Large Fierce Mammal

In the wake of writing my 15 May 2013 article in the Worldly Wisdom Wednesday series, titled Bear Necessities, I was inspired to start rereading Warrior Poet Sid Marty’s exquisite 2008 book, The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek. If you have an interest in the Way of the Wild, I highly recommend that you get this book in your hands and digest its message as soon as possible.

I’ll be referring back to this soul searing piece of enlightenment in the future, but just for today I’ll share an excerpt from its Introduction titled The Bear in My Head:

The numbers of grizzly bears in southern Alberta, including Banff National Park, are currently declining, and yet the trend in bear-human conflict shows an increase over time. Writing in Ursus magazine (June 2003), Stephen Herrero and Andrew Higgins have demonstrated that bear attacks in Alberta since 1960 have risen in proportion  to the increase in the human population: “Between 1960 and 1998, bears caused 42 serious or fatal human injuries in the Province of Alberta – 29 (69%) by grizzly (brown) bears (Ursus arctos) and 13 (31%) by American black bears (U. americanus). Considering Alberta’s estimated bear population – about 1000 grizzly bears and 38,000-39,000 black bears – these numbers suggest that the grizzly bears are the more dangerous of the 2 species (emphasis added by LFM). Serious and fatal bear-inflicted injuries increased in number in Alberta, including its national parks, each decade, from 7 during the 1960s to 13 during the 1990s, an increase proportional to the province’s human population growth during that period.”

In his opening statement, “The numbers of grizzly bears in southern Alberta … are currently declining, and yet the trend in bear-human conflict shows an increase over time,” the author said a mouthful. With no disrespect meant to Messrs Herrero and Higgins, and with specific reference to the emphasized portion of the passage above, the numbers quoted do not speak to me as being suggestive that, “… grizzly bears are the more dangerous of the 2 species.” They merely suggest that of the two members of the Bear Tribe referred to, the Grizzly is the least tolerant of clueless, disrespectful interlopers. And that brings me to another matter of no small importance: There are three species involved in these statistics, not just two. They refer to cases in which, “bears caused … serious or fatal human injuries ….”, remember? Yet the human component of instigation is discounted in favour of laying exclusive blame on the Bear. Likewise discounted is the end result of each encounter. For every case in which a Human was injured or killed by a Bear, there are normally lethal consequences for one or more Bears. Who is most dangerous now?

The significant statistic to which I would like to draw attention is delivered in the last sentence of the excerpt – “Serious and fatal bear-inflicted injuries increased in number in Alberta, including its national parks, each decade, from 7 during the 1960s to 13 during the 1990s, an increase proportional to the province’s human population growth during that period.“

So the more people you have in Bear habitat, the more clearly difficult it becomes for them to live in peace with the other residents. All of which puts me in mind of a line delivered by Deputy U. S. Marshall Raylan Givens, played by Timothy Olyphant in the highly LFM recommended television series Justified:

“You run into an asshole in the morning: you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day: you’re the asshole.”

I believe that the evidence strongly suggests which species of the three is the front runner for the asshole title in this scenario. Hint: It’s the least hairy one.