gun, and just a tad more respect for nature, maybe garnished with some common sense?
I often reflect on the fact that we have vanquished nearly all of our natural predators other than fellow man. It is thought our species nearly died out on several occasions in the past millennia. We have but one formidable asset, our minds. Lucky for us, I guess, but perhaps less lucky for everything else.
4
A couple of things cross my mind.
I would not want to live in a world that had no place for the great apex predators. Whence would come our wonder of nature. Without that wonder life would have little meaning to me. What a thrill to enter an environment where you are not the apex predator.
We evolved to adapt to virtually every ecosystem on the planet. Now, with global warming, we maybe creating an environment to which we will not adapt.
3
A lot of readers are recommending bear spray. Usually that's a bad idea. Consider this: the author's reaction was to run, exactly the wrong thing to do with hunting animals because running signifies weakness and can lead to a chase. In other words he and companion panicked. Now suppose they stood their ground against a charging animal (which it didn't do...no evidence of 'stalking').
Does anybody think that these two city slickers would have checked the wind to see if the bear spray would blow back on them. In their state of panic, does anybody think that they could pull the spray out and properly aim it before a hunting animals got to them?
The story is based on hyperbole, and so is the graphic.
10
As someone that trail runs everyday in the high altitude rockies in Colorado, bears in the woods
Are not uncommon. Bear Spray is the best thing to carry in the event of a bear or all too often aggressive loose dog idiot owner encounter.
Yes, having the presence of mind not to spray into the wind is recommended. Bears and Dogs have hypersensitive smell faculties. A short burst in to air in many cases is enough to make a predator thinks twice
And retreat.
Do not have your ears covered with earphones. Use YOUR animal instincts to listen and watch in their environment to avoid a surprise confrontation.
Stay on marked well traveled trails. Bears tend to shy away from human confrontation.
If you go off trail make noise, claps hands and make your presence known.
7
I live in a suburb of Los Angeles - about 20 miles from downtown, that is in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. We regularly have black bears not only in our neighborhood, but in our yard. We have a large pond in the back where the bears like to lounge on hot days - and sometimes try to catch our koi. Unlike grizzlies, they're not naturally aggressive, thank goodness. But you wouldn't want one to feel trapped by you, and you wouldn't want to get between a mama and her cub. So when we go out in our back yard during "bear season," we look both ways just to make sure. It does give you a connection with nature you otherwise wouldn't have!
8
I thankfully have never experienced a predictor/prey moment like this. But the thought "I am an animal" kept coming to mind while giving birth to my two children. I felt awe, fear, and primal power as my body operated at a complete remove from my mind's command. I will never experience that connection to the natural world as strongly again in my life.
9
A great reminder of our vulnerabilities as prey in those situations, but - I feel - more and more vulnerable to mother nature. This story remind me of a rafting trip many years ago when flood level waters made the trip truly dangerous, but once survived truly exhilarating.
It’s been awhile since I went on a hike, but I do feel like a prey driving on the beltway late at night. Rush hours are safer, I think. Sure there is a possibility that I will be late for work, because the traffic seems slower when it is crowded. Or spend an extra forty-five minutes in the afternoon on the highway just to get home before sunset. But that is everyone else’s consequence. Working the graveyard shift has made me self-aware of driving 50, 60 miles per hour. Night time induces to me a heightened use of my senses. It commands me to pay more attention on the road and disregard notifications from my smartphone. There is also the fear of drunk drivers and over-speeding cars. At these moments, I could not careless if I arrive to work late. Just wanna get to my destination alive.
8
About five miles from where you were, I had a similar epiphany. My son was giving me a tour around a ranch where he worked. It was late December -5 F, 45 mph winds. We were about five miles off the highway and trudging along very slowly in his truck, looking at badger holes and the like. I asked him why we were going so slow. He responded that we have no cell signal and that if we don't freeze to death trying to get to the road, we will be eaten by one or more of the wolves he saw in the last several days. I felt like those days were behind us. It is usually only the people who make it out of those situations that find it exhilarating.
3
For those asking 'what happened to the bear?' the likely answer is 'nothing'. Typically if there's an active or seemingly curious or aggressive bear spotted repeatedly in an area they would close off the trail for a while, usually a couple of weeks. This is based off my experiences with ~ 200 bears while working in Yellowstone for 2 summers and spending months in prime Alaska bear country, primarily Katmai National Park (coastal brown bears) and Denali NP (interior grizzlies).
I've seen areas blocked off where a bear made a caribou or moose kill and was feeding on the carcass (a very dangerous situation to stumble upon) and several times hiking trails have been closed due to repeated bear sightings. Occasionally a bear will be startled by a hiker and swat said hiker -- the 'defensive aggressive' attack -- and if the bear doesn't follow up and seriously injure or kill the hiker then the trail is simply blocked for a bit and the bear(s) left alone.
To me this bear just seemed curious ... they have keen sense of smell and hearing but relatively poor eyesight so the bear may have seen movement and checked it out, or perhaps it had bluffed a hiker into dropping a lunch bag at some point and decided to try that again. If the bear really wanted to make a predatory attack she could have caught them in seconds from 100 yards away.
40
@Bill
Whew
We just have some “small” black bears that sometimes get lost and hungry. So they climb trees until the local animal control people have come and try to capture them.
2
@Bill, thank you for stating the facts, sans drama.
5
Loskutoff just killed for another 20 or 30 years, perhaps forever, the chances of the grizzly bear getting recovered in much of its former range in protected areas the United States. The author if he really cared about nature would have keep this experience to himself, and also not embarrassed himself by revealing that he did precisely the wrong thing in this instance by running, did not have any means of bear protection (pepper spray or a firearm) and so also endangered the life of his partner.
15
Welcome to the club! I worked large beasts, rhino, hippo, elephants.
Also, the large cats. Almost a all of the animal handlers had similar experiences.
What a pure feeling! The running for your life, the ground behind you shaking, the essential motivation of the prey.
So many of our biological response have evolved for this very, pure reaction. When it happens often enough; i believe, an epigentic,( gentic response to environment), occurs. Bringing us phsically closer to Ice-age man. I have lived through at least 15 such experiences. My Neuro- muscular responses were really sharpened. We rarely experience or learn to handle existential fear like our ancestors.
3
@David Simon, really? I wonder how you “worked large beasts” as a “handler,” in a way that you felt your were stalked. Please, do share.
Whether hiking in the wilderness, diving in the ocean, or on photographic safari in Africa, we must always remember that we are in nature’s element. I love being in nature, but am always aware of my surroundings and the fact that I am an interloper and possible prey. It does us humans good to remember that we aren’t separate from or bigger than nature.
9
Do bears realize that as prey, we are more fastidious about the condition of the meat attacked to our skeletons than any other species?
Mmmmm- humans! Tasty!
D-e-e-e-elicious.
2
This is the best piece— both artistically and morally — that I have read all summer.
I had a less fraught but similar experience in my suburb about 20 years ago. Running in the local park, I startled a grazing buck from a lightly wooded area. For reasons known only to him, he turned onto the path and ran beside me. I exulted in it for about 30 seconds, until I realized that while he didn’t see me as food, he might well think I was a threat and do some damage with his antlers, so I dropped back. But I will never forget the moment.
24
@Lawyermom I came here to write a comment similar to your first sentence. This was the perfect short and sweet article that also touched on a subtle philosophy with the perfect anecdote. Loved it!
11
Strange that an essay about the animal experience of being prey fails to include such a critical storytelling element as whether the ranger shot the bear, which of course would have made it the prey and our species the predator.
8
@Sharon Wood I don't see this as a storytelling deficit at all. The point of the story, as I read it, is the author's realization that he, like the bear is an animal and at that moment in the woods, was subject to the laws of nature.
8
@Sharon Wood
Guessing that the 'largest gun I'd ever seen' was a shotgun with cracker shells, which make a lot of noise like firecrackers and scare bears off. Rangers in Katmai National Park (Alaska) at places like Brooks Camp use them pretty regularly to discourage the smaller, more docile bears :) A Ranger wouldn't have killed this bear unless she had attacked and either seriously mauled or killed someone.
2
I only need a day or two without a shower to appreciate that I am after all, an animal. This is a beautifully written piece. I loved it!
7
Civilization long ago succeeded in protecting most of us from nature. Problem is, the current role of civilization is to convince us that via science, money, and material possessions we are superior to animals. Ironically, this might be our undoing.
7
@Connie are you implying that animals are going to take back their land? Because I find that incredibly unlikely. And yes, science and the like do make us superior to animals, that's why we're quite literally at the top of the food chain. Now, i support philosophical debates like man's position in the ecosystem, but I'm not a fan of blatantly false comments that prey on ignorance
If you want to know the thrill of being prey just come to New Jersey and sit outside with the mosquitos.
38
"cliched and overwrought" Mark Twain was no fan of James Fenimore Cooper. Grizzly Bears do touch us in deep primal places. They can be dangerous and fatal. None of the bear mauling s that I know of have occurred in a situation like this. But fear is about projections of our feelings. This piece touches those projections, more than the probability of an imminent attack. Fear is a valid response, but for the sake of responsibility, set literary license aside. Walk don't run.
