Why I Hate Them

[Richard Flanders]

The coyotes in Alaska are also much larger than the scrawny appearing western US yotes that I've seen. It is very easy to mistake them for small wolves. We have coyotes pretty much all over the state except north of the Brooks Range. I've had them come through my yard here in Fairbanks and suspect a golden retriever that my neighbor had disappear was perhaps taken by coyotes. A lot of people say that the wolves keep the coyote population down but I see their tracks in the snow and on sand bars all over this area. I have never once though seen multiple sets of tracks together like you regularly do with wolves.

The article on the coyote attack that Bob Brown posted is well worth a read and clearly shows how ignorant their park rangers are of predatory animal behavior. Do they really think that killing two bad actor coyotes is going to make the trail suddenly safe? Like these are the only two coyotes in the area that are practicing predatory pack hunting techniques? I think they've been watching too many Wiley Coyote cartoons and need to study up on animal behavior in the real world. We had a similar thing happen in Alaska this past spring. Two bear attack deaths in two days, one a young lady geologist in a remote area with a partner, neither of which had a gun, and a young kid on a trail hike near Anchorage. The articles afterwards went on and on about "we're not sure why these bears did what they did".... Wake up idiots. It was a late spring so when the bears came out of hibernation in a very hungry mood there was none of the regular vegetation they eat at that time and they were desperate for food. Pretty much anything that moves is potential food for a bear, including humans. Both of these incidents were purely hunger-driven predatory attacks. There's not much could be changed on the kid that got killed other than to NOT have him on a trail alone. The two lady geologists who got attacked were young and inexperienced and had only bear spray, which does not work in predatory attacks. Any experienced geologist knows to carry a gun early in the season... Had they had a gun they knew how to use it would have been a non-event that would have lasted no more than a few minutes. The bear came and went three times before killing one of them. General protocol for experienced field workers is that you chase them away once; if they come back and are aggressive you shoot to kill and you never ever waste ammo on shots to just scare them away, as that has been well proven to be a total waste of powder. They emptied their bear spray to no effect - what a surprises. I did that once also, and on a bear that was full of blueberries and could not have been at all hungry; my Winchester .45-90 ended up solving that problem in our favor. The articles on both of these incidents last spring pretty much blamed everything but hunger, despite the finding that the bear that killed the lady geo had a totally empty stomach. I tell you the ignorance is mind boggling. This kind of thing is a very hot button issue for me because it was so easily preventable. Ok, I'm done ranting....

[C.O.B.]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

What the HE77 do we need wolves for Eric, when we have enough trouble with large coyotes?...

Sorry... raw nerve.




.

It's the holidays and Eric just wants to share.

[MD*GSP]

Excellent information Richard. Thank you.

[Southpaw]

Richard,

Years ago I went on an Alaskan trip. Bush pilot dropped us off on a tundra pond with rafts to inflate to cruise down a nearby river fishing for salmon, trout, grayling, etc. We were in the wilderness for a week and never saw another soul. Saw all kinds of fresh bear sign everywhere we went but I was not in hunting mode so I always made plenty of noise and always talked real loud coming up to blind bends in the river. Great trip.

Did not actually see a bear until the next to last day. Just set up camp for the night at 11 pm and you know that feeling your being watched and I turn around and 100 yards up river and wind is a Grizz standing there. We lock eyes and before I could even say hey bear it lit out like a scalded dog running and crashing through that willow and alder scrub that comes up to my chest. I could see the bears head bobbing around every now and again but man it was moving. I never felt so small in all my life and no we only had pepper spray. But I was pretty confident I could out run the rest of my party.

Not thinking anything about it but feeling thankful it lit out and thinking bear had gone pretty far I walk up to where I had seen the bear on the gravel bar to see how big its tracks where compared to other bear sign. I think the other ones were black bears or smaller bears sign we had seen all week. Anyway if life is a movie this is when people in the audience throw popcorn at the screen yelling "don't do that you idiot". I get there and right beside the big bear track is a set of small bear tracks that were just as fresh. Right then is when a cold chill just ran down my spine. Never saw the cub and my immediate thought was if she lost track of her cub she was going to circle back on me, and me just holding a 6 weight fly rod. Man I felt really small and stupid at that point. Walking cautiously,briskly and whistling as loud as I could I slip back to camp I kept thinking and saying to myself "lets not be a statistic". I kept looking around for an exit strategy thinking where is the tallest tree and could I make it if she showed up. Problem with country we were in is that all the trees are scrubby and the tallest for miles was no more than 10 to 12 feet tall. I did not sleep a wink that night, but I did find out why she was there. We were at one of their fishing spots as there was a shallow river wide riffle that was easy pickings for the salmon. Needless to say I wanted the heck out of that area.

Great trip though. Did land a 54 lb king salmon on light tackle. I ate so much fresh salmon that week that it took me a year before I could look at salmon again as a meal. BTW that bush pilot that dropped us off and picked us up was incredible. Name of his company was Ptarmigan Air and his slogan was "We're not Chicken". That was first time I had heard the story about Chicken, Alaska and how no one there could spell the name of those funny looking birds hanging around.

Lions, Tigers, Bears, Wolves, Coyotes..... Oh my.

[Richard Flanders]

Have a read of this article in the Anchorage newspaper. Look at the stats carefully. This is what a late spring that leads to a terrible berry year produces. The blueberries, which constitute a large part of the bears diet, were down by approximately 80% this fall so the bears just move into town and go for garbage, especially around Anchorage, which is bordered by prime bear habitat. The author of this is a retired AK Fish and Game biologist and a very sharp guy. I have to say, though, that even he did not emphasize hunger as being the driver for the bear attacks this past summer.

https://www.adn.com/opinions/2017/12...g-garbage-out/

[Southpaw]

Great article. My brother in law is in the Air Force, actually just made General this year. I guess I am about as proud of a brother in law as you can be. He and my sister were stationed in JBER a few years ago and got to visit them. That year two people were mauled by bears on the base but luckily survived. I remember my sister having to to go to bear survival training where they showed them how to use bear spray. They had moose always in their yard during winter time, which is probably more dangerous than a bear. Crazy place. We drove all over the lower portion of the base but could not go to the larger portion of base because of maneuvers. Seems they will fly guys in from all over the world and then drop them into Grizzly country for survival training. That place is massive. Would be very hard to police bear activity there unless you just try and wiped them out and then they would just run into town probably.

All I know is that the wildlife were their first and they don't sign treaties.