10
I hope she wasn’t shot by the forest ranger. It’s sad that our first impulse is always to shoot wild (and captive) animals whenever we feel uncomfortable by their mere presence. This grizzly bear was simply looking for sustenance in order to survive in her harsh environment, which does not seem aggressive but rather very natural. Perhaps the author and his girlfriend should stop hiking in the wilderness.
13
I have hiked 1500 miles in that park and seen hundreds of bears over the past 35 years unfortunately the park is overrun with visitors the last 10 years. Now that you can carry a gun on the trails I am much more afraid of the people than the bears.
33
There is a triumphalism in the writings of arch-skeptics, from Bertrand Russell's armchair heroism - staring directly in the face of an allegedly cruel, heartless world - to Steven Weinberg's scientistic and dogmatic refusal to admit his "pointless, meaningless cosmos" only exists in the mind of someone who resolutely rejects even the slightest temptation to philosophize.
No matter. The end is near for the materialists, positivists and physicalists, which, of course, is why they are fighting so much harder these days. It is a curious thing that the religious, dogmatic faith of these physicalists is so alarmingly similar to the dogmatism of the far right evangelicals, as well as the dogmatism of the alt-right fanatics.
When one of the most conservative scientific organizations in the United States, the American Psychological Association, within the span of less than 2 years, publishes (a) a book ("Transcendent Mind") which takes for granted that Consciousness [Chit-Shakti, to be precise] is the only "stuff" there is; and (b) a special journal which takes for granted that parapsychological research is at least as valid as anything in the mind sciences (that's including the full range of cognitive science, not just psychology) - well, then you know it's over for the hardline irrationalist debunkers.
The greatest superstition in the history of humanity - that inherently self-existent stuff" could possibly be conceived - is in its death throes.
And not a moment too soon.
4
@don salmon We live in insane times, and it does not surprise me at all that the APA claims parapsychology is a valid school of research. With Trump in office, why would I be surprised about anything?
@don salmon
Huh
@don salmon
Goodness, you don't much like skeptics, do you?! Take a deep breath.
The bear was probably just curious. I think that if she wanted to catch you, she would have.
Grizzlies don't tend to be very predatory; they are more opportunistic eaters. (The smaller black bear, the one that most states have, is a bit more predatory, but also easier to scare off--never try to scare a grizzly.)
That being said, bear spray is your best option. It won't save the bear's life (they will still shoot it if it attacks someone), but it's the most effective defense we can have against grizzlies.
10
I went camping in Glacier 30 years ago when it first allowed soft side tent camping. My friend and I attended an orientation by the park service. It was a does&don'ts. I remember the grizzly part vividly: keep your food away from camp site, wash dishes etc. carefully burying rinse water, menstruating women attract grizzlies, when meeting up with bear back away slowly, drop backpacks to distract, if attacked drop and play dead. We were given large, noisy bells to wear to warn bears of our presence. It was the best vacation I ever took.
5
@Justin The park ranger with the gun seems to have not thought it was simple curiosity.
1
The fight or flight response is still alive and well in our lizard brains. Bet the author still muttered after escaping "Thank God".
1
Yeah, knowing you’re hunted - hunted by bigger, stronger, meaner -
will definitely light off this animal known as human.
That instant of choice between run as fast as you can
and
Find a hill on which to stand. Face death coming.
Still, I think the other side when we are carnivore,
when we hunt down to kill: this fits us even more into the body
of our wild and dangerous beast.
______________________________________________
I was chasing down a billy goat gone rogue. La Jolla the commune upslope from Ojo Sarco - “the jewel above the other eyed.” Frustrated because I couldn’t catch him something snapped: I became that cougar leaping, that red tail diving, that bear charging to protect its young.
Don’t know why. Maybe it was all the fear that had stalked me. Maybe the rage against my lost dead - lost for nothing. Maybe it was just hunger. Maybe I was simply a rabid dog.
I ran him down in the ponderosa leaping, grabbing by the horns, slamming him down. I lay there forcing a quivering stillness. All I had to do was twist, and we’d be eating roast goat.
For a moment - pause - maybe a life, maybe a galaxy spinning: let go. He laid there a bit shaking, then stalked off. I leaned against a great pine gagging, gasping, retching in pain, in horror, in long delayed guilt - the dead on my hands, the lost in my soul.
I was animal.
4
@Robertquite a story about Billy Goat’s Gruff! Like Bishop’s poem, “The Fish” it’s not the catching but the letting go that is spiritually satisfying.
4
Let's take it a step further. We, people, think we're superior to other living creatures. I call it our "human superiority complex".
Fact is, different animals have different types of intelligence. I'll never forget being lost in the woods and didn't know which direction to go. Without hesitation, Jake took the path we came from. I miss that dog.
74
@John Doe Funny how our superiority complex is often expressed by nations and individuals who claim exceptionalism and some moral highground over other humans elsewhere on the planet. Some of us are in need of a quick read of Bacon's 1620 Novum Organum philosophical work.
1
@John Doe
That wasn't intelligence, but a sense of smell thousands of times more sensitive than yours. He could smell his way back just as if you'd blazed a trail and looked back to see the way you'd come. We are, in fact, superior. Not one animal has discovered how to synthesize medicines for itself let alone other species, not one animal has sent members of its own species to the moon, or made advancements to double the lifespan, or developed sciences for caring for the ecosystem. Humans ARE superior.
@John Doe
Humans aren't superior we are remarkably average ever notice how when people refer to superhuman ability's they always describe them using an animal as reference like "The Eyes of a Hawk" or "Fast like a cheetah" "reflexes like a cat" "noes like a dog" "hearing like a bat" ...ect really the only thing that distinguishes humans from other species is the fact that we have a written language and can articulate our ideas as words
The author's incorporation of meat-and-bone, tooth(paste), claw . . . draw the reader into Nature's juxtaposition of contending raw power and force. I'm immediately reminded of Tao Philosophy : "Nature is a conglomeration of contending forces, of tooth and claw, venom and perfume, eggs and bones, lightening and lava. It seems chaotic. It seems terrible. And yet, for all its unfathomable workings, it far surpasses the business of our society." (Awestruck. I wish I had written it.)
34
I became acutely aware of my animal nature nursing my first child- my mammalian nature could not be denied - it was exquisitely uncomfortable to know how similar I was to a cow. Eventually I came to admire how efficient a system it was and how perfectly I could nourish my child.
49
Contact sports are dangerous, but what the author describes in his flight is exactly the feeling you can get from football, rugby, hockey, and other really physical sports. It's primal, and everything else falls away in that moment other than catching prey (defense) or avoiding predators (offense).
4
It seems that a lot of people want to know what happened to the bear. I guess most people can't live with uncertainty. There are some great movies with uncertain endings and a lot of uninteresting movies with concrete endings. In any case, let me give those readers who need a definitive conclusion an ending...
"The ranger stood his ground aiming his rifle at the grizzly's snout. His two wards were pensively counting their blessings. The grizzly had a moment of reflection about her situation. She acknowledged her companero who has been sometimes her guiding angel and sometimes her nemesis. She thought, today is not the day. Will that day ever come again? The ranger undulated his weapon to let her know her choices. Message received. She was on her way. She did not know what to make of the ranger. Today, was he her guiding angel or her nemesis."
20
Who was the faster runner? You or your partner?
13
Sometimes you get the bear; sometimes he gets you.
10
Although this meeting took place out West, I was also reminded of a city experience that my now-spouse had: A gun pointed to the back of her head in a mugging. I still remember the fear and anguish in her voice when she called me moments after giving up her purse. She was too frightened to call the police.
And later the perps were caught and went to jail.
6
So did the author (and editors) not realize that their fellow human beings would care what happened to the bear? Or was it a conscious decision for some reason?
13
@CJN Frankly, the tragic nature of what might have been, would be no more disturbing to me if the bear had killed the author than had it been the other way around.
1
Well, Mr. Loskutoff, if nothing else your op-ed reveals how unprepared and ignorant you were about grizzlies when you entered their habitat. You could easily have learned about grizzlies and appropriate behavior in grizzly country—particularly in Glacier National Park where there is an enormous amount of information available to visitors about the resident wildlife
As with most things, the more knowledge is inherent in a thing the greater the understanding, and the greater the understanding the greater the safety (with apologies to Paracelsus). Conversely, the less we understand something the more we tend to fear it, and the grizzly is famously misunderstood and feared. That misunderstanding and fear originated with Lewis & Clark; because of their journal descriptions and accounts, the scientific name ursus arctos horribilis (the horrible bear) was assigned to the grizzly by George Ord in 1815. From that day to this, the fear-mongering stories about grizzlies have continued unabated. But Ord’s horrible bear is not the animal I know.
Your terror arose mainly from your ignorance. As a result, you missed an opportunity to experience wilderness. Knowing, when I am in grizzly country, that I am no longer at the top of the food chain is both a humbling and inspiring experience. But knowing that the grizzly is out there, even when I am not, is far more important.
30
I'm not sure I even believe this story. The dumbest thing you can do is run away from a bear, anyone familiar with bears will tell you that. If that bear had actually been stalking the author, and was only 100 yards away when they "sprinted away" there wouldn't be any article or it would be a whole lot more tragic.
16
I spent 12 wonderful years living with an insanely vicious Miniature Pinscher. I have no doubt that had he been 180lbs instead of 18lbs, I'd have been lunch at some point in our relationship. I appreciated the fact that he had his own "dog world" that I could never be a part of, but I was always struck with how much we had in common. I think that's why some cultures tend to be anti-dog: they are potent reminders that we're creatures, which for religious and social reasons make many uncomfortable. With the end of our industrial civilization rapidly approaching, it's probably a good thing if more of us understood our 'creature-ness.' Extinction isn't just a polar bear or honey bee problem; it's our problem too.
9
Fantastic! With your article, maybe us 'humans' can become a little more protective and understanding about animals wherever we find them.
And to Frank Haydn below, have you never attempted anything for which you did not prepare?
4
The author’s involvement in the story is well written and provides vivid context but since I’m aware of my place in the world, natural or otherwise, I’m well acquainted with existential fear and must confess that I’m left disappointed not knowing the outcome of the bear.
5
Some history of Glacier National Park and predacious grizzly bear attacks: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deadly-grizzly-bear-attacks-chang...
2
You'd have to be in a perennially cloying pretentious coma to forget we're animals. Lust is such a brutal sensation, not to mention hunger and exaustion. How can anyone forget? Human beings love brutal sensations: the vulgar thrill of violence -- fake or not -- the thrill of high speeds, or even staring into flames or fireworks. And these thrills are built wholesale into our civilization since people will do anything for these sensations; especially if it's not in their best interest. And there's a line for everyone where if things get so "bad" they'll jump headlong into a life-crippling series of events to grow fat upon in a never ending quest of depraved brutality.
8
@Mr. Mendez, this is a wonderfully conceived and written post.
So, did the ranger shoot the bear, or not?
8
@Sylvia My question as well...
Not paricularly a "fair fight." The 12 year old bear had "been displaying increasingly aggressive behavior." Thus, the couple's incounter triggered the rangers response of killing the grizzly.
No natural selection took place here. His own grandmother would fair better.
Welcome to our concept of "wilderness."
2
Changing the title to "The Ignorance in Me" would be more apt.
" . . . it brought with it the reassuring sense of being part of the natural world, rather than separated from it, as we so often feel ourselves to be."
You make an ignorant brush with a fierce (and beautiful) carnivore into something cloying. I'm sorry you're so disconnected with the natural world that you feel exhilarated to find you are vulnerable in it. Get out more, and look deeper.
4
YOU forget. But I remember...every time a U.S.-made bomb slaughters a school busload of Yemeni children...and every time pro-life white Christian Americans apply capital punishment. Unfortunately, although I long ago concluded that "God" did not exist, I can't come to the same conclusion concerning Satan.
6
So, What happened to the bear? She was shot because two people who live in the luxury of a world changed and shaped by humans for human comfort decided to invade what little there is left of nature and the beings that tenuously live there and as a result of this folly a bear pays the price for being 12 years old and hungry?
It will be a lonely planet when people are stuck with only ourselves, our pets and our cockroaches.
14
Ironically, the fact that you, like other humans, are self-aware enough to realize that notwithstanding civilization we "remain animals," demonstrates that we in fact are much more than mere animals.
5
@Jay Orchard
Huh? Can't see logic there.
OK, I haven't read it carefully. But, my heart goes out to the bear...
6
Being the sole occupant of a shark cage, drifting on the ocean's surface half a dozen meters away from the only nearby boat, while being circled and closely inspected by great white sharks, will give you that feeling of "I am food" like nothing else.
3
@Alan Dean Foster No, it won't. If you are protected, you are essentially having an FB experience.
1
Alternative title: Schrödinger's Bear
If the end of the story is not revealed, is the bear simultaneously both alive and dead? Only the human animal has such curiosities.
The logic of the circumstance would suggest the bear was put down. Unless you would like to believe it just walked away.
4
Humans are by far the greatest predator, and have single-handedly exterminated more than half the species on earth, with especially large destruction of large mammals. The correct picture of the relationship between man and bear (and nature) is the exact opposite of what the author has given here. Read The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert.
5
We’re not predators. We are annihilators. Predators aren’t greedy. They’re not wasteful. They’re not cruel for its own sake. They’re not wantonly violent. Or rapacious. Or abusive. Or exploitative ... the list goes on.
10
@Natural Historian Anthropologists can determin when humans moved into a particular area by looking at when large mammals ceased to be in that area. This is how it was determined that humans moved into North American 15,000 years ago. Humans are indeed predators, and much more effective predators than bears or other large mammals. The article is completely wrong in its characterization of the relationship.
In his last book, "The Kingdom of Speech," the late, transcendent American genius, Tom Wolfe, argues that we are not animals at all.
I agree with him.
While some zoological species do sing, mimic and chatter; and even trees have been shown to communicate through intricate root systems -- even with other trees that are of unrelated varieties -- no animal has ever written a poem, Maxim Loskutoff.
Not even a "Happy Birthday" poem. Much less Shakespeare, Homer, "Eugene Onegin" or "Pan Tadeusz."
No animal has ever translated as beautifully as Rodney Merrill, because, of course, no animal has ever mastered a foreign language.
Julia Fischer plays both violin and piano, superbly, while also having the gift of speech. No animal has ever come up with even the rudiments of musical notation, or a school with a library.
So no. Speak for yourself, or perhaps even for many. Your use of "all" is misplaced, hyperbolic and simply wrong.
How is Odysseus prey?
How is Putin prey, for that matter?
Were Pushkin, Mickiewicz, Chopin, Henry James or Tom Wolfe fleeting? Or Cervantes?
No. Sorry.
3
@Maria Ashot
"No animal has ever translated as beautifully as Rodney Merrill, because, of course, no animal has ever mastered a foreign language. "
How would you know? How would any of us?
Or, perhaps you have mastered Orca? or Dolphin? or even Crow?
If so, please do provide a review of their poetry for the rest of us.
To a grizzly in the back country the most learned scholar looks the same as the most humble beggar. To a hungry grizzly, both could serve as lunch.
To recognize our base nature, does not devalue the heights humans have achieved. It provides context for our appreciation of those who press the beyond said nature.
All else is sheer arrogance.
Those geniuses of whom you write, still felt shivers when gazed upon by beasts of tooth and claw. For if they didn't how would they relate to any of us.
11
Animals are multicellular eukaryotic organisms that form the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development.
Humans ARE animals Very gifted... but animals all the same.. SORRY to burst your bubble.
8
We are animals, indeed, but the most inferior of all the animal or plant kingdom. We think we are the most intelligent, but we foul our nest daily. What animal pollutes its nest? Fouls the air? Turns paradise into filth? Only humans. We are the most destructive, irreverent creatures on Earth. Our works of culture, for all their beauty, pale in comparison to the wonders outside our dooryards. They are our only constructive contribution to life here, but with all due respect to Shakespeare, the song of a Carolina Wren is far more beautiful, the blue of the Blue Whale more magnificent than any painting or sculpture. We are clever, but we aren’t superior to our fellow animal or plant travelers of this world. We don’t deserve the paradise we inhabit. We’ve destroyed the most beautiful, most precious treasure ever to exist.
10
This phony story is the type of literary device they teach at writing workshops. Yeah, bro, a bear took all the time to stalk you but right when she was in perfect striking range, you ran like a prey animal and she didn't catch you? Yet, said bear followed you leisurely(because if she was running she would have caught you before you ran 50 yards.) until you hit upon a park ranger whose Spidey sense was so strong he somehow observed all of this from...from where exactly? All so you can bring us to the basic idea(explored by many, many writers) that we are animals? This is 101 stuff if I ever read it.
27
@Edward
I wondered all these things, too. How were they outrunning a bear and how did the ranger know what was going on.
7
Congratulations on surviving while doing the most idiotic thing in response to a predatory bear. I've had something on the order of a hundred bear encounters over the course of my career with everything from a two hundred pound black bear to a monolithic brown bear on Kodiak with paws as wide as my chest. The closest got within seven yards. Bears will chase things that run. stand your ground. look big. make a lot of noise. Carry bear spray, and have at least one member of your party as the Gun Carrier, preferably with a pump-action 3-inch chambered 12 Gauge loaded to the gills with Brenneke Magnum slugs. I've never had to use either spray or firepower, but I know people who wish they had either available and are now dead. Bottom Line: give them the utmost respect, and do not expect the same in return.
49
@Bryan I have spent enough time around Alaska to know quite well that grizzly bears do show humans great respect in nearly all cases. They are smart enough to know that humans are a great threat to them. Few will hang around when humans are present.
3
@Bryan
Look big? My only reaction would be to look small, like way off in the distance small.
@S Nillissen true. I've never received anything otherwise in my travels either. but one should not expect it. Erring on the side of caution is a great way to not test the bounds of a bear's patience.
Make sure to pass this story along to any vegans who make their dietary practice a political position. Under the right circumstances, we are all prey.
The author seems to have constructed a narrative that fits his preconceived notion of grizzly bear behavior and feeds into the general fear of grizzlies; much of which is perpetuated by accounts of extremely rare grizzly bear attacks on people, almost none of which are predatory in nature. Just because the bear was traveling on a relatively similar trajectory as the author, while feeding, doesn’t mean that “the bear was following” him, and “wanted to eat” him. That’s an awfully big leap to conclusion especially from a person who doesn’t know enough to carry bear spray when hiking in a place like GNP. This story seems more designed to lend drama to Mr. Luskotoff’s hike and book of short stories and support his “man as prey” construct. What any of this has to do with bonobos is also lost on me.
13
As homo saps, we are over-proud and make far too much of the 'species' designation - a rather arbitrary description made by some distant PhD. We exclude others from our club on that basis (see recent WaPo feature on 'Justice' the litigious stallion), and too easily dismiss their interests when they appear before us in shrink wrap, or haunt our cosmetics.
I can say without shame or equivocation that many of my closest, truest friends in life have been canines - man's best, indeed - and better than most men.
4
For another angle on this topic, see the classic Richard Connell story "The Most Dangerous Game."
2
Upon reading this essay a second time, it seems to me that the author tried to take an unforgettably terrifying experience that highlights his own negligence and lack of foresight and turn it into some sort of philosophical parable, with the aim of winning adulation and applause.
Fail.
16
"Felt the distinct thrill of pleasure"? I'm not sure, but I think this person should have instead felt the distinct feeling of absolute terror at the possibility of being a Grizzly bear's lunch. Very strange.
8
I'm sorry you forgot, at some level, that you are an animal inextricably linked to the earth and all other creatures. I never thought I was particularly exceptional in NOT thinking this, but apparently I am -- at least in your reality.
7
But what happened to the bear ? The ranger did not shoot her did he?
1
What happened to the bear?
2
Bears always lose. Usually because of human stupidity like this. But at least the author got a sense of exhilaration.
10
The writer describes an important experience of something primeval.
But there was no need to peel so many layers of the human onion to capture the direct reality of that encounter.
The action of running away from the bear was pure and simple, exactly the qualities missing in this piece.
That discrepancy, likely unintended by the author, may well illustrate our general opacity regarding the bigger picture of reality.
oz.
My boyfriend and I were camping in selectively logged forest a few weeks ago, sitting and eating our oatmeal with nuts and berries. I saw a young bear appear a few hundred yards away and it slowly made its way up the hill stopping to look our way and sniff. It was very young and very thin. There was no herbaceous understory left from the logging, leaving it very little to eat. We are going to have a lot more hungry bears.
10
"To be human today is to deny our animal nature, though it’s always there..."
Over the years of being in various wildernesses I have had two similar rather unsettling experiences, although there was never a handy ranger with a big gun around the stalking mountain lions apparently did not think I was that juicy and after a couple of miles quit. So I get your point.
I would share this with you. It is true that having an animal body involves having certain aspects of animal nature.. Our animal bodies are equipped with highly developed senses such as sight hearing taste and smell. We, however, are Humans. We have senses like compassion, Joy, empathy, and we have equipment like brains that can register impressions from the the Mind and actually create forms that can embody those impressions.
We can easily see that animal behavior does not create societies that are compatible with human nature, and yet this is what we have done over the centuries.
Our best so far attempt to carat a human society is called Democracy.
The animal nature dominated humans such as , but very much not limited to, Trump are working very hard to make not just America but the planet Animal Again.
6
We are not just animals that think.
The conceptual mind is the root of illusion. This is why meditation is the pathway to enlightenment. We are not separate selves. That is the illusion that the mind makes. We are in unity with all life, but that is only a partial understanding. When the mind stops, time stops, the world stops, and there is one perfect moment, indivisible. Like in a dream, you can be chased by a bear all night, but when you wake up, there's no bear, no self chased by a bear, no dilemma, no problem. Then there is only light, brighter than ten thousand suns. That is what is really real, right now.
5
@DB
Tell it to the bear
3
@DB
maybe they could have tried to meditate the bear away...
3
I was curious to see whether the author noticed that this feeling is part of what makes hunting enjoyable and makes hunters spend money and time on conservation. Hunting allows us to participate in nature as an insider and reminds us that when wild places are lost, we lose part of ourselves.
7
@sean So does photography, but with no loss of life.
10
@sean
Riding in a "safari" car, on a Texas game farm, with the intent to shoot some exotic African antelope in a canned hunt is not going back to nature. Nor is shooting deer and bears from baited stands.
3
That Garden Wall hike and Grinnell Glacier area are really spectacular. It is a slow motion tragedy that Glacier National Park will soon be a misnomer, an artifact from a cooler era on our planet.
11
The absolute glory of hiking in the wild (and I have been on that particular trail more than once, with a grizzly encounter) is that fear and elation combine with the exquisite beauty of the place, resulting in a heightened awareness of everything. It is a wonderful primal natural drug. The author seems to get the primal part, though mainly through the fear factor.
Such experiences are not for everyone, but if you know how to be in the wilderness and are careful (more careful than these hikers, though I applaud their adventure), then the feeling is unbeatable.
Nice essay.
13
I never go into the wilderness unarmed. In this case, if it were me, the bear would have been the one in danger. As it was, the ranger was armed and the bear became the one in danger. Until I run out of ammuntion, I am the apex predator.
2
oh, good for you. glad you gleaned next to nothing from this piece, apex.
15
What is this desire to be animal? I’ve lived 73 years not having to meet up with this distinction. Yes, biologically were part of the kingdom, but so what? We live by wits that are distinctly human. Bears have their own mindset. The poetry of that, however, still eludes me.
1
I very much enjoyed reading this. It seems that many of the Readers like me have had bear experiences which does quicken the heart rate and give one quite a thrill. Same goes for shark experiences, too. So thanks for bringing up some exciting times in my life. But I think this essay was mostly for folks who have not had such encounters (yet!), so I have no reason to find fault with Loskutoff's writing at all. I will assume he edited out all bear safety prep that he did because otherwise the essay would be "We saw a grizzly bear, but were prepared and nothing happened." :)
Also I didn't wonder about the bear because if it had been shot, we would know about it because an internet search is a wonderful thing nowadays.
3
Hmmm, I wonder if there was anything that these fine fellows could have carried with them that may have saved their lives in the terrifying situation they were in... There may not always be a ranger to save you in the wild. Better not to become prey. Humans may not have long claws, but we are the apex species on this planet because of technology. The moment we sharpened sticks and started cooking hunted meat we became less scavenger and more predator.
2
In Mr. Loskutoff’s beautiful, careful description of the animal reflexes triggered in him by a stalking grizzly bear, the essence of his specific humanity shines through as it does nowhere else. To be human is to be “nothing” but an animal. But in that “nothing” everything resides. It is our specific difference, our distinctive humanity: the place from which our perceptions and our responsibilities, and in particular our respect for the natural world, rise up as if out of nowhere, subject to no explanation. Our perception and respect for animals, including the animal within us, makes us anything but animals.
5
Grancel Fitz in Of Grizzlies and the River says that grizzlies can live 40 or more years & continue to grow bigger until death. He relates how they once fed on the omnipresent bison of the foothills & plains east of the Rockies, growing huge due to only hibernating for three or so months because of light snowfall. When the bison were slaughtered, the grizzlies began to eat cattle & the ranchers killed them off.
Those at the higher elevations, having to sleep half of the year, are smaller, fewer & have less contact with man, presumably until we recreate or hunt.
The guide for bear encounters, avoiding eye contact & moving away slowly may not apply to grizzlies. Good luck.
8
Every time I've run into a bear at close range it has run off. I chased one once, trying to keep it in view around some blueberry bushes, but a bear accelerates rapidly and is impressively fast. These were black bear, but I once found a pile of exceeding fresh loose scat and freshly skinned log as I came around a rock, indicating a sleeping grizzly had escaped my presence by 15-30 seconds.
More interesting have to be those bear I never saw who saw me. I've hiked enough, even at night without a flashlight, so that some must have quietly satisfied their curiosities by watching and, possibly, trailing me. I assume their moms told them we humans are not to be trifled with; similarly cougar moms their cubs; and that is a comfort whenever I get into my sleeping bag.
3
@Steve S
You chased it ????
We only become prey when we forget that there are predators.
4
Excellent article, with great insights. However, I suspect that if the grizzly had really wanted to eat the author, it would have been far more aggressive (and successful). A hundred yards is no distance at all for a bear to cover and everything I know about bears indicates that the last thing to do is to sprint off at full speed when confronted by a bear that is really hunting.
30
The writer needed to be stalked by a predator to be reminded he’s an animal? I am aware of that I am a mammal every moment of the day. I am aware that I am surrounded by animals, both biped and quadruped. (I see my finned mammal cousins when I go to the ocean.) All mammals exhibit versions of the same behaviors: the only thing that could obscure that obvious fact is human ego. We humans are not that special, really. We have more developed brains — or so we believe — than dolphins and chimpanzees. We have credit cards and opposable thumbs. We have an enormous capacity for messing up the earth. But we all have the same basic needs and desires.
For the last several decades I have lived with multiple dogs who could kill and eat me if they wanted to. There is a puma who crosses my property who could do the same. I’m fine with that.
7
This article is called "The Beast in us."
My opinion on this article is that the world is trying to make us forget we're not on the top of the food chain, for we only have so much power against predators. I like how the article tells us all that we are still animals.I chose this article for the exact reason of telling us that we may be human but we are also still related to other species. a good quote to repsersent both us and the animals is this: "Yet even atop the highest tower in the most prestigious, university we remain animals."
2
This story reminds me of the tale of the two 29-year old bicyclists from the DC area who were slaughtered by ISIS in Tajikistan. They figured they belonged there, in that foreign country, because the roads are so perfect for cycling, and besides, who in the world hates Americans so much that they might want to murder them?
I love the forest as much as the next guy -- the trees, the feeling of being at one with nature, etc., etc. -- but I have worked my whole life and am not about to retire only to be devoured by a grizzly. Thus I intend to stay away from areas that are populated by grizzly bears. There are millions of acres of forest in the US that are free of such killers.
Let's hear it for self-preservation.
33
@Frank J Haydn Hear! Hear! I am sure the grizzes would vote for your program too.
2
@Frank J Haydn
has anybody read Doug Peacock, who basically lived with wild grizzlies for years? he is brilliant, sensitive and incredibly knowledgable about so many things. Yes, we are all animals. ---beautiful, thoughtful piece.
While I agree with the basic premise of Mr. Loskutoff's essay - we are not that far removed from our cave-dwelling ancestors - the one thing that separates us from the animal kingdom is our ability to think and to reason.
With that said, hiking in bear country without even the basic tools to survive the experience is beyond foolhardy, it is delusional. Being lucky only carries one so far.
Yes, there are still animals on the planet that can eat us, which is why I try to avoid swimming in the ocean.
Unlike Mr. Loskutoff, I do not need a brush with my own mortality to realize that no matter how civilized our species has become, without the proper survival tools we are dead meat in the forest.
16
@Len Grizzes can and do think and reason. They can even track, visually, and understand how to hide their own tracks. Walking around in their country is just plain crazy unless you really know what you're doing. Doug Peacock has a lifetime of Green Beret skills that he uses for studying Grizzlies in the wild. I'm sure he's tearing his hair out after reading this article.
2
Bears and other predators assume that if something runs, it's food. So don't run from a bear. It can and will outrun you if it wants to.
53
@Matt Bertrand - You just have to run faster than your companion.
My opinion on this article is that the world is trying to make us forget were not on the top of the food chain,for we only have so much power against predators. I like how the article tells us all that we are still animals.I chose this article for the exact reason of telling us that we may be human but we are also still related to our animal brethren.
5
We are the apex predator of the planet. Mr. Loskutoff became grizzly prey by choice. Nice that he survived his epiphany. Are all the other prey out there enjoying theirs?
And the ending of the essay was manipulative.
8
To truly call yourself 'human', you need to keep away from grizzlies. If you are not sure, kindly see the film about sleeping with the bears.
10
We only need to be faster than the slowest person around you. Hopefully it’s not someone you love.
7
The relevant point of this story is the bear in this story was old. I spent 42 years living in the bush of Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. During this period, I encountered many grizzly bears, one of which was accidently almost literally bumped into me – it was within a couple of feet before it did a grizzly bear bluff (snap jaws, stamp feet and try to look big) and then ran for its life. From the bear’s perspective it had just encountered the most dangerous predator on earth, a human. As with this grizzly bear all but one grizzly bear that I have encountered have also either run for their lives or slowly walked away while keeping an eye on me (It is best to keep track of an apex predator while making your escape). The other bear actually did charge (no bluffing this time) so I was forced to shoot it. This bear was very old, had no teeth and was starving and it was time to hibernate (October). So, while grizzly bears can be dangerous and occasionally do kill and eat humans, and therefore, should be treated with respect and caution, they generally would rather avoid humans rather than take the chance of being killed by a human (How many humans kill grizzly bears vs. how many grizzly bears kill humans?),
18
The author's fictional imagination, and his appeal to city slickers, is on emotional overdrive. Animals in the wild rarely attack humans unless they are injured and can't hunt their natural prey. The other danger situation is coming in between the mother bear and cubs.
The article uses a fictional device to make his point, a non-sequitor, that the bear was stalking them. One hundred yards separation does not equal stalking. What I read is that the bear was taking a shortcut in its daily that the humans could not
The author further betrays his ignorance of animal behavior by turning his back and running, exactly what fleet-footed prey do, except they can run far faster than us and take shortcut. Instead the author and friend adopted a position of weakness (in the eyes of the bear) if indeed it was stalking them.
Rather than being taken in by this hokum, I suggest readers turn to Faulkner's great novelette, "The Bear." Faulkner really knew something about the interactions between animals in the wild, both of the human and the bear breed.
31
It's a safe bet that any piece that starts with some variant of "we tend to," is stating something that we do not tend to whatever it is. The author tends to, I guess. He writes about an interesting and terryfing experience, but wraps it in je reflections. Thank goodness it didn't take up space in the paper.
2
It’s a safe bet that any comment that starts with some variant of “it’s a safe bet” should make us think twice.
I wanted it to be longer!
1
Introspective, very well written, and fraught with horrible decisions when hiking in griz country. Never Ever turn and run from a griz - the very act of running is what MAKES you prey to the bear. I've been followed by griz twice and in both cases it was an act of curiousity from the bear, not out of hunger or in me being seen as a threat by the bear. Instead of running - Stand your ground, make yourself look as big as possible, and shout like hell.
Also, bear spray is an absolute must when hiking in griz country. It works. It will save your life, as well as the life of the bear. The fact that the author went hiking without it, only reinforces his point that he is typically not connected to nature.
75
So, if you were followed. Twice. You were standing your ground?
My opinion of this essay went from "nicely written" to "irritating and disingenuous" as it left out the most vital information........what happened to the bear?
67
And more to the point, what of the bear’s own essay?
5
@gw Invariably, bears that attack humans are killed. That's not acceptable bear behavior.
That's why campers and hikers need to take care not to let bears become too familiar with humans. If you feed a bear, you might as well kill the bear--the result is likely to be the same.
1
My wife and I were hiking in the Southern Sierras of California, many miles from the trail head and car park. Down the narrow path, I saw a brown speck approaching: closer up, yes, he was a brown bear. We stopped in our tracks and started shouting at the bear at the top of our lungs. He stopped and sniffed the air, ostensibly blind to us, though we could see him. After a moment of apparent reflection, he seemed to decide to avoid the noise. He left the path and headed diagonally up the hill at about a 45-degree angle, without changing his casual pace. After he had distanced himself somewhat from the path, we proceeded down it, toward the car park. In a mile or so, we met a pair of rangers and told them of our negotiation with the bear. Their response: “That was Bobby: he’s not yet used to human food.” We thought they meant our lunch, not us for lunch. Who knows what Bobby the bear was thinking? But he was thinking!
25
P.S. @P and S: A couple of years later when, outside Palm Springs, we were hiking in a palm canyon, I crossed a stream looking for the path we had lost, only to find myself face to face with the biggest rattlesnake I've ever seen in years of desert outings. No negotiation! the snake did not strike, as it was poised to, but I instinctively jumped backward, driven by more adrenaline than I ever want to have run through me again. After that experience, I began to think of Bobby the bear like an old buddy: hopefully he had a long life. But to those who find these stories fearsome, don’t hesitate to go into the wilderness and back to yourselves. Yes, take bear spray, and keep better watch where you’re stepping than I did crossing that stream. It takes all kinds to make a planet like ours. Bobby's wisdom: we often need some distance between ourselves.
@P and S -
The term "brown bear" is used to refer to grizzlies (Ursus arctos) which no longer exist in California anymore, other than on the state flag. The last confirmed killed was in 1922. What you saw was an entirely different species, the black bear (Ursus americanus). Black bears can look brown at times, but it is not correct to confuse them with grizzlies.
Of course .... But we've got these "black" bears all shades of brown here -- even cinnamon.
good reminder that the web mentioned is fragile and delicate...not to be presumed- i was on top of the food chain until 1969, my giap year abroad as a grunt. after that...happy for every day not being stalked
6
As someone who lives and works in some of the finest grizzly habitat south of Canada (and who has had numerous bear encounters) I would ask this question: How do you know the bear was stalking you? Maybe it was headed your way anyway - maybe it was headed somewhere to take a nap and you happened to be in the way (the author said it was in a huckleberry patch - maybe it was full). What direction was the wind blowing - was it following your scent with the wind or did it even know you were there? And finally - bears in the Northern Continental Divide routinely live to be well in excess of 20 years old. They even breed at this age. If it was 12 it was in the prime of its life.
Finally - DO NOT RUN and ALWAYS carry bear spray.
91
@mark, good points, all. I don’t like this sort of projected bear was being a bear.
@mark, my previous reply was truncated. What it should have said after “good points, all” was: I don’t like this sort of projected drama. The bear was being a bear.
Go bears!
1
@mark
And a .45. I don't pack when I am in a city, but I do when I am in bear country.
Two words: Bear Spray. Whenever my family and I go hiking, I bring two cans with me. One is in my belt holster, ready to use in less than a second. The other one is a spare that I keep in my backpack.
Fortunately, I've never had to use it, but we hike in woods where there are a lot of bears and don't want to take the chance should my family and I encounter an ornery bear.
16
@Nate: ah, yes - bear spray and hiking bells.
Black bears are suitably impressed by each, and will avoid you.
Grizzlies jingle faintly as they move, and smell slightly of bear spray.
3
As humans, who have gradually lost the connection to nature (urban living, cars, computers, indoor jobs), it can be enlightening to be reminded that nature and the fragile earth will rule over us. If not on a hike in grizzly country, the effects of climate change have the potential to flood our cities, scorch our forests, reduce farm yields, dry up municipal water sources, and force populations of people into becoming climate refugees.
The grizzly bear in the essay could very well have become hungry because natural prey or other food sources are being disrupted by climate change. Are we next?
The best way to witness what is happening, and could get worse if bold actions are not taken, is to experience nature at ground level, even among wild and hungry animals.
8
Easily forgotten truths, beautifully expressed.
5
This is a useful article because it describes an increase in self-awareness: I am a person who is also an animal, and the feelings associated with that understanding are very powerful, given the right circumstances.
Many of the serious problems in our civilization can be traced back to our animal nature, combined with our own ignorance of that nature (the lack of enhanced self-awareness). Our love of violence is part of animal nature. Bigotry and racism are derived from our animal nature. Greed also grows from animal foundations. Those people who do not trace their thoughts and feelings back to these roots are behaving without self-awareness, without constraint. They amplify bad outcomes for human society by not recognizing their own animal impulses and failing to guide these impulses toward love rather than hate.
One additional note: Our love of our children is also rooted in animal nature.
5
Yellowstone and Glacier NP’s give you that thrill of being 2nd in the food chain. You never forget an encounter with a grizzly. One circled my tent once at night; I could hear his hairs rubbing the polyester tent sides. I could smell him. I was scared silent.
22
Bravo! Great piece. Over the millennia, as human society developed, we've achieved many things. But one big failure is man's increasing belief that they are a god so to speak. Meaning that just because something pops into their mind it automagically comes into reality.
Take the ever increasing gender wars. Men and woman are not equal. They both have very different sets of genes and much of their behavior is directed by that. Yet many, especially the Socialists, seem to think that our mind can somehow override nature. All we can really do is influence the periphery so to speak.
5
@Mark
You're right that men and women are not equal - woman have bigger brains than men and much greater capacity for reasoning.
5
@Mark Sorry, our minds can over ride nature. How? By thinking and developing concoctions to over ride children with cancer. They do work, sometimes miraculously, and now some live to become adults and have children of their own. Even female scientists can manage this feat and save children who were destined to die at a young age.
Others, even agnostics, atheists, pagans feed the hungry, clothe the naked. and try to make life better for as many as they can.
I am an aging female , mostly confined to a wheelchair, and a Socialist who cares and does something to help wherever I can in the world and my favorite charity and personal time and effort goes to a children's home in Chiapas, Mexico. Been with this group and see the kids, now grownup, and coming back for the holidays, and they are now teachers and nurses. Not all, but they all learn enough English so they don't have to work in the sugar cane fields.
My 2nd is contributing to St. Jude Children's research Hospital. There again are the small, bald heads cancer patients who are receiving help from the doctors, nurses, scientists. This includes female patients and the doctors, nurses, scientists who work long hours while the parents pray or curse God at their kid;s hospital bed and they will never have to pay a single dime for this most frightening and yet most holy place.
Catch me if you can.
3
@Mark
The wilderness teaches you what you really are. The differences between the genders matter a lot less than the difference between predator and prey.
2
A good experience to share, given most of us seem to have forgotten we are, as sentient animals, an integral part of Nature, hence, our savage destruction of the environment we all depend on a most stupid undertaking, shortsighted and driven, many times, by pure greed (the worst vice, among others, such as our arrogance and lack of humility). You spoke of the fear of becoming prey to another animal; understandable of course; but you forgot to mention that we humans have been, most of the time, the predators, by killing them and, lest we forget, 'stealing' their habitat and feeding resources. Incidentally, enjoyed your story; my observations being purely complementary, for the perspective. One more thing, to imbue in us some humility, is that bonobos share their genome with us humans at 98.7% similarity; but, bonobos are socially more peaceful than humans (as the females, via sex, are in control); and humans more akin to chimps (chimpanzees) in our aggression (driven by an alpha male). I thought you might get a kick out of it.
2
A grizzly bear can run much faster (30mph) than a human. What were the hikers planning to do when they supposedly escaped into the woods? Bears are better at climbing trees, too....
Bear spray would have been better than nothing, but how do we know that it would actually deter a hungry grizzly stalking you for a meal? Perhaps the lesson to be realized from this story, is to invest in competent, well-armed rangers and tracking devices for grizzlies!
5
@Craigoh or stay out of the woods and live in NYC. Watch them on TV.
@Craigoh: Black bears climb. Brown bears do not. Bear spray works. If you can't share nature with bears, in their habitat, don't go there.
Actually brown bears aka grizzly bears have been observed to climb up to 30 feet up a tree. It is possible to get up a lodgepole pine higher than that but unless you can do it and unless you can do it faster than the bear can follow you and drag you back it is not actually a first choice strategy
Mr. Luskutoff does not tell us what happened to the bear in her standoff with the park ranger with the big gun. He owed us that information.
At any rate, Mr. Luskutoff can take comfort in the fact that, while running from the bear with his female partner, he did not avail himself of a familiar maxim: In such situations, you need not be able to outrun the bear. You just need to be faster than the person running with you.
9
Watch a bar at closing time, or the women at a party on New Years Eve just after the ball dropping, or how a tall guy is never without a woman - one doesn't have to look far to see that (most) people are animals on auto-pilot.
2
@Ignatius J. Reilly
I don't understand. What happens at closing time at a bar and what do women do on NYE? I think I understand the tall guy thing, not that other men are excluded from having women as a companion.
1
For those who want to know what happened to the bear: She was simply desperate to ask someone, "Why is Ryan Zinke the Secretary of the Interior?"
199
@Tommy M
And, what did we animals do to deserve him?
5
@Tommy M
Somewhere there's an old Gary Larsen Far Side cartoon from Reagan times. Picture two bears talking: One is saying:( as best I remember
"I said - so YOU'RE the James Watt, Despoiler of the Wilderness ? And so I ate him."
Zimke's Watt revisited.
[Watt was Reagan's anti environment Secretary of the interior]
4
@Tommy M
In fairness to the otherwise miserable Mr. Zinke, he did recently come out in favor of restoration of the grizzly in the North Cascades.
This article almost reaches a crucial understanding of ourselves as human, but doesn't quite get there: we weren’t just prey animals, we were preferred. Once ancient climate change worked its dark magic and our tree cover disappeared, just before we became humans, we became the preferred prey most carnivores on the new savanna. Mid-size great apes stranded without arboreal protection in an ocean of grass, jackals, wild dogs and leopards, fed on us with abandon, especially as we huddled together at night, when a predator could easily grab one of our young and we would have to listen to their screams as s/he died in the hungry, slurping jaws.
That should have been our extinction event. We should have blinked out. But, by some evolutionary miracle, we instead, at the last moment, burst up into a giant ecological niche untapped by any other organism, a niche as huge as it was empty, waiting for an animal with the hands and brain to manipulate its environment at will. Spears came first, and with them our bigger shoulders and chests; then we mastered fire; then everything else. And then it was the predators’ turn to die in hordes.
We were born in improbable adrenaline-fused horror and trauma. It lives on in us, especially in our young males. We remain abused children, with hair-trigger adrenal glands and fight/flight responses that once served us all too well but now threaten doom. Can we evolve back out of them in time to avoid the new extinction event, apocalyptic war?
20
So... what happened to the bear? There's no ending to this story.
12
Irrelevant. The point of the essay was what the encounter meant to the author, not what the bear thought about it
1
The Beast in Me....a wonderful song written by Nick Lowe and later re-recorded by Johnny Cash. Just thought I’d give credit to Nick rather than the headline writer. Good article however.
3
I'm sure others have remarked on this, but: this was not a situation in which to run from the bear. When you're hiking in territories in which grizzly bears live, it is foolish not carry bear spray or know the basics of their behavior. http://westernwildlife.org/grizzly-bear-outreach-project/bear-safety/
14
I encountered a grizzly on an Alaskan Island hike - the dog companion abandoned me and I headed to the 33 degree water, swimming back to the cabins as the bear blocked the land route. I prefer black bears of southern Rockies.
3
I, along with two other men, spotted a black bear and her cub in the brush within 30 yards of us in the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico on the Philmont Scout Ranch. The mama bear quickly moved away from the three of us with her cub in tow. The mama bear stopped around 75 yards from us and raised herself to her full height...around 6 feet or more...and stared directly at us to see if we were following her and her cub before continuing her rapid departure. I will never forget how my adrenaline peaked right at that time. It was truly primal.
Big difference between the black bears...that can be brown, blonde, black or a mix...found throughout most of the US and the grizzly bear found primarily in the northwest US/upper Rockies through Alaska. The common black bear is primarily interested in eating berries and will scavenge and will attack humans if they, or their young, are threatened while the grizzly bear is an apex predator capable of killing any animal for that day's meal. In short, travel in big groups, move quickly, but do not run, away from a grizzly...and carry bear spray in grizzly bear country.
26
Wonderful piece. We were all, in fact, born to run.
3
"All of us fragile"
Perhaps. But we I break my ankle, it means a visit to the doctor, a cast, and a pair of crutches. When a deer breaks an ankle, it often means death.
5
Outstanding essay. I'm not religious, but I long have felt that walking among the majesty of nature brings me close to God. Closer than a house of worship ever has. But this essay makes me think again. Maybe being among the majesty nature simply brings me back to basics. And to me, that is Godly.
20
My reaction to this essay was very different from these favorable remarks. The author, as with so many reporters, makes a virtue of his failure to know what he is talking about. The close encounter with a bear is an exciting story, but he has no idea what it means to be an animal. That is our position on the tree of life, and the characteristics of that branch include nothing like "base-level needs and emotions" etc. How about this? "Genius professors reduced to ingesting food," i.e. as opposed to engaging in photosynthesis.
5
After hearing your reading in Portland, I devoured your book and I adored this essay similarly. You capture the acute emotional conversation between self and nature that you can never escape after growing up in the West. Thanks for putting words to it so beautifully.
7
This is a wonderful essay.
And I think it gets at the reason why many women have a fundamentally different perspective about the need for the #MeToo movement than many men understand.
Many women have felt just as preyed upon and stalked and terrified by men in their lives as this man did by the bear.
(And, yes, many men have experienced being prey to other humans, too.)
64
@Anne. This essay also gets at the reason men (and some women) find the NRA important — to have guns to protect themselves from wild animals, both four legged and two legged. But statistically men are much more likely to be attacked and killed than women.
Last winter, in reading the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible, I came across this passage; me thinks it applies here. It's from Chapter 3: 18-22:
English Standard Version
18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.
19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.[b]
20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
I don't know if Darwin was familiar with the passage, but it certainly fits his mode of thought!
10
Once in Africa I was following a lion as it stalked a warthog. The lion was intent on the warthog, but when it caught sight of me (and the guide with the rifle leading me) it looked into my eye and took a moment to decide if I might be a better prey item than the warthog. It decided (and that is the word for the process I saw) the warthog to be the more appealing of the two of us, but I will never forget that two second assessment of me as meal.
58
@nilootero I had a similar experience - at the Pittsburgh Zoo - many years ago. Zoos at that time were still very much into using traditional cages for their animals.
They had recently acquired a lioness, who was in a cage in front of me, seeming not yet accustomed to her new surroundings. Although bars and a thick, transparent barrier separated us, she looked right into my eyes - just about 15 feet away - crouched, and took a couple slow, stealthy steps towards me.
I froze.
I could not avert my gaze.
I was paralyzed.
There was only fright - a deep, unfathomable terror - as I realized that she would have had me for lunch in a literal heartbeat.
That moment can replay perfectly in my mind as if it were this morning instead of nearly 50 years ago.
14
As someone who has hiked in grizzly country and once spent a week in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park with bear experts, I have seen grizzlies close enough to understand the predator/prey relationship we have with them. Still, I'm a bit perplexed by the ending.
I understand that explaining the logistics of how, out of nowhere, a lone ranger rushed to the rescue with a big gun would spoil the magic of the essay, but I suspect there's something missing here. And it's not just whether or not the ranger shot the bear, which I seriously doubt given park policies. But who knows. Come west and see, I guess.
34
My thoughts exactly. What happened to the bear and why didn’t he finish that part of the story?
3
The part about the ranger is very suspect. If rangers are aware that a dangerous bear is in an area they close the area to hikers. I have several times at Glacier National Park gone to someplace that I really wanted to visit or explore and found that it was closed. The idea that this ranger would be sitting there with his rifle looking for this bear who was stalking humans and yet the trail would be completely open and people allowed to hike in does not ring true. Something in this story is missing. Maybe that's why he doesn't tell the end.
15
A thoughtful essay. Thanks.
It is amazing how many commenters don't seem to have gotten the point of the author's reflections on the experience.
Yes, there are "rules" for safety in the wilderness, and in the urban/wilderness interface. No, they will not always save you.
If that's the only thing a reader takes from this piece, then that reader has missed the main point.
This is beautifully written. I reread it just now, and love the vision of the author's grandmother, near the end. But it's difficult to single out any part. Great job.
130
Did the ranger shoot the bear? :-(
14
@Bystander
Not likely. The rangers at Glacier are very protective of their bears. This encounter probably generated a meeting, and they may have made a decision to move the bear.
6
The author really gets off on danger, doesn't he?
I'm referring, of course, to his using his smartphone while driving.
47
... and there is no reason for grizzlys to tolerate us!
9
Wonderful observations, thanks. To Ed, while bears may rarely attack humans as a food source, when you are the target that is little solace.
Bear spray is a great idea, but grizzly bears don't always read the ads and stop as they should. Good idea to run like hell and pray for luck.
4
@Bob
Running from a bear or any other predatory animal is always a terrible idea. They are all much faster than we are, and running triggers their instinct to pursue.
10
Dude, great story until the end. What happened to the BEAR ??? I can guess, but why should I be forced to do that ???
Editors : you know better. Seriously.
76
I for one am very happy not to know what happened to the bear. That way I can imagine that she lost interest and ambled off into the huckleberry bushes.
We homo sapiens are nothing more than one species of great ape. What really distinguishes us from the other great apes is our ability for complicated language and the belief in a lot of myths.
9
@libdemtex--------Also, the other great apes are not befouling the planet.
5
@Mary Feral
Bah, nothing that will matter. At some point, something will threaten life on earth (asteroid, aliens, etc...) and we will save it. At that point, all damage we've caused will be a moot point as the thing we saved it from would have done far more damage. ;-)
Not to mention, it won't be long before we hit the singularity, the solution to all our problems. Whether that'll be our doom or infinite possibilities is a tossup, either way it'll be good for the planet. :)
@libdemtex
Not just language, all our thoughts are much more complex. Chimps cannot even grasp gestures as well as a dog. Nor can it put itself in another's shoes and their tool use isn't much more complex than some birds and Octopi. Plus we have opposable thumbs! :D
Beautiful essay.
3
Some years ago, Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report said that the threat number one to America was the Grisly Bear. This is why our Secretary of Education Betsy De Voss wanted guns in schools.
7
That grisly bear you describe sounds pretty disgusting.
Try meditation. You’ll get the same feeling without the risk of your throat being torn out.
9
Grizzly bears, cougars and alligators kill and eat people. Rattlesnakes and copperheads, etc. bite and inject poison. There are those who consider it wicked and unpatriotic to have such creatures exterminated. I suppose that they must feel the same way about deer ticks and fire ants. I do not understand why, and their explanations make no sense to me. They think that I am wicked, and I think that they are whacko. The two mindsets simply do not mesh.
5
@Penseur You might try and do a bit of reading on how various creatures result in balance to be maintained within an eco system. There are many articles that do an excellent job of explaining the restoration of balance through restored populations of wolves and bears. Someone with you attitude should stay safely in in some leafy suburb.
11
@Penseur------------You see, Penseur, grizzly bears, courgars and alligators have not and will not ever create nuclear weapons and drop them on cities full of innocent humans and animals. They do not round up innocent pigs and imprison them in stalls near the next H-bomb test, listening to the screaming of the pigs and study them as they burn to death.
This is to point out that humans are far more wicked than animals, including deer ticks and fire ants.
11
Penseur is an odd handle for someone clearly unwilling to use a modicum of common sense or inform themself as to why we don't slaughter everything that might conceivably pose a threat to us.
I recommend thinking, you may find it a novel and pleasant experience.
6
We split the atom and landed on the moon. These deeds are webs of significance.
4
@Gary P. Arsenault
Point taken, but both those technological achievements can also be put into the category of "the manipulative and violent pursuit of power"that, as the author points out, bonobo behavior also encompasses. In the words of Neko Case, "I'm an animal, you're an animal too."
2
This was a good article. I understand what this author means. Earlier this year, in the spring, I was in grizzly country and I overextended myself hiking and climbing and did some dangerous stuff to point I was bleeding from arms and legs and was stunned, trembling, breathing heavily.
As I was making my way back to car I realized suddenly that I was injured, weak, prey. The rest of the way back to car I was extremely alert, head swiveling on neck, ears straining for the merest sound. This leads me to believe that humans prior to modern times, before firearms, when they walked especially alone in dangerous territory, swiveled their heads constantly and listened carefully.
Probably women today understand this better than men because they are still prey in a sense when they go into bad parts of town or are in dangerous situations with men. Probably a worthwhile sociological study can be made observing behavior of men and women in dangerous, potentially being prey, situations. Probably women are more likely to demonstrate "nervous, head swiveling, ear straining" behavior than men due to being more likely to be prey.
Certainly in dangerous bear/big cat/wolf territory it's advisable to constantly look around and listen and and to avoid getting "boxed in" and losing height advantage and so on. I wonder if fighter pilot, other military tactics owe a lot to instinctive, "avoid being prey" reasoning.
10
This wonderful essay reminds me of Aldo Leopold's "Flambeau":
"People who have never canoed a wild river, or who have done so only with a guide in the stern, are apt to assume that novelty, plus healthful exercise, account for the value of the trip. I thought so too, until I met two college boys on the Flambeau. … The elemental simplicities of wilderness travel were thrills not only because of their novelty, but because they represented complete freedom to make mistakes. … Perhaps every youth needs an occasional wilderness trip, in order to learn the meaning of this particular freedom."
I recently re-created Leopold's trip down the Flambeau, and I did have adventures, although none as riveting as Loskutoff's.
11
..."the meat-and-bone reality settled over me." This is a great essay for that phrase alone.
61
'While writing the story of my life, there was a huge racket outside the house, where Bailey my brown Lab was howling. My wife and daughter called me and we saw two bear cubs nearing the swimming-pool. Their mother was about to try to tear down the metal fencing and bring them back to safety'. She was thin, added my narrator.
A friend from Africa and I have wondered why some men want to hang out with grizzly bears, instead of leaving them in peace. Other human males want to play the role of human fly and escalate a tower. When was the last time you heard of a female climbing the Empire State Building?
Back to Bailey and the Bear, we have a forest of wonders here, and our community bear is feasting at midnight on left-overs, and now we know that quiet Mrs. Potter enjoys an excellent steak au poivre that comes in a box.
Okay, Cat, go out and fight your dragons; take your chances with squirrels, foxes, or raccoons, but beware of humans for they are the most dangerous species of all, and you might be catnapped by an urban visitor, and spend your days in a city hamster flat, wearing a bow-tie to match your tuxedo.
With appreciation to Mr. Loskutoff for being alive to write of this latest tail of terror, and he might wish to read 'Shardik' by Richard Adams who wrote of the cruelties humans are capable of inflicting on their prey.
8
So what happened to this bear? Did the ranger have to shoot it?
44
@David Isaacson Good question. What did happen?
3
yes, what happened to the
bear? @David Isaacson
2
"All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you." -Marcus Aurelius
43
@ubique
As I was reading your wonderful Marcus Aurelius quote, I suddenly thought of John McCain and tears came to my eyes (and I am most definitely not a Republican voter): he was there at the right time, stayed through it all -- Vietnamese POW -- and left when it was his time to leave.
An odd juxtaposition, I know, but perhaps not...
Being the Prey? Get on your claws and pray! We are just another neatly packaged bundle of (processed) meat ... to other species and ourselves ...
4
@Dr. Mandrill Balanitis : When you're prey, you fight to survive or die. If you drop and pray, you're dinner. Ask any combat veteran.
2
We are creatures of our culture, the system that we float in and become conditioned by. We are no more Grizzlies than we are fireflies, humanity is so much more.
There is absolutely no reason for us to be accepting of our predator/prey culture, with its perpetual bloody wars and economic system that demands that 10% of us live in the weeds so that 1% of us can live like golden pharaohs.
There is no need to tolerate Grizzlies, they eat little children and frighten us all, so they have been eliminated in most of America.
I daydream of a time, no doubt which will come into existence long after I am dead, where we have a system that demands safety for all, jobs for all, and condemns our predator/prey economic system to history.
Hugh
4
Hugh, I understand your point of view. But surely you are aware that the predators in our society have no intention of voluntarily ceding their power - it anything, their dominance has extended to every area of day-to-day life.
We are not 'prey' exactly, more like draft animals that are allowed to eat so long as our existence is profitable. As in old cartoons, the master points to the 'glue factory' (bankruptcy, homelessness, overdose, suicide) to motivate us to keep pulling.
Our culture is already falling back to a stage where many are going hungry, and have little to lose. That is the point where we have to face that we are flesh, that the real world does not live in a computer network, and that we may need to think more like wild, not domesticated, animals.
42
@Hugh Massengill In Hartford CT I don’t think there are any grizzly bears but I certainly can’t forget that I am prey. We are heavily infested by highly predatory drug addicts and it is impossible to protect ourselves entirely. I would like to see the government stop supporting them, but I suppose that would make their depredations worse.
Most of America has not deteriorated this far yet but I think it is coming. There are plenty of human predators on all levels of our society. The most successful ones don’t have to break the law. They take our money by taxation and monopolistic pricing. There is no way to escape from them unless we somehow change the political/economic system.
2
Hugh I agree about grizzlies. If we want to have them it should be in some isolated place where humans don't go. With respect to addicts though they could lead harmless and possibly productive lives if we gave them all the heroin they need. There is no need for them to be predators.
1
But what happened to the bear?
13
@Mike It is dead.
1
The bear had a huge gun also.
1
@cpalmquest - how do you know? Are you the author or the ranger or are you just speculating?
Nothing like having Nature (capital N) smack you right in the face, to make you know your place in the universe.
48
@sjs. Power outage, hailstorm, medical emergency, varicose veins, adult children, shall I go on?
3
The piece does not answer the obvious question raised: Did the ranger with the firearm shoot the bear or was she allowed to live in her natural habitat and home where the humans were the intruders?
62
@Earthling. Yes to both questions
Not sure what the point of this piece is, except maybe promotion for a book. Are there people out there who don't ever have a sense that they are part of the animal kingdom?
I hiked on that very path two years ago as the only way to get to the trailhead that leads up a mountain to Grinnell glacier. And the day after I was there, a woman was attacked there by a grizzly. She was by herself picking huckleberries. In late summer grizzlies have to put on as much weight as possible to get ready for hibernation, which they do by gorging on huckleberries. This path is full of huckleberries (mentioned by the author) hence frequently full of bears. Information throughout the park will tell you that 1) you should be alert for bears if you insist on hiking in huckleberry patches 2) you should hike in groups of minimum 5-6 people in areas that grizzlies are known to frequent 3) you should always carry bear spray and 4) if threatened by a grizzly you should stand your ground as a group so that the grizzly knows that attacking all of you at once is maybe not going to be as easy as just eating the huckleberries.
The author went out hiking in the huckleberries with only one other person and no bear spray and then ran when frightened by a bear. That's almost like having "chase me" written on your t-shirt.
180
@JerseyGirl-Thank you for explaining the common sense instructions that parks post for a reason. How many times have rangers been forced to rescue people who don't think the rules apply to them, or simply don't think? In this story, Mr. Loskutoff appears to be endangering the bear. Sigh.
5
@JerseyGirl: There are plenty of people in the world (and especially in America) who view humans as a special creation and reject the idea that we are animals (I'm not one of them).
I agree with everything else you write, except that in the circumstances mentioned by the author standing her ground probably wouldn't have worked. Although bears can climb trees, getting 15 feet or more up a tree might've been a better option (when the bear was still 100 yards away) than standing fast, especially since it turns out the bear was old. That aside however, standing one's ground and then playing dead in the face down position are the only things she could (or rather should) have done in the circumstances.
2
You’re really not sure about the point of this essay? It’s not hidden mysteriously in the text.
7
Two thoughts on this article:
First, bears usually attack humans to defend against perceived danger to their cubs. They rarely attack humans as a source of food, unless it is to take a hunter's kill from him and claim it for itself.
Second, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources recommends that anyone hiking into deep woods, whether to hunt or to hike, carry "bear spray," a concentrated form of pepper spray that is accurate within 30 feet. Bears don't like it and will retreat.
38
@ed connor The author explained that the Ranger said they had been watching this bear for a long time. She was an older bear; older bears have more trouble finding food and, recently, she had been been stalking humans. She was first sighted at quite a great distance, so it wasn't as if the hikers had stumbled into her "lane". She was following them -they were her prey - and the author very beautifully described what that felt like.
77
@Kathleen As soon as the author spotted the grizzly he should have left the area. If you see a bear, there is a high likelihood the bear knows you are there, since they have one of the best senses of smell in the animal kingdom. As I mentioned in a previous comment, he should have been in a larger group, he should have had bear spray (the park will rent it to you if you don't want to spring $50 for it) and, above, all, he should not have run. That will trigger a predatory response in an over-fed house cat, much less a hungry grizzly.
When they found themselves in relatively close proximity to the bear (having failed to leave earlier) the two hikers should have stayed close together and slowly retreated. You don't have to have a Ph.D. in animal behavior to know this. Just read the literature they pass out in the park. Bears get shot because people are stupid. I hope this one survived.
1
@JerseyGirl-Agreed. I get the point that we're all animals but this author's story reads like an ego puff piece. It would be more interesting to hear from the ranger, or the bear